Taking Mayo’s scalp seems a Burke of the job..but they’d do well to focus on other things
DAVY BURKE’S comments after the Roscommon-dublin game were very telling: “The goal is to beat Mayo and nothing else.”
He didn’t just utter this statement once, but three times during the course of the interview. Burke is a Kildare man, of course, but he probably summed up the Roscommon mindset all the same.
They are obsessed with Mayo and, to a lesser extent, Galway. Their dislike for those two counties probably outweighs any love they have for their own at times.
They have no problem getting up for these games in particular and their recent record against both is quite good.
They have beaten Mayo in two of the last four Connacht Championship meetings since 2019. They have also seen off Galway in Connacht finals in 2017 and 2019.
Their record against teams from outside Connacht since 2016 is pretty dismal though – two wins in 12 games.
To me, that is more of a mindset issue than anything else. Games against other counties just don’t seem as important for whatever reason.
The Championship game in 2019 in Castlebar was the only time at any grade I was on a team that lost to Roscommon – outside of FBD League – and I was absolutely sickened.
As a Mayo player, it’s a game you have to win every single time.
Today’s game is only the counties’ fourth Championship meeting outside of the Connacht Championship. The drawn and replayed All-ireland quarter-finals of 2017 – a 2002 qualifier was the other – were very enjoyable games to be part of for very different reasons. The first day was a war in poor conditions.
Roscommon had us under the cosh and we did not play well at all, having to dig in to leave with a draw.
The replay, of course, was much more like it from our point of view and the booing and jeering that echoed around Croke Park for every Andy Moran possession from the previous week, strangely, was not apparent this time.
Today’s meeting doesn’t have nearly as much relevance or importance as those games. A defeat for Roscommon today should see them out of the Championship.
But, because of the drawn out nature of the group stage, regardless of the result, everything will go down to the last day.
The two of them will probably finish second and third in the group anyway and end up in the same place – a preliminary quarterfinal.
There is no doubt Burke will have Roscommon chomping at the bit today.
But I do find his post-match interviews a bit strange at times. They sometimes come across as jumbled up words that don’t make much sense or a bizarre rant.
I often think that if he is speaking like that constantly in the dressing room it would be hard work to listen to as a player.
He will be feeling the pressure too coming into this one.
Roscommon have won one game – against Monaghan – this year in nine League and Championship outings.
In last year’s Championship they won two from six games – Mayo and Sligo – but the fact that they beat Mayo in the Connacht quarter-final means it would have been classified as a decent year.
Losing games to Kildare and Cork that they ought to have been winning would have been quickly forgotten because the goal, as per usual, is to beat Mayo.