Monaghan masterclass against breeze seals dismal Roscommon’s fate
All-Ireland SFC (Round 2B)
Monaghan 1-20 Roscommon 0-14
Seamus Duke at St Tiernach’s Park in Clones
Roscommon’s All-Ireland Championship dreams unravelled in stunning fashion at St Tiernach’s Park in Clones on Saturday last as the shell-shocked Connacht champions were totally outplayed by Monaghan in a match that was dominated for the most part by the home side.
The thousands of Roscommon supporters who made the journey to Clones looked on in virtual silence and in disbelief as the home side pulled away in the second half to record a comprehensive win. In fact if Monaghan were to have converted even half the chances they missed over the course of the game, the winning margin could easily have been doubled.
It was as disappointing a championship defeat as any suffered by the primrose and blue in recent years, comparable to the quarter-final replay exit to Mayo in Croke Park (2017) and to the losses in recent years to Cork (twice) and Clare (twice). It was hard to believe that we were watching the same Roscommon team that had played such wonderful football for much of the league campaign, and particularly in their Connacht Championship wins against Mayo and Galway. Even in the one-point defeat to Tyrone there was no suggestion that Roscommon’s performance levels would collapse to the extent they did in Clones last weekend.
There was no dash, no pacy runs, no goal threat and none of the defiant defending that we had seen earlier in the season. Roscommon simply could not get their hands on the ball. The midfield third was a disaster for the visitors as Monaghan hoovered up most of the breaking ball in that sector.
Monaghan wing-backs Conor McCarthy and Dessie Ward had the freedom of the park as they won an ocean of possession and set up their colleagues for scoring chances time after time.
Monaghan goalkeeper Rory Beggan was sensational once again. He conducted a clinic in kickouts, enjoying almost a one hundred percent success rate in the second half. The Scotstown man seems to have a radar built into those boots as the ball hardly ever misses its target.
Jack McCarron and Stephen O’Hanlon gave Roscommon plenty of trouble too. McCarron doesn’t have much pace, but he knows where the posts are, and his seven-point haul was a vital contribution for Monaghan. O’Hanlon was superb throughout and was constantly on hand to carry the ball into the danger area.
Roscommon simply didn’t turn up on the day. There was a surprise when Enda Smith took to the field for the warm-up – wearing the number 26 jersey – this after it had been announced during the week that he would miss the game because of injury. He was a massive loss of course, only joining the action as a sub with eight minutes to go. Still, the game was over as a contest by then and Smith was clearly not one hundred percent fit, which begs the question why he was brought on at that late stage of the proceedings.
Eoin McCormack was Roscommon’s best player on a day when far too many of Mark Dowd’s men played poorly, most of them just not being at the pace of the game. Senan Lambe battled gamely on an occasion when so many underperformed. Diarmuid Murtagh looked dangerous up front at times but there was not much Roscommon’s star attacker could do given that very little ball was coming into him.
Opening half
Monaghan, playing with the aid of the breeze in the opening half, dominated possession for the most part, but their shooting was woeful. They had a total of 24 shots on the Roscommon goal in that first 35 minutes. It was a measure of their superiority.
The sides shared four points in the opening eight minutes, Diarmuid Murtagh and Dylan Ruane scoring for Roscommon, Dessie Ward and Stephen Mooney on target for Monaghan. With the home team missing several scoring chances, Roscommon finally took advantage. Points from Dylan Ruane, Dáire Cregg (2) and Diarmuid Murtagh by the 22nd minute saw the visitors ahead by 0-6 to 0-2.
Monaghan were enjoying so much possession that one felt the dam was going to burst on Roscommon sooner rather than later – and so it proved. Veteran McCarron kicked a two-pointer in the 23rd minute and followed up with another point from play after Conor Carroll’s kickout went astray.
The outstanding Conor McCarthy pointed in the 28th minute to level the scores and the writing was on the wall for Roscommon after that. In the 29th minute Roscommon gave the ball away cheaply and Andrew Woods sent Stephen Mooney off, the Monaghan man blasting home a great goal. Further points from McCarthy and McCarron ended the first-half scoring, Monaghan going in leading by 1-9 to 0-7.
Second half
At half-time, we wondered if Monaghan’s inaccuracy would be their downfall. They had kicked no less than nine wides, missed two clear goal chances, and sent three more efforts into the goalkeeper’s hands.
As for Roscommon, the presumption was that with wind advantage in the second half, they would storm into contention. It looked like they would too when Diarmuid Murtagh scored a two-pointer and Dylan Ruane was on target with another point by the 39th minute. But that was as good as it was going to get as Monaghan reasserted their superiority and simply blew Roscommon away.
Beggan was finding his men with ease from the tee, and the Monaghan scores flowed. Points from Mícheál Bannigan, Dessie Ward and Mícheál McCarville restored a five-point lead by the 48th minute and they cruised to the finish line after that.
Roscommon’s attacks were sporadic at best at this stage. Dylan Ruane scored another point and subs Jack Duggan, Conor Hand and Cian McKeon added scores, but McCarron, McCarthy, Andrew Woods, David Garland and Ryan McAnespie all picked off late points to copperfasten a super win for Monaghan as the Roscommon faithful looked on in dismay.
It was a terrible way to end a year that was memorable in so many ways. Some of the performances in the league and the wins against Mayo and Galway in Connacht will always be remembered. However the bottom line is that Roscommon do not seem to be able to win a major knockout championship match outside Connacht.
I’ve seen many comments in the media since the weekend suggesting that the Roscommon mentality is that they seem happy to win the Connacht title now and again and don’t entertain higher ambitions. It’s probably a harsh assessment, but the statistics are there for all to see.
It will take a while for Mark Dowd, his backroom team and the players to get over this defeat. They will of course have plenty of time to do so. The FBD League in January will roll around and the merry-go-round will start again. But all that seems so far away this week as we try to digest what happened in Clones last Saturday. After a good year, this was a sad way for it all to end.
Disastrous exit puts dampener on season
Seamus Duke
Driving home from Clones last Saturday evening was not a pleasant experience. I had three great Roscommon GAA men with me – and we were all equally despondent.
It was hard to believe that we had just witnessed the same Roscommon team that had played so impressively for most of 2026. While Roscommon hadn’t played that well in the one-point defeat to Tyrone a few weeks ago, there was no indication that their form would fall off the edge of a cliff in the way that it did against Monaghan.
Several national pundits have offered the opinion since the weekend that Roscommon are only interested in winning a Connacht title – and nothing else – but I totally reject that. It is true that Roscommon’s record in knockout championship games outside Connacht is very poor, but I have never met any county footballer or group of footballers who go out to lose or play poorly. They simply put in too much effort for that to ever be a possibility.
We have seen some crazy results in the championship this year. Maybe the new rules are having an effect. Kerry, Dublin, Armagh and Donegal have all been surprisingly beaten at some point. Monaghan couldn’t beat Mayo, while Westmeath put it up to Galway last weekend. The games are so high-octane now that every team seems to have played at least one ‘stinker’ in terms of their performance. Saturday was Roscommon’s turn.
The manner of the loss to Monaghan has certainly put a dampener on the year for Roscommon, but when you sit back and look at the situation in general it’s not all bad. We have a new management team with Mark Dowd at the helm. We have blooded several excellent young players onto the panel. We have survived in Division One and won the Connacht title. I think if you offered that to most Roscommon fans on January 1st this year they would have snapped your hand off.
But the trick now is to move to a higher level. Provincial title wins are grand, but in the new championship format it gets teams nowhere. The facts are that Mayo and Galway are still in the championship, while Roscommon are out. The aim of the Roscommon team over the next couple of years should be to make an All-Ireland quarter-final at least, and indeed advance on to a semi-final.
What happened in Clones last Saturday was just another desperately disappointing day. There were thousands of Roscommon supporters there. They just wanted a spark, any reason at all to get involved, but it never came. Roscommon never looked like winning the game, not even when they were 0-6 to 0-2 up in the first half. It has happened many times before down through the years and it is a pity for all concerned.
I commented many times this year that I thought there was something different about this Roscommon team. I still think that. But they have to learn from what happened on Saturday last. It they do, then there is hope for the future.
Like our seniors, our U-20s and minors won in Connacht, and the badly needed Dermot Earley Centre of Excellence will begin to be developed later in the year. That will be a big boost to all county teams.
I am not glossing over our disastrous exit from the championship last weekend, but the reality is that we have to start again in January and hope that we have learned some lessons from our 2026 journey.
Yes, I know – it’s the hope that kills you!
Stat Attack
Red cards: 0
Black cards: 0
Yellow cards: Monaghan 0; Roscommon 1 (Enda Smith)
Wides: Monaghan 12 (9, first half); Roscommon 6 (1, first half)
Two-pointers: Monaghan 2 (Jack McCarron x 2); Roscommon 1 (Diarmuid Murtagh)
Attendance: 11,590
Man of the Match: Conor McCarthy (Monaghan)
‘We’ll learn from today’ – Mark Dowd
Monaghan ‘controlled’ game, and ‘dealt with our goal threat’
ROSCOMMON REACTION
Seamus Duke
It’s not easy to face the media glare after your team has produced a performance so poor that it actually shocked everyone present (and those watching from afar).
Mark Dowd spent a long time in the dressing room with his players in the aftermath of Saturday’s defeat. When he emerged to face the media, the Roscommon manager probably wanted to be anywhere else than answering questions, but he tried his best to put a brave face on it all.
“Coming up the road today we knew the task we had ahead of us and we knew we would have to be on our game to win – and in some aspects we were not on our game.
“Monaghan had 24 shots in the first half and we were finding it very hard to get our hands on the ball. On their kickouts and on ours too Monaghan were coming up with possession. They are a very good team when they have the ball, and they controlled it well.”
I asked Mark if he had been worried at half-time, with Roscommon trailing by five against a home team that had also wasted many scoring opportunities.
“Not especially. We have been in those situations before – a few points down – so we had no reason not to believe we could come back. We talked about what we wanted in that second half and unfortunately that didn’t happen. I thought we improved slightly in the second half but when you are chasing the game it becomes more difficult as it goes on.”
Dowd paid tribute to the way Monaghan had set up.
“In fairness to Monaghan, they knew what we had to offer and they could deal with our goal threat. We just didn’t score enough with the possession we had and they were able to get the scores they needed down the other end.”
Had Roscommon put too much effort into winning the Connacht Championship?
“I can’t say that really. I think our fitness levels didn’t wane. But it’s all down to possession of the ball. When a team has possession and you are leading you can look a totally different team but when you are chasing the game it’s a different matter and that’s what happened us today.”
Asked about his handling of Enda Smith – initially not even named as a sub (due to injury) – the manager said: “If Enda was fit to start we would have started him. But the (small) amount of work he had done over the past couple of weeks was the reason he got the number of minutes that he got.
“In terms of the logistics, there were one or two other injuries in the squad. Enda wasn’t in our standby list but we had injuries and that allowed him to come back into the squad.”
Looking ahead, Dowd said that Roscommon have a young panel and he is very hopeful that they will put this defeat into the past very quickly.
“The great thing about young players is that they don’t hold onto these defeats for long. They will all get back into it soon. The club championship is coming up and that will roll on into October and November and we won’t find the next season coming around and lads will be chomping at the bit to be involved again. I feel we are a team that will learn from today and we will push on again.”
Bannigan hails ‘70-minute performance’
MONAGHAN REACTION
Seamus Duke
Monaghan manager Gabriel Bannigan used the raw experience of a disappointing loss to Mayo to inspire his players into producing a 70-minute performance against what proved to be a lacklustre Roscommon last Saturday.
Reflecting on his team’s unexpectedly comfortable nine-point win in Clones, Bannigan said their performance against Mayo in the previous round (when Monaghan came with a second-half rally before losing by a point) had been on their minds.
“We took that hurt (the game against Mayo) out there today and we targeted a 70-minute performance. I was very happy we got a 70-minute performance. That doesn’t mean it was perfect because we only got eight scores out of 24 shots in the first half.
“We have a lot of learning to take out of today now in terms of improving that area (of their play). But our second-half performance against the breeze… I thought it was very measured, very controlled. We played some excellent football, took the right options, created the opportunities and clipped over some lovely scores.
“You’d have to be happy, it’s a nine-point win over Roscommon who are Connacht champions and who have been producing excellent performances all year. We’ve got to take that and move forward.”
The quality of Rory Beggan’s kickouts was – as ever – a big part of Monaghan’s game plan.
Bannigan said that Monaghan vary their kickout press and generally try to vary how they avail of Beggan’s range of talents.
“I think Rory is just quality and what you’re trying to get with the players out the pitch with Rory in goals is to make sure they’re working hard for him.
“Sometimes they might think because of the quality of what he is doing that he’s just going to do it on his own or he’s going to find a player and just ping somebody from 50 or 60 yards away. The boys out the field have to put the work in as well so we’ve been doing a good bit of work on that.”
Asked what advice he’d given his players at half-time, the Monaghan boss said: “We spoke about the importance of managing the ball well because when you’re playing against a breeze and particularly against a team with the quality of Roscommon’s forwards, you don’t want to be turning the ball over and allowing them to attack you at pace from turnovers. That was paramount… to try and minimise the turnovers in the second half and to create really good scoring opportunities. We did that.
“We did have to work the ball in closer to goals (due to) playing against a breeze. There were no two-point shots on playing into that breeze in the second half, so we had to work our opportunities. I thought we worked them exceptionally well” he concluded.
