Multi-talented Fallon proving his worth in primrose and blue

Ruaidhrí Fallon of Roscommon poses for a portrait during the launch of the 2025 Connacht GAA Senior Football Championship. Pic: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile.

Had his first choice come to pass, Ruaidhrí Fallon would be in MacHale Park today, not Croke Park. Had his first choice come to pass, he would be wearing the green of his province, not the primrose and blue of his county.

22-year-old Fallon started in defence for Roscommon’s final two outings of the League’s second tier. He was twice introduced as a sub during the early rounds before a first start of the year against Meath in late February.

Same as 2024 when he was late back following St Brigids' run to the All-Ireland club final, he’s slowly establishing himself as a regular on Davy’s Burke starting team.

But before Roscommon, he sought to establish himself with Connacht and with the oval ball in hand.

“I would have grown up just 10 or 15 minutes outside Athlone, so Buccaneers would have been my club,” he says of his not too distant rugby past.

“They would have had some big names, Robbie Henshaw and Jack Carty. And closer to me, Darragh and Niall Murray are brothers from my parish. So I would have played football with Darragh the whole way growing up. And he's doing superb now. He was called into the Irish camp for the lead up to the France Six Nations game. So he's flying.” 

Fallon, who played at out-half or full-back, was able to balance Connacht sub-academy involvement and Gaelic football during the Covid chaos of 2020, winning a first Roscommon senior title in his first year out of minor.

But a decision would have to be made thereafter. And it was rugby that won out - for a while at least.

“The opportunity [with Connacht] arose again when Covid, let's say, went away for a small bit. And I took the opportunity to try and pursue something in a professional set-up. But unfortunately, nothing materialised out of it. But I was happy with my experience and definitely learned a lot from it as well.

“I would have been with the Connacht Eagles at the time. Peter Wilkins, Andrew Browne, and Mark Sexton, Johnny's brother, they were over us for that spell I was in there. It was a short enough spell as well. But again, it was kind of ruined a small bit by Covid.

“If Covid wasn't a thing, I probably would have been in there for the [2020] summer and things like that as well. So I was kind of unfortunate in that aspect.

“The difference from going back from a professional to maybe an amateur setup, I know it's quite cliché, but the work done when no one's looking is very important. 

"Even if it's small things, trying to get yourself in physical condition or doing that bit of extra reviewing or analysis on teams. It's the fellas that do well when no one's looking that make up the most ground.” 

Fallon won a Connacht U20 in 2021. There was no inferiority of Galway or Mayo arriving into the senior set-up. Sligo’s youngsters are the same. The health of Connacht football is “at an all-time high”.

The Rossies are in Croker today, Ruislip the following Saturday. League and Connacht are building blocks. 

Fallon was sent off just before half-time in last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final. Armagh led them by only two at the break. Armagh finished the summer standing on the tallest block of all.

Two counties of not dissimilar playing populations. Roscommon want to follow the Orchard path. No more than Connacht silverware, Sam is not guaranteed to fall into the lap of one of the traditional superpowers.

“Mixed in with the rules being changed and everything, no one really knows who to get behind. Obviously, I wasn't playing during the time of the success of that superb Dublin team, which was almost inevitable. Every time they lined out, it was a race for second for a while there, but that's not the case at all anymore,” Fallon continued.

“There's a lot of teams, including ourselves, that have gained a lot of confidence from someone like Armagh doing what they did last year. 

"Especially when it was us lined up against them in the quarter-final and that day went the way it did. We didn't perform to the best of our ability, but on a different day, that could have gone differently. That's the spin on things that we're looking at, but internally, the confidence is very good.”