Sunday's victory over Mayo was a huge one for Roscommon. While they have registered quite a few big victories in the Connacht championship over the last decade or so, there was a sense that this one had something of an added significance.
That is largely down to the county's league campaign. Roscommon have long been viewed as a yoyo team, one that was too good for Division 2 but not good enough for the top tier. The result was a consistent run of promotions and relegations, although their third-placed finish in the 2023 will give them hope that they are now ready to compete with the best teams in the country on a consistent basis.
The win against Mayo will only strengthen that belief. The Rossies were fully deserving of their victory, bringing an intensity to the game that their opponents could not match.
Few had tipped Roscommon to come out on top, something their manager Davy Burke admitted the team found disrespectful in the buildup to the fixture.
I thought there was a lot of disrespect during the week. We finished third in Division 1. On merit. And we were completely written off.
You'd swear we were a lower level team altogether. I'm sure our boys were frustrated by that and I'm glad they put it right.
His side certainly used those feelings at the weekend, although not everyone is convinced by the argument.
Lee Keegan not convinced by Burke's Roscommon 'disrespect' claims
Lee Keegan was massively impressed by Roscommon's performance at the weekend, although he is not sure that Davy Burke's claims of 'disrespect' towards his team stack up.
Writing in his column for RTÉ, the Westport man said that Mayo had to be considered favourites due to their league performances, something that was in no way a slight towards their opponents.
[Roscommon] have copper-fastened their status as a top tier team. Not only did they show that throughout the Division 1 campaign, they've now backed that up in championship.
I found it funny Davy Burke saying his team was disrespected. I would have thought the opposite. I know most pundits were tipping Mayo in advance of the game but I don't think that amounts to disrespect.
Pundits have to give an opinion. Disrespectful strikes me as the wrong word, I don't think any member of their squad or management were dissed.
If anything, they received a great deal of praise for their excellent league performance and for dispatching the 'yo-yo team' label which had been hung around them for the past decade.
Maybe there was a touch of Tyrone-style siege mentality being embraced. I always wonder whether that's really needed. Especially for a derby game like that. There's always a massive rivalry between Mayo and Roscommon and I'd imagine their players were pretty hyped up in any event, regardless of what might have been said in the media.
The 'media have written us off' mindset was never really something we deployed in my time in Mayo. My perspective on it was that your mind would be elsewhere if you're fixating on press comment or outside noise. I wonder do managers just say it for the sake of saying it sometimes?
Keegan goes on to point out that Davy Burke will be using this line to fire his players up once again ahead of their semi-final against Galway, another fixture where Roscommon will be considered underdogs.
Considering their performance against Mayo, you wouldn't bet against them upsetting the odds once again.
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