The Allianz Football League is threatening to become more unpredictable than the All-Ireland championship. When the fixtures for this year's programme were announced, the smart forecast was that Roscommon would probably need a win against neighbours Mayo in order to survive.
Instead, Kevin McStay will return to MacHale Park in the knowledge that a fifth win in a stunningly confident campaign might well consign his home county to a year in Division Two. Given he went for the Mayo post two years ago along with current Roscommon selector Liam McHale, the day is bound to stir mixed emotions.
“It’s not personal,” McStay says. “I don’t want to understate me playing my own county, or overstate it either. These are very important games but in terms of excitement these games are what they are. For our team, it’s another great part of their development. Mayo . . . great team, Mayo. It’ll tell us in two weeks’ time how far we are behind, if we are even behind.”
Straight bat
McStay has played a straight bat all through this league, understandably crestfallen after Roscommon’s narrow loss on opening day and delighted with the returns since. It wasn’t so much the fact of Sunday’s win in Letterkenny against Donegal that impressed as the manner of it. This was no dour, hang-on-for-dear-life scrap on the road. A playbook of 1-19, filled with quality scores and just four wides. Their confidence could not be higher.
“We started looking like a Division One team who deserves on merit to be here,” says McStay of their latest win. “That’s my sense of it. This win – of the wins – is the best of them. When we beat Kerry we weren’t 100 per cent sure where they were. I’m not sure about Killarney; there were shocking conditions.
“But I think we know Donegal were trying to get points there. Look at the players they used. It was a good day for football and now we know we can play a brand of football that can survive in this division.
“Maybe I’m going to get a rude awakening or we’re going to be found out. But I don’t think so. We’re just giving it our best cut all the time. We’re a very honest group.”
League form comes with all kinds of health warnings – many of them issued by the form teams themselves. The refreshing thing about Roscommon is that they are not disguising that these games matter in their own right.
McStay and co-manager Fergal O'Donnell have made no secret of the fact they were prioritising a strong league season. Under John Evans, the Rossie's climbed from Division Three to Division One. Staying in the top eight matters. Mickey Harte's observation – that winning an All-Ireland from Division Two is all but impossible – carried clout. People are watching Roscommon now with one eye on the Connacht championship, which Mayo are seeking to retain for the sixth successive summer.
With Galway on a roll in Division Two, Roscommon are forcing the bookies to review their early price offers. It is March, yes, but Roscommon are travelling at a rate of knots. Castlrea's Geoffrey Claffey is back in the team after a couple of season's absence. The Roscommon defence was so sticky that the goalkeeper didn't have a single chance to practise his shot-stopping skills. That action was at the other end. If Roscommon can scold themselves for anything, it is for not leaving Donegal with more goals.
“I think their goalkeeper did quite well for a few of them,” says Claffey. “So at least we are creating the chances. We kept doing the simple things well and kept to our gameplan. That is something that we are probably learning from the better teams . . . they keep doing the simple things well.
Simple things
“Monaghan, in the first round of the league, although I suppose they were under quite a bit of pressure at the time, kept trying to do the simple things well and it got them over the line. So we are just trying to do that ourselves. And we are conscious that if we get it in there, our forwards are able to kick the scores.”
McStay acknowledges Roscommon were clearly on a different plane of fitness to Donegal. “They can look further down the year than we can. And that’s fine. They deserve that as they’ve been champions.”
Those discrepancies will have disappeared in the summer. The league is all about smoke and mirrors: most teams aren’t willing to fully show their hand just now. Roscommon are at the place where Donegal were in 2011: running hard and with enthusiasm, discovering as much as they can about themselves. They are the first team out in the championship, with a visit to New York on May 1st.
“I don’t want to talk too much about other teams,” says McStay. “For us, [the Donegal game] was championship Sunday. That’s the only way we can go. Who would we be to take anything lightly?”
