By John Harrington

For inter-county managers, there’s no place to hide if your standards of preparation don’t match the expectations of your panel.

Players from all over the country are rubbing shoulders and swapping stories in college so most have a good idea now of what best practice is, what inter-county teams are ahead of the curve, and what ones are being left behind.

If you know that your Sigerson or Fitzgibbon Cup team-mate from over the border is benefitting from a better inter-county set-up than you, then dissatisfaction is likely to quickly follow.

Roscommon football manager Davy Burke knows this better than most because he also manages the Maynooth University Sigerson Cup team.

Still only 34, he managed Kildare to the All-Ireland U-20 title in 2018 and then managed the Wicklow senior footballers for the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

Taking over a Roscommon team that will compete in Division 1 of the Allianz Football League represents a significant step up the managerial ladder, and Burke knows only too well that if he’s not up to the task the first people who’ll let him know will be the Roscommon players themselves.

“Oh, you are found out very quickly,” he says. “The modern day players are probably the most selfish people in the world. Let’s be honest about it.

“They care about one thing and it’s themselves at the end of the day.

“And if you are not up to it they won’t be long about telling you, or they won’t be long about telling the GPA rep or the County Board man or whoever, the GPO in the college, or whatever way it works.

“But I think, for me, I love that. Ultimately, we all want to be held to account.

“If you are not good enough, move out of the way and let someone in there who is.

“You turn up and prepare your team to win games and if you are not doing it, find someone else to do it. But they do, the sharing of stuff is hard. It’s quite difficult to get young lads these days to keep things in camp.

“Again, if anyone has any help for me on that front I’d be all ears. It’s difficult. There’s no doubt it’s one of the biggest challenges.”

Burke will empower his players to have a voice within the Roscommon set-up, but the buck will very much stop with him.

And his intention is to take away any external excuses they might have for not fulfilling their potential, so that ultimately success or failure will fall largely on their own shoulders.

“It’s important players have a say,” he says. “I don’t think they need the full say. You have to strike the right balance there.

“Because well, ultimately, players, they are the most important people in any set-up. I feel a lot of players sometimes can point fingers elsewhere all the time.

“This isn’t Roscommon or Maynooth, this is in life. I love putting set-ups in place where maybe you might remove a good few of them excuses and then maybe try and turn the finger around and what about having a look internally here lads.

“I think it’s very, very important, and not a lot of groups do that enough. And ultimately that’s why manager after manager will get the road because the player might have too much power.

“Absolutely, listen to the player. Take on board what they are saying. But there comes a point then when you are fairly happy with what you are doing is not too far off. That maybe lads you can have a look at yourselves and come back to me."

Since 2011, Roscommon have played in all four Divisions of the Allianz Football League.

Only once in that time have they managed to stay in Division 1 for two seasons in a row, so consistency is clearly an issue. Burke has made addressing this failing his top priority.

“It's huge,” he says. “It's the single biggest thing. It stems from training. The inconsistent levels of training. Whatever you do on Tuesday and Thursday, you'll do on Sunday. I'm a firm believer in that.

“I'm never looking for 10 out of 10 or nine out of 10 because you can't replicate it, you can't do it again the next day. Just give me seven and a half out of 10 every day and I'll take that, you'll win a huge amount of games.

“Because I know that on Sunday the team is going to turn up at this level and play this way and we'll be right there against the majority of teams. If you look at Division 1, I don't think there's that many teams out on their own in it at the minute, particularly with Dublin in Division Two.

“Kerry are obviously there, the best team in Division 1 or whatever. But I think a lot of the rest of them are fairly competitive with each other.

“So it's all about the level of consistency. We have forwards and we'll have a plan so we'll have a chance.”

Ultan Harney has gone travelling for the year and Ronan Daly is also currently not part of Burke’s plans having relocated to the Middle East, though the Roscommon manager says the door remains open to both should they return home ahead of schedule.

In the credit column, Tadhg O’Rourke and Cian Connolly have returned to the panel and Burke also intends to give opportunities to some of the younger players in the squad who won a Connacht U-20 Championship in 2021.

“We have a couple of decent additions and then obviously they have had reasonable underage success in the last couple of years,” he says.

“Them boys are coming through now and it’s to me and the lads to bring them through.

“For me it looks like there is a bit of a spark needed and we will be freshening this side up.

“Them young lads will get their head. If they want it and if they train well enough, they will get their chance.

“Because in my opinion they need to be shaken up.

“The team looked like the same in ‘16, ‘17, ‘18 - I would have been here at the Clare game (Roscommon’s 2022 Round 2 Qualifier defeat) myself just looking at it last year and I nearly knew who was coming on and I had nothing to do with Roscommon.

“I think we need to shake it up a little bit and that’s my full intention is to do that. The young lads are there and they are winners and they successful. They are beating Mayo and they are Galway at underage

“We are going to give them a chance. Now, we are not going to hold their hand. We are going to give them a chance and it’s up to them to take it on from there.”

Roscommon will play Sligo in the FBD League semi-final on Friday, January 13th, but the first big test of Burke’s reign will come in the first round of the Allianz Football League on Sunday, January 29 when they host 2021 All-Ireland champions Tyrone.

“I'd say we'll know after two minutes where we're at,” says Burke of that match.

“That's the truth. Honestly, I'd say we'll know very quickly. Positively or the other side. I fully expect us to be right there, don't get me wrong. We'll know because anything you try to do in training to replicate it just won't be the same no matter who you are, that kind of way.

“We'll know very, very quickly. I'm sure Tyrone will want to put last year right from going from All-Ireland champions to obviously not having the best year. I'd be fairly sure they'll look to put this right.

“Yeah, it's a good start for us. It's in the Hyde and we'll welcome them with open arms, we'll be ready to go. The Rossie people are as crazy about football as I've ever come across. They're intense football people. There's a level of demand and expectation there but I love that. It's what I'm here to do.

“I made the comparison recently when I was in Wicklow and the people were brilliant, the county board was brilliant, the players were brilliant, but outside of that there was zero interest in the team.

“Whereas in Roscommon you can't turn the corner in a Roscommon town without someone stopping you to enquire or whatever, which is all good.”