Fans will seek positive signs as Roscommon return to top tier

KEVIN EGAN looks forward to Roscommon's Allianz Football League Division 1 campaign which begins with a clash against All-Ireland champions Kerry at Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney on Sunday (2pm).

Everything about Roscommon’s 2026 National League campaign could be boiled down to a matter of perspective. On the one hand, Division One is a cruel and unforgiving environment for a new manager to get his first experience of having the buck stop with him at senior intercounty level. However, Roscommon could lose all seven games at this level and as long as there were some positive signs, nobody would castigate Mark Dowd for failing to pick up points in this elite company.

Ciaráin Murtagh, Donie Smith and Niall Daly are three proven warriors and natural leaders to lose from the dressing room and the expected absence of the St Brigid’s players for the first couple of rounds of the league will further deplete the options available to Dowd. On the other hand, it allows him the freedom to give minutes to players who might not otherwise have got the chance to put their hands up in any meaningful way, or who otherwise might have been given starts but would have been watching nervously over their shoulder as soon as they made their first mistake.

What can be said definitively is after March 1st last year, Roscommon won one game of football, and that was against London. It’s in that context that they now prepare to begin their league campaign away to Kerry, where there has been some caterwauling about losing one or two players to Australia. A county that brought the word “yerra” into the lexicon is so stuck for ways to talk themselves down that they’ve decided that the decision of an 18-year-old Ben Murphy to the Brisbane Lions is a ‘something must be done’ moment. They won’t be stuck.

Historically, round one is the time to get Kerry in the league, as their track record is littered with opening day defeats. Jack O’Connor is likely to have brought his players back that bit later than most too, so the door is slightly ajar, even if this raw Roscommon team probably isn’t quite at the level they need to find in order to walk through it.

The fixture list has been incredibly kind to the Rossies in that they have four home games, and two of their road trips will see them stay in Connacht. After coming back from Killarney, they have a run of four home games in five matches, starting with the visit of Monaghan.

On paper, Monaghan should struggle this year as well. Andy Moran, now Mayo manager, was possibly the most influential voice in their dressing room last year; St Brigid’s have laid out the perfect template for how to play against Rory Beggan; and there is a period of transition ahead for a group that has a good few key players towards the end of their careers. Crucially, however, there is another generation coming up behind them. Gary Mohan and Stephen Mooney are playing well in the Sigerson Cup, while they possess a degree of strength and power in the middle that Roscommon might struggle to handle.

By the time Armagh come to the Hyde, the landscape should have changed a bit. Brian Stack is likely to take a bit longer off to let his body recuperate properly but the rest of his club colleagues could well be available from this game onwards, albeit it would be a huge help if Stack was available to try and marshal Rory Grugan.

Kieran McGeeney, now entering into a remarkable 12th season, has lost some senior players but Armagh’s depth is remarkable. Rian O’Neill won’t be there, however, and Oisín Conaty is a player who will be much more of a force in the summer. This could be one of the better chances for Roscommon to put points on the board.

There has been a few changes in personnel in Galway too but with the game down to take place in Salthill and no huge upheaval around the middle where Roscommon will struggle to match the quality of Céin D'Arcy, John Maher and Cillian McDaid, this is not a fixture where supporters will travel with too much optimism.

It’s entirely possible that by the time Dublin come down to Roscommon on March 1st, this game will be a relegation four-pointer. With every star that fades away into the night sky – John Small is the latest – the prospects of Dublin getting back to the big stage fade too. Ger Brennan would have kept the fire burning if he took over from Jim Gavin just as he did when picking up the baton from Mickey Harte in Louth, but he has a different and tougher challenge here, where more of a rebuild is needed. The Dubs are there for the taking.

The same absolutely cannot be said of Donegal. There will have been no amount of soul searching up in the hills after last year’s All-Ireland final. Did they fail to show up, did they just get lost in the occasion and start slow, were they let down by their system and the inflexibility therein? One thing’s for sure. All of that will have been pored over in depth by Jim McGuinness and his men and they’ll come back with a vengeance.

Their fortunes may hinge on finding a path which allows Michael Murphy to flourish, but doesn’t see Oisín Gallen sink into the Glenswilly man’s shadow, as happened in 2025. But player wise, they should have far too much for Roscommon, and watch out for Shea Malone, the latest teenage attacking prodigy to emerge from a county that has a long track record of producing such starlets.

All of that is likely to lead to Roscommon travelling up the N60 to Castlebar, needing a win over Mayo to preserve their Division One status. The recent FBD League game between the two sides is absolutely not in our thoughts when we say that the outlook for Roscommon in that scenario would be pessimistic. Once he stepped into intercounty management with Leitrim it was it inevitable that Andy Moran would eventually take over in Mayo and he appears to be coming in at an exciting time.

The county is awash with talented youngsters catching the eye in the Sigerson Cup and the return of Paddy Durcan after a year out with injury gives them a talisman in the half-back line to foster that irrepressible Mayo spirit that we saw throughout the 2010s. Ryan O’Donoghue and Jack Coyne have pushed their games onto a new level at both ends of the pitch and Cian McHale looks to be a huge threat.

There’s no hype like Mayo hype, and we’ll see plenty of it in 2026. Don’t be surprised if they end the spring as league champions with Roscommon slipping back to Division Two, even if that might not be the worst thing in the world from the perspective of the likely Connacht semi-final between the counties in April.