Roscommon had plenty of heroes in Omagh on Saturday night, making history with a first championship win over Tyrone at the sixth attempt.
And one of them, Diarmuid Murtagh, later revealed how they had learned from his skewed calendar in 2023.
“Last year we fell a bit off the cliff coming into Cork (preliminary quarter-finals) because we put so much into the games before that,” he told the Irish Independent.
“It doesn’t always work out like that, but we knew, the way this championship went, that the game against Cavan was always going to be huge… if we lost (against Dublin and Mayo), like we did, it was going to be like that.” It will be a huge game to stay in the championship.
“So we always knew we needed to peak this time of year. And look, it seems like we are playing with a lot of confidence now and it is important to maintain that confidence next weekend.”
That will be against Kerry, Armagh or Donegal. Based on Tyrone’s disjointed efforts in front of just 6,000 Healy Park fans, the bar is about to be raised significantly. But that won’t deter Davy Burke or his players, who have found magic in him when it matters most.
Before beating Cavan, in a de facto play-off, Roscommon had not won a game in 16 weeks. Their record until that moment in 2024, in the league and championship, was one victory and one draw in 10 games; They had been relegated from Division 1 and lost their first three SFC outings.
Now compare your 2023 form graph at the same time, two games into the Ireland round-robin: played 11, won six, drawn one and lost four. What happened after? They lost to Kildare and then Cork by a single point landed in injury time. The season is over.
While this year it is as if the season started in mid-June. His first 35 minutes against a spread-out Tyrone, defending in packs and punishing on the counter to build a 0-9 to 0-3 lead, were the best they have had in his two years under Burke.
Tyrone duly emptied the bench: they had no choice. They were within a point at the end but could have no complaints in a 0-14 to 0-12 defeat, a defeat that crystallizes how far they have fallen from the improbable 2021 All-Ireland high.
Where next for Brian Dooher and Feargal Logan? Nobody seems to know. More than an hour after the match ended, media waiting outside his dressing room were told that Tyrone’s management had slipped away.
Instead, the day belonged to a remarkably efficient Roscommon side who scored just three wides. “It’s one of those games that Roscommon people love, when we go into it, with our backs to the wall,” Murtagh said. “But it’s important for us that we support it.”
All but one of the points came from play, with Murtagh, Donie Smith (0-4 each) and Daire Cregg (0-3) competing for Man of the Match. Murtagh limped off later, battling cramps and a “little” heel problem, but insisted he should be fine for the quarter-finals.
His manager admitted that the week-long change will be a physical and mental challenge, although he didn’t seem to mind. “Would you rather be free this weekend? Possibly. Would you prefer to come after a victory? Probably,” Burke mused.
“We are crazy to get into Croker. Every time I was there, I made it two or three times with them, we always performed. “We are not afraid of Croke Park at all.”
