Rossies won’t rollover easily

EASY peasy lemon squeezy? Well, it certainly isn’t a nightmare draw for Tyrone, but it’s a knock-out championship match so they can’t afford to take Roscommon for granted in Saturday’s All-Ireland Preliminary quarter-final clash at O’Neill’s Healy Park.

The Red Hands are by no means a runaway train but they have accrued a little bit of momentum heading into their last-12 match, clinching back-to-back victories for the first time in over a year with last Saturday’s win over Cork.

Roscommon’s formline has been nothing if not consistent though, and not in a good way. Up until last weekend, they hadn’t mustered so much as a single victory since back in January when they came up trumps in the pre-season FBD league (whoop de doo…).

Instead, it’s been near enough one defeat after another, but this is 2024 and it’s nearly harder to get knocked out of the championship than to stay in it, and they prolonged their campaign for at least another week with a deserved victory over Cavan on Saturday.

A mere stay of execution, arguably, but the Rossies aren’t an untalented bunch by any manner of means.

2023, the first year of Davy Burke’s tenure, was a productive one even if it petered out in the summer months. They also won two Connacht titles in three years not so long ago (2017 and 2019) and quite a number of that team are still involved, including Diarmuid Murtagh and Enda Smith who were central to their final-round victory over Cavan.

For whatever reason – and a few theory have done the rounds – 2024 hasn’t been an especially good one. Some cite the pre-season exit of Burke’s sideline lieutenants Mark McHugh and Gerry McGowan, while they haven’t been particularly blessed on the injury front either.

And while they emerged victorious in a shoot-out of shorts against Cavan, the final scoreline reading 3-20 to 1-20 in their favour, their porousness at the back spells trouble for their chances of upsetting the hots against a Tyrone team that could be coming to the boil at the right time.

The Red Hands may have missed out on top spot in the group stages but they’ll be content enough with how it all panned out, springing back after an opening day defeat to Donegal with victories over Cork and Clare.

Their scoring efficiency against Cork on Saturday couldn’t have been much better, they haven’t conceded a goal in four games now, and the general vibe from the outside looking in is of a content, happy camp rowing in the one direction.

The only disappointment emanating from their day out in Tullamore was the second-half sending off of Conn Kilpatrick for an off-the-ball incident. It’s understood that it was a harsh decision so hopefully the decision will be overturned.

Elsewhere, Kieran McGeary was withdrawn at the last minute on Saturday having pulled up with an injury in the warm up, but he should be available for selection, while it also emerged last Friday night that a certain Conor Meyler, who has been recuperating from a long-standing knee injury, had lined out for the Omagh Reserves against Edendork, which bodes well for his chances of a possible return before the season is out.

These two teams met in the first round in the league on the last weekend of January, Tyrone carving out a 0-17 to 1-11 victory with Darragh Canavan starring with eight points. It would be a considerable shock if the overall outcome is any different this weekend.

Meanwhile Roscommon manager Davy Burke will be bringing a fired up side to Omagh on Saturday evening based on his most recent comments after they secured their place in the All-Ireland knockout phases.

The Rossies outlasted Cavan 3-20 to 1-20 in a high-scoring cracker at Longford to help set up the meeting with the Red Hands in the prelim quarter-final.

It was a rare triumph for the Connacht side who have endured a difficult 2024 campaign which saw them win just one match ahead of the weekend, a league clash with Monaghan back in February.

Their depressing sequence of results meant they were relegated from Division One and Burke was relieved therefore to get back into the winners enclosure against Cavan.

“ We scored 1-15 the last day (against Mayo) and 3-20 today. We’re slowly getting there. Hopefully its on the way.

“ It’s more about the win. We just wanted any kind of win. It’s sixteen weeks since we beat Monaghan. That’s a long time ago. You hear a lot of rubbish about what’s going on in the camp. So I’m delighted for the players. They stood together.

“If they were listening to outside stuff, we’d all be gone home a long time ago. The players stood strong, trained hard and ultimately got their reward. It’s not a bad team. I’m glad they might have shut a few people up for a while.”

Speaking ahead of the draw which pitched them in against Tyrone, Burke was bullish about his side’s prospects

“ It’s a seven day turnaround. We’ll get them into ice baths, in the sea- wherever we get them over the weekend.

“ Are we not as good as any of the teams in the draw? Of course we are,” he argued.