Burke ‘concerned’ over lethargic display as Cork await

By Kevin Egan

Overall, Roscommon didn’t really deserve anything from their clash with Kildare in Tullamore last Sunday. But such was the quality of Enda Smith’s equalising score in the 73rd minute, it looked like the Boyle man might just have carried his team over the line and helped them to secure the draw they needed to stay in second place in the group, and thus secure home advantage in the preliminary quarter-finals this weekend.

All day long, the Rossies leaned heavily on their attacking talisman, and their defensive solidity, even as many of the other pillars crumbled; specifically, the scoring power of the Murtagh brothers, the accuracy and playmaking of Conor Carroll, and the energy of their middle eight.

It was nearly enough, but not quite. Kildare mounted one last attack, Kevin Feely claimed his mark, and Roscommon were knocked into a different path, one that leads them to face Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh this Saturday (2pm).

Davy Burke’s simple assessment was that his players were “outfought, outhunted, outbattled, outworked”.

“That’s it. You don’t win games when that happens to you.”

The Confey man was a long way from his usual effervescent self, though he dismissed the suggestion that playing his native county changed anything about the way the group went at this game. Instead, he just felt that there was a lethargy in his squad, perhaps influenced by the one-sided build up to this fixture.

“Kildare were totally written off – sure it’s completely wrong” he said.

“Blowing us up and playing them down. Maybe that seeped into our dressing room, maybe subconsciously? I don’t know. But completely wrong. There are no bad teams in the Sam Maguire Cup. There are 16 teams, the Tailteann Cup is there for a reason now. Did Cork beat Mayo today? Every game is a kick of a ball and that’s it.”

“Turn up with the right attitude and you’ll progress - don’t, and you won’t. That’s it. We didn’t get off the bus today for whatever reason. It’s something we need to look at. There’s not huge time to do it but yeah, we’re very, very concerned.”

Cork’s win over Mayo means that the Rebels are being viewed in a different light now, and the fact that they will have home advantage, and that Roscommon will have a lot of mental demons to wrangle with over the next few days, makes this a very tough assignment.

John Cleary has tinkered and tweaked his team a lot this year, and a contribution of 1-7 from his substitutes, as well as an impressive display from Tommy Walsh, a late addition to the side, means that it’s far from certain what 15 players will start the game for the home side this Saturday.

Roscommon have been much more settled by contrast, with just 17 different players getting selected to start games across five championship outings. That may change this week, however.

“It was very uncharacteristic stuff, wasn’t it? Our shooting efficiency, defensively we were poor, so a good Kildare side exposed us,” said Burke.

“We had a great two weeks’ prep, a brilliant two weeks. But it just wasn’t good enough. I have to look and my preparation and the team’s preparation because Kildare were mad for road today and we weren’t.

"Maybe that’s something else we need to look at, I think we need to freshen things up now. We've a six-day turnaround and you could see both teams flagging badly in that heat,” he added.

The air mightn’t be as warm this Saturday, but the heat is very much turned on now, with no more safety nets in place.

See here for details of Roscommon's match-day squad for the match against Cork.