That’s how to do it.
Roscommon named their team for next Sunday’s Connacht final a full week in advance. The county’s social media account provided a full run down on the panel’s injury concerns and in turn ramped up the excitement amongst the county’s supporters for the Hyde Park showdown with Galway.
It’s a statement of intent from them, it’s what this team are all about.
Kevin McStay names his team for @ConnachtGAA Final against Galway. 33 out of 34 players available for selection. Only Ciarán Lennon (Broken Thumb) not considered due to injury, otherwise a clean bill of health for 2018 Connacht Final #rosgaa #gaa pic.twitter.com/qvK4QMGzGb
— Roscommon GAA (@RoscommonGAA) June 10, 2018
This is nothing out of the ordinary for Kevin McStay’s Roscommon who have made a habit of showing their hand a week before their games. It does, however, make them an outlier in the modern day inter-county sphere with the majority of counties holding their cards close to their chest until the Friday before games and even then, many of these teams can only be trusted as token gestures because of the recent infatuation with ‘dummy’ versions.
The reason teams resort to these tactics is fairly unclear. In fairness, it’s not as if the well prepared inter-county outfit will be outfoxed by a few positional changes on game day.
Kevin McStay and Roscommon don’t do these dummy teams, and you’d have to wonder what the logic is behind them. First things first, it’s disrespectful teams own players who are put in an awkward situation.
Just imagine it, a lad is named in the programme to start. He’s told in training that he’s on the bench but he’ll have to remain tight lipped about that when speaking to family and friends so as not to break team code.
It’s also disrespectful to supporters, to programme makers and to anyone attempting to analyse or to read into the game.
But Roscommon aren’t your typical modern day team. Kevin McStay is always open, he’s always honest in his interviews. So are his players.
The Rossies comfortably overcame the challenge of Leitrim in the Connacht semi-final as they were expected to. Prior to that game, team captain Conor Devaney was interviewed and he claimed that they were aiming for the Super eights this year. It was an honest comment but it was also a sure sign of the confidence that’s in this group.
They know that if they are to reach their goals they should be swatting away the challenges of your Leitrims at their ease.
They know where they want to be and they see no point in hiding their ambition. Why would they?
