Expect Rossies to rise to the challenge

LET’S say it as it is.

What would a Mayo win tomorrow say for Connacht football if James Horan was able to claim this title with a team that is still in an embryonic state, one that has stuttered for most of the season and that will field half a dozen players playing their first decider? Not much, basically.

With Galway football in such a state of disrepair and Sligo still reeling from their loss in this same fixture 12 months ago, Roscommon’s ambitions should stretch far beyond this weekend and towards what is an attainable era of rare dominance out west.

Momentum demands that they retain the title this weekend if they are to fill the power vacuum in a way that a side such as Mick O’Dwyer’s Laois failed to do in Leinster after an historic provincial title in 2003 because, make no mistake, Mayo will not hesitate to step into the breach.

Dublin certainly didn’t.

It won’t be straightforward. Mayo romped home the last time these two met in a Connacht final (2005) and on the last occasion they met (2009) but the last four Connacht finals have been decided by a single point and this may follow a similar arc.

Roscommon have been impressive in every match that mattered this season but they have yet to face a Division 1 side and the question over Mayo is how good were they in that semi-final second-half and how bad were Galway?

Like their predecessors, this Mayo team has been guilty of squandering too many scoring chances — free-taking is a whole other problem — and Karol Mannion and Michael Finneran will hardly allow them the same volume of possession in the Hyde as London and Galway did.

Donie Shine remains a threat from play and, crucially, frees, but Roscommon are no longer insulted by suggestions of being a one-man team. Senan Kilbride, Conor Devaney and Cathal Cregg are proof of that in the forward unit alone.

History beckons.

Verdict: Roscommon.