By Cian O'Connell

Summertime in 1979 and the living was that little bit easier in Roscommon.  A serious football panel constructed with Connacht Championships being accumulated at steady rate.

Roscommon were precisely where they always want to be: viewed as the talented team to beat in the west.

With Connacht conquered a trip to Croke Park for an All Ireland semi-final clash with Dublin beckoned.  Then disaster struck when Mick Hickey’s immaculate free-taking steered Dublin to a narrow win.

Thirty seven years on Roscommon’s passion for the game hasn’t wavered, but that defeat was certainly classed in the crushing category.

“It is a game we all believed we should have won,” Sean Kilbride, the Roscommon wing forward recalls.  “We had been on a great run through the League and we have a good Connacht Championship then.

“We had a good match against Mayo, but we came through that, and we were feeling good about going on a little bit further.”

There was still something about Dublin in the 1970s to quicken the pulse.  “From the outside it appeared that Dublin had declined, that is how we felt anyway,” Kilbride remembers.

“My memories are two fold.  We had played all of the year in the same forward formation, in set positions.  We were lucky that during the year we hardly had to make any substitutions so we had a very settled team.

“Due to the fact that we didn’t have many injuries we all seemed to have very well defined roles.  It meant that we had built up a great understanding in those positions.

“For different reasons we changed forward positions on the eve of the game.  The different positions we then played in was a major contributing factor to our loss.

“The other thing is that in certain places I’m blamed for losing that game.  I’m accused, wrongly I feel for a missing a ball towards the end of the game.

“A long ball from the half back line from Danny Murray, I think, was going out towards the Cusack Stand side.  Pat O’Neill was marking me, and I was trying to shift the balance of my footwork as I went over to the left wing to get the ball.

“But Tommy Drumm read the play very well, he intercepted, and Dublin went down the field to score a point.

“It was level at the time, there was about five minutes to go, and that became the winning score.  I’m sort of associated with the loss.”

With a decency and attention to detail Kilbride is immensely proud of how highly Roscommon were rated during a particularly glorious era for the bluebloods Dublin and Kerry.

“A few teams around 74, 75, and 76 were fitter than others.  That is why Dublin and Kerry had the spell of supremacy, they were fitter than everyone else.

“The preparation of some other teams around that time was amateurish, in 1974 Dublin introduced a new level of preparation in Gaelic Football.”

Lessons were being absorbed elsewhere in Ireland.  “Kevin Heffernan is on record saying the biggest mistake he made was to put on a Dublin session in Gormanstown.  Mick O’Dwyer was a student on the course so he seemed to learn from it.

“Dublin and Kerry were just so far ahead in terms of fitness, everyone else had to work hard to try to get up to that standard.”

Roscommon, though, were gradually gaining confidence, Kilbride pinpoints the autumn of 1978 as being a key stage for the county.

“In 78, 79, and 80 we trained at the same level as Kerry and Dublin.  It probably took us until 1979 to reach the standard they had set, but we felt that we were progressing.

“Kerry were dependent on superior pace and fitness, but we were reacting to it.  In 1978 Kerry gave us a serious hiding, but we won a Ceannarus tournament two months later.

“The four All Ireland semi-finalists played off, we beat Dublin in Croke Park, and Kerry agreed to play the final in Roscommon.

“We beat them in the Ceannarus and in the All Ireland under 21 final on the same day.  That was a really important day for Roscommon.”

Dermot Earley’s dressing room oration beautifully captured Roscommon’s desire according to Kilbride.

“At that time Dermot Earley made an appeal to us, he pleaded with us all.  He just wanted to beat Kerry as a senior inter-county footballer.

“We reversed a 20 point hammering we had suffered in the All Ireland semi-final, I think Kerry were quite surprised by that.  It was followed by Roscommon winning an All Ireland under 21 so hopes were high.  That day gave us confidence for 1979.”

Further momentum was generated when Roscommon claimed the National Football League.  “We felt that we were getting better,” Kilbride accepts.

“In the quarter-final we beat Kerry, then we defeated a strong Offaly side, and we beat Cork quite comprehensively then in the final.  Those wins were a boost to us, and we were recognised as a serious team.”

Roscommon safely negotiated a passage through Connacht, but the Dublin loss was painful.  “Michael Hickey took the frees, he had a great game, and scored a big haul.

“We didn’t cope with Bobby Doyle’s roving compared to how a team would be able to adapt in the modern game.  That was an issue afterwards.

“We had such a good system that had evolved during our days together.  We all knew each other’s play, we were an instinctive forward unit really.

“When the forward line was changed around without trying it in a challenge match or without a dress rehearsal – it just disrupted us.

“Then I don’t think we played to our potential on the day, but I felt we were confused a little bit, that’s my own belief.  We missed chances too, it just didn’t happen for us.”

In that stint Roscommon did reach the 1980 decider, but they weren’t reacquainted with Sam Maguire.

Roscommon’s fortunes have fluctuated in the intervening decades, but Kilbride is heartened by their 2016 Allianz Football League Division One adventure.

With two sons, Ian and Senan, in the Roscommon panel Kilbride has been thrilled by the style of play.

“We are delighted, Ian is 33, Senan will be 31 in May, their inter-county days are coming to an end, but it is brilliant to see them in the last phase at this level in Division One.

“To see them winning matches and also playing an exciting brand of football too is so encouraging for everyone in Roscommon.

“An outstanding management team has been put in place, as good as anyone in the country, and that has helped increase the belief.

“The positive approach Roscommon have taken has people interested in going to games again which is another good aspect.

“Roscommon are trying to play an honest and very exciting brand of football, it is pure football, it isn’t cynical, it is the way the game should be played. That is their philosophy, I admire it, and it is a good time for Roscommon.”