Roscommon to join ‘big three’ in semis

APART from the failure of Dublin to make it back and the absence of Meath for the second successive year, it would be generally accepted that the eight teams who contest the weekend’s football quarter-finals in Croke Park qualified on the basis of their consistency.

The group features the All-Ireland champions of the past three years, along with Donegal who were successful for the only time 11 years ago, Roscommon who were last winners in 1944 and three who have never captured the title, Tyrone, Laois and Fermanagh alone in never having even won out of their own province.

More significantly perhaps, six of them all competed in Division 1a, while the other two Laois and Fermanagh won promotion. And, while few could have anticipated that the latter two counties would be in the shake-up, it's not as if they came from nowhere.

Under Mick O'Dwyer's inspired management, Laois signposted their potential by beating Armagh in the League semi-final and then putting Dublin out in the Leinster semi-final. Meanwhile, the promise shown by Fermanagh in the League and in their narrow Ulster semi-final defeat by Down was realised in a six points win over Meath in the third round of the qualifier competition.

It was at this stage that Armagh beat Dublin by a four-point margin, producing a superb second-half display having been largely unimpressive through the first half. They came into this match as underdogs after having failed to play up to expectations in the previous round against Antrim. At the end of May, they beat Galway by three points at the official opening of Pearse Stadium and Joe Kernan took a lot of positives from another battling second-half display.

"Today we showed that we still have hunger for the game. And, I can guarantee that this game will bring us on. This could be the turning point for us," he said.

Once they found their form against Dublin, the reigning champions were awesome. The combination of their physical strength and their scoring power epitomised in the play of Steven McDonnell sets them apart from all of the other teams. If they can maintain this form, it will be very difficult to stop them.

I expect Laois to give them a very stiff challenge in the second of tomorrow's games, but this will be a very different test from the League semi-final. It will help that they are underdogs, but they won't have the overall strength to succeed.

Dominic Corrigan, who deserves immense credit for bringing Fermanagh this far, was correct when he said on Sunday that his team had drawn the short straw in being paired with Tyrone in the curtain-raiser tomorrow. The teams met in the other League semi-final, when Tyrone won by a three-goal margin. And, while Fermanagh have improved a lot since then, Micky Harte's team is also playing considerably better and with greater self-assurance.

Twelve months ago, Tyrone flopped in Croke Park in the fourth round of the qualifier against Sligo. However, any questions that might have been asked of them this year were firmly answered with that remarkable display in the drawn Ulster final. On current form, I expect them to advance, too.

Kerry and Roscommon last met in the championship in the 1980 final, when Páidí Ó Sé and John O'Keeffe played in defence. Earlier this year, they clashed in the League in Tralee, when Kerry scored a runaway win, with Tom Carr linking their display to a backlash after the first round defeat by Cork in Páirc Uí Rinn.

Their game is the second on the programme on Monday and it's an intriguing clash as Kerry were quite poor in the Munster final. On the other hand, Roscommon produced some great football in their win over Kildare last Saturday evening. It's a reverse of the situation which applied last year, when Kerry made significant progress through the qualifier competition, to the stage where they were well prepared to beat Galway in the quarter-final before getting the better of Cork at their third attempt.

The importance of Darragh Ó Sé to the Kerry team specifically the way he influences the contribution of the inside forwards cannot be emphasised enough. And, whatever role he plays in this game, there will still be questions about his ability to have a similar impact because of his lack of match fitness.

I expect Kerry to play much better than they did in Killarney, but there is no guarantee of it. Roscommon should have recovered from the physical exertions of their extra-time win over Kildare, because it was such an uplifting experience for them, psychologically. And, barring a complete turnaround by Kerry, I feel that Carr's team will again be winners, especially if Frankie Dolan is in kicking form.

Galway and Donegal, who meet in the first game, were opponents in the 1983 semi-final when current selector Stephen Joyce was in the Galway team and team mentor Gay McManus also lined out. The Westerners won the game by a single point but, in view of what was to happen to them in the final against Dublin, they would have been better off losing.

After Donegal were relegated from Division 1a, as were Roscommon, nobody was too surprised when Fermanagh put them out of the Ulster championship. But, to the credit of the players and reluctant manager Brian McEniff, they gradually recovered their form through the qualifier stages, being given a major boost with the win over Sligo. They have potential because of their scoring power, with Adrian Sweeney especially prominent.

However, Galway have much more to offer. They are favourites with a good number of people to win the championship, but while the addition of the younger players such as Michael Meehan has helped to strengthen the side, they haven't done enough so far to merit that kind of respect. They did just enough to beat Roscommon, were pushed hard by Leitrim before winning comfortably and found it difficult to put away Mayo in the final. Clearly, we have yet to see the best from John O'Mahony's team, but I expect them to advance.

My semi-final line-up: Tyrone v Roscommon; Armagh v Galway.