'There's definitely more in them': Dowd

by Kevin Egan

There were two massive shocks on Sunday, but the reaction from the architects of each of them couldn’t have been any more different.

While Conor Laverty spoke of the burning desire to avenge a mistaken RTE graphic from months ago that presumed his Down team would be beaten by Donegal, and how he “looked at it every day”, Roscommon’s Mark Dowd – who arguably had much more legitimate cause for grievance, with top scorer Daire Cregg suspended – was very clear that their motivation to beat Mayo came from a very different, less emotional place.

“You know, we had an appeal on Monday, we had another appeal on Thursday, and after that it was put to bed, we trained Friday night and it wasn't mentioned,” he said in Castlebar.

“Lads were conscious that it was something that mightn't work out for us. It wasn’t a case of ‘we'll try and do it for Daire’ or anything like that, we stuck to the process, what we've done in every game. All throughout our league we've been missing guys, it’s next man up and you just move on.”

Among those missing guys were the St. Brigid’s trio of Ben O‘Carroll, Brian Stack and Ruaidhrí Fallon, all of whom took part in the Kiltoom club’s league game against Pádraig Pearses last Friday.

Fallon and Stack were in Castlebar to see the game and while Ben O’Carroll’s future within the panel was not addressed, Dowd cited how the others simply used that league match as a step on the road to their recovery, as opposed to their togging out in Woodmount as a sign of some bigger grievance.

“In fairness to the boys, Stacky and Ruaidhrí there, they've made great strides in getting themselves back. There were conversations we had with them during the week to say how far on advanced were they. We were happy between us all, we said, let's get a game with the club, get that under ye. No matter what happened today, there was always going to be other games coming down the track, they are now in a better position for that.”

So with Fallon, Cregg and Stack all likely to play significant roles in either the Connacht final or the All-Ireland series, it’s no surprise that Dowd believes that there is still more to come from this in-form Roscommon group.

“I believe there is, yeah, yeah, and I think the lads will gain a lot of confidence from that there now today,” he replied.

“When you have confidence you're going to play with a bit more freedom as well, and express themselves a bit more, and I definitely do think there's more in them. But then again, we're going down the road, we're going to be coming up against tougher challenges as well, and we've got to be ready for that.”

That Roscommon have made such huge strides under their new manager has been widely attributed to the deep local knowledge within the current management team, with relative novices like Caelim Keogh, Darragh and Robert Heneghan, Eoin Ward, Paddy Gavin, Conor Ryan and Colm Neary all thriving in 2026.

Dowd happily agreed that giving chances to players that they rated highly from the club scene was a key part of their strategy from the start.

“There were guys we identified in the club championship there last year… we probably hadn't tapped into. We needed to get them in around the place,” he said.

“They were never the finished article coming in first. Some had their pace, some had their strength, some had their ball-winning abilities, and it was a case of getting them in around the place and seeing what we could do with them. In fairness to them, they've bought in from the start and they're reaping the rewards there.”

He stopped short of saying that the team is following any particularly plan that was laid out, instead explaining: “I don't kind of put targets on what I want to do in my first year. I wanted to come in, I wanted to get good squad depth, I wanted us to get us playing at a high competitive level, performing in every game. We didn't do that in every league game and we're conscious of that, we've got to be doing it in every quarter from now on, like, you know?

“We're no further on than where we were the last couple of years, and we're very aware of that, so we're not going to get carried away with what's going on.”

What he has relished however is the rebuilt connection between the team and supporters. A crowd of just over 15,000 wasn’t spectacular giving the history of this fixture and how both counties came into the tie in relatively good form, but it was notable that Roscommon had a substantial share of the crowd in Castlebar, and the elation that was on show at the final whistle when primrose and blue jerseys flooded the MacHale Park pitch was very real.

“Yeah, and it's probably something we've seen throughout the league, it's something we definitely saw in New York there two weeks ago as well, in Times Square.

“That was brilliant to see, but, like, no matter what team you are, if you're giving them something to shout about, they're going to come out and support you, and I felt that's what we're doing at the moment. Maybe in the past we didn't give them, and they're not going to show up. But when you give them something to shout about, they'll get behind us and they'll back us”.