Roscommon eager to rectify Croker record

CROKE PARK seemed like the only place Roscommon supporters wanted to be seen in last summer.

They eventually got there. The GAA have seen errors in earlier ways and decided all All-Ireland quarter-finals should be played at headquarters. In the first summer of the revised championship - Roscommon's first Connacht title in a decade - the Rossies drew their bitter Galway rivals and the GAA saw no need to uproot both sets of supporters from out west.

When they drew Kildare in the last 12, they expected a trip to the capital. The decision to play it in Portlaoise had the entire county grumbling.

It was the same old story for Roscommon in Croker. Defeat. Kerry finished the game after 20 minutes.

New stadium, old story. Roscommon's record in Croke Park has been known to make the proudest of Rossies shudder. There was that attritional All-Ireland final against Kerry in 1980; the one Micko said his great team should have lost.

The year before, the Ross missed a couple of chances and gifted an All-Ireland semi-final to Dublin, then a fading force. That was the last time these two met in the championship.

For Dermot Earley, legend of Roscommon football, it is a game he recalls with a tinge of regret.

"Mick Hickey scored a lot of frees and I think they beat us by a point. There was an accidental clash of heads at one point, between one of our players and Brian Mullins and the free went Dublin's way for some reason and they scored from that. There are little things like that about that game."

However, Earley doesn't believe in a Croke Park hex for the county.

"I don't accept talk about a hoodoo. I don't think Croke Park is the issue. In the past, when you got up to Croke Park, it was for an All-Ireland semi-final or All-Ireland final and you were playing against the highest level of competition. And Roscommon teams just didn't perform to high enough standards to come away with the win, but I would have some confidence in this team heading into this game."

In the county itself, that confidence has to be tempered by the Connacht final debacle. Carr declared himself irritated by the way his side played against Mayo and has been trying to lift the team to the levels they reached last summer.

Apart from the replay against Sligo, that hasn't happened. Had Leitrim a little more self-belief and a forward or two, Roscommon wouldn't have even made it to the Connacht final.

But as county PRO Fr Liam Devine reminds everyone, Roscommon tend to perform best when nobody expects anything of them. The primrose and blue is coming out in Croke Park simply for a day out. Nobody is expecting them to beat the Dubs, so

"I think that goes for any team," Earley says. "When there is a massive expectancy on a football team, their approach tends to be more cautious. As under-dogs, you can throw caution to the wind an awful lot more, and because of their style of play, that might suit Roscommon more."

Ah, yes, the Roscommon style of play. Carr has said before that he wants his side to develop a Meath mentality, to refuse to countenance defeat - it was what drove his team on last summer; a succession of one-point victories, evidence of that.

However, it has been lacking all year. Of course, there is no better time to re-discover it than playing the Dubs in Croker.

"Roscommon have a good record against Dublin in recent times, we have beaten them in the league and that will give them confidence. I don't know if the fact that we're playing Dublin will mean the players will be more inclined to dig deep, but they should be inspired by the possibility of victory," Earley says.

"This is their sixth game this year, with the possibility of a seventh. It is not like Roscommon to have so many games in the summer.

"Last year, the side battled hard and worked extremely hard, no matter who they played. They need to find that again, put together a more consistent effort over 70 minutes.

"They faded badly after the first 10 minutes of the Connacht final and you saw what happened. Their game-plan went. When things are going badly, they go individual rather than continuing with a team effort.

"That is something they can't afford to do against Dublin."

And there is the Tom Carr factor, played out in the Dublin media all week. Roscommon in Croker. Usually a recipe for disaster. But they are a county that so often surprise. They may have reason to celebrate in Strokestown yet, tomorrow evening.