Conor Devaney ‘has no idea’ why Roscommon dominate Cavan

Roscommon captain Conor Devaney admits it’s hard to make sense of their long-standing dominance of Cavan.

Both counties have been on similar trajectories of late, suffering relegation from Division 1 together last year but bouncing straight back up this spring.

As a result, they have met regularly, yet in their last nine competitive games, Roscommon have won seven times and drawn once.

Beating Cavan in the final round of last year’s league gave Roscommon hope, according to Devaney, and they duly turned things around by winning the Connacht title.

They beat the Breffni again this month, by 0-15 to 0-13, to help secure promotion and, unsurprisingly, are favourites to repeat the feat in Sunday’s Division 2 final at Croke Park.

“I have no idea why [that record exists], because every game is very tight,” said half-forward Devaney.

“Even our most recent game was very tight. I’m sure over time those results will even out. We’re very similarly matched and we always have tight games, in scoring terms,” said the 30-year-old.

I’m looking forward to another tight game on Sunday. In terms of the record, I can’t really answer why. That is the case. It’s obviously there, but I don’t see a huge difference between the teams.”

Roscommon beat Down when they last reached a Division 2 final, in 2015, and then manager John Evans talked about pushing for All-Ireland success afterwards, tipping his young team to go “to the top”.

“I don’t think Roscommon at the time, or even now, were going to win an All-Ireland,” said Devaney. “We can hope at some point in the future, maybe, but I think for now there are more realistic goals. Like this year, it was trying to get promotion from Division 2, possibly trying to have a good competitive game in a Connacht final — I think they’re realistic goals — and getting to the Super 8s more consistently, as the structure is now over the coming years.”