Christy Ring Cup hurler Naos Connaughton of Roscommon in attendance at the official launch of Joe McDonagh, Christy Ring, Nicky Rackard and Lory Meagher Competitions at Croke Park in Dublin.
By Michael Devlin
What a difference a year makes.
Exactly 12 months to the day since Kildare hurlers cut loose on the Roscommon in Newbridge with 26 points to spare, Ciaran Comerford’s men spectacularly turned the tables on Sunday afternoon.
Last year, Barry Cormack scored 0-15 and Martin Fitzgerald 3-3 as nine Kildare players got on the scoreboard in a facile victory that kick-started the Lilywhites’ run to the Christy Ring Cup title.
In Athleague at the weekend, it was an entirely different story. The hosts held a narrow lead coming into the break, but were struck a blow three minutes into the second half when Peter Kellehan was shown a straight red card. On 68 minutes, Kildare were up by three with Jack Sheridan providing their goal, and it looked like the holders would keep the foot on the gas and safely record a win.
The 14 men of Roscommon weren’t willing to accept a valiant defeat however. They rattled off the game’s final five points through Dara Heavy, Conor Mullery, Noel Fallon, Shane Curley and Cathal Dolan, whose 0-12 offering spearheaded their brilliant performance.
Even when Sheridan struck for what looked to be the score that would define a Kildare win, Rossies manager Ciaran Comerford could see his players were not going to give up hope.
“The confidence was there at that point. The lads were just in that headspace where it was, ‘Give it absolutely everything’,” Comerford told GAA.ie.
“I said to them going out, ‘Look, if we perform and fall up short, we’d live with that, but not performing and falling up short would be harder to take’. They stuck to the task, just stayed pucking, and that’s it, got the few scores to push us ahead.”
While the manner of the 2018 defeat would be a painful memory for any team to dredge up on the lead-up to a rematch, Comerford believed it was important to address it head on, confident that his side we were well enough prepared to prevent a repeat performance this time around.
Cathal Dolan hit 0-12 for Roscommon in their Christy Ring Cup victory over Kildare last Sunday.
The work his squad had put in in the year since with hurling coach Johnny Keane, strength and conditioning coach Gary Murphy and selector Adrian Murphy had the Rossies in fine fettle going into this year’s Christy Ring competition.
“Certainly, something about last year was referred to. We felt that we certainly didn’t do ourselves justice last year, we never got going at all on the day. There’s no doubt we were 26 points the worse team that day, but we knew the gap wasn’t that big in reality.
“I suppose since last year, trying to gear up for the Christy Ring this year, we changed around certain things in how we were playing. The lads themselves got into very good physical condition, alongside their hurling ability, just trying to gear up for the Christy Ring.”
A further example of the resolve shown by Comerford’s charges was persevering despite the sending-off of influential centre-back Kellehan just after halftime. To overcome that was one of the many facets of a win that will do wonders for morale in the Roscommon camp going forward according to the manager.
“Obviously it’s tough losing a centre-back off any team, and Petey’s a natural leader for us there, an unbelievably talented hurler. It showed credit to the lads, they stuck to the task, there was never really any panic, we just stayed pucking and I suppose for a finish we just got ahead at the right time.
“It breathes confidence into us. We are back at training this week and everybody will have a pep in their foot going to training. I suppose from my own side of it, we are preaching about hard work and how you never know where it could bring you. The weekend just showed that.
“Outside of talent, there was a huge emphasis on work rate and the desire to win the dirty ball. We can safely say we won our fair share of it, and the lads seen at the weekend that hard work gets you a lot, and with talent on top of that, you never know where you can end up.”
Roscommon players celebrate after their Allianz Hurling League Division 3A Final victory over Armagh.
A trip across the Irish Sea to take on London in Ruislip is the next assignment for Comerford and his players. The players duly savoured the satisfaction of the Kildare result, but by Monday thoughts were firmly fixed on this Saturday’s tie at McGovern Park.
“It’s one of the biggest results Roscommon have had in a long, long time. I said, ‘Look lads, enjoy it’. You have to enjoy these things when they come. Since November everything is about driving on and training and planning and commitment, so I suppose when something like winning your first round of Championship comes around, you have a couple of pints and enjoy it.
“To be fair, that was all it was, we were back in for recovery on Monday evening, and the focus was fully on London. It was just the first round, and London are different opposition. Their league campaign didn’t go to plan for them but they were playing some pretty decent teams in Kerry, Antrim, Westmeath, and pushing them fairly well and putting up decent scores.
“London have quality hurlers, it’s just a different task this weekend what with the travelling and things. The aim is to get the performance levels up to what they were at the weekend, if not a little better.”
That win over the reigning champions has put Roscommon’s Christy Ring Cup campaign in great footing, considering the calibre of Group Two’s other opposition. Meath have come down from the Joe McDonagh Cup, while London were beaten in last year’s Ring final. Comerford is honest in his aspirations regarding the next two games.
“To be truthful, to get out of the group would be a huge achievement for us considering the group we got drawn in. To stay up in the Christy Ring, to call a spade a spade, is the ultimate goal here. The weekend has helped, but London is as big a task for us now as Kildare were.”
