Burke refuses to blame proximity of London clash for Monaghan defeat
The dust had barely settled on Roscommon’s ten-point defeat in Croke Park last Saturday and as if the result wasn’t enough, Davy Burke then had to go into the media briefing room to explain to reporters that no, his team didn’t suffer as a result of keeping their powder dry for their trip to London on Saturday (Ruislip, throw-in 2.30pm).
“Did you see the team we picked?” was his reply to the suggestion, and there was nowhere for any cynical reporter to go from there.
“We came up here to win the game, we picked a team we obviously thought was strong enough but we got well-beaten. Fair play to Monaghan that’s a fine team, they got 12 points from two-pointers.
“I thought we were right in it at 0-20 to 0-18 with 15 minutes to go or whatever it was, but they pulled clear. They had massive support and massive hunger. The breaking ball, Monaghan were all over it, so no, I wouldn’t make any excuse about (playing in the Connacht championship) next week," said Burke, who has since picked his team for the London game - see team list below.
"It’s difficult to juggle mentally more then physically but what was it 1-15 to 0-7 in the second half? Last week was 0-16 to 0-8 or something like that, so no I wouldn’t be blaming London for the second half.”
But where was the blame? Even for that opening 55 minutes, this was a contest that had plenty of fine scores, but not too much by way of hard tackling or defensive bloody-mindedness. Maybe this was simply a case of two teams who would like to win, but who knew that as a fixture in between the battle for promotion and the provincial championships, it was one where it wasn’t worth dialling up the intensity?
“That’s Croke Park in this new game. The pitch is so big, the ball moves so fast, it’s a different game out there than anywhere else,” suggested Burke.
“Big hits, I think Keith (Doyle) landed one towards the end of the first half, but I think they are going to be at a minimum now because of the speed of the ball and space out there, allied to 11 back”.
Instead, Burke’s focus was on his team’s lack of threat from distance, something that was thrown even more sharply into focus by the long-range sniping of Rory Beggan and his colleagues.
“We kicked one today and I think we kicked none last week. We’re obviously not kicking enough two-pointers so it’s going to be something we have to look at in training,” said Burke.
“We seem to look to go for goals more, or carrying the ball further in, but obviously it’s something that were going to have to look at,” he added.
Roscommon (vs London): Conor Carroll; Pearse Frost, John McManus, David Murray; Ruaidhrí Fallon, Colm Neary, Dylan Ruane; Eddie Nolan, Keith Doyle; Ultan Harney, Enda Smith, Ben O'Carroll; Diarmuid Murtagh, Cian McKeon, Ciaráin Murtagh.
Subs: Aaron Brady, Niall Higgins, Ronan Daly, Shane Killoran, Declan Kenny, Conor Hand, Shane Cunnane, Cathal Heneghan, Senan Lambe, Conor Cox, Donie Smith.