You would expect us to win but I would have said the same about the Tyrone & Donegal games too .
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Fair point. And Monaghan will feel they have a lot more to play for in this game, especially if they can beat Donegal this Sunday.
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Also after just listening to Quirke on OTB I wouldnât be surprised if Roscommon or Monaghan set out their stall like Kerry did . Obviously things will be different come championship & hopefully we will have our full complement of starters . Somebody out there really should be trying to combine what Donegal ('14) & Kerry ('16 ) did to us . It seems to be effective & we have systems failure . Also theyâd wanna come up with a plan for the last 5 minutes . Keep the ball if necessary , might be horrible but sure if it knocks us out why not ?
Even without a win in the last game, if our score difference stays good and results go our way this weekend (I think a Mayo would suit us), we could be in a good position regardless. Donegal and Monaghan playing each other means only one of those can come up away with two points.
Football is a flawed game though, the rules do not always reward skill and athleticism and the things it should, and the application of the rules is haphazard. If you are fit and strong enough you can do a lot of disruption and then only have to score a minimum to win. In fairness to Donegal they actually won mainly by good tactics in '14, not really the above. But there is no reason that a team with the right plan could not beat Dublin this year. We will only win if Gavin gets over 90% of his calls correct, and that canât happen every year.
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If McStain sends Roscommon out to be physical and dirty like Kerry then it will back fire in Croker IMO. They could probably get away with it in Hyde Park to certain extent but lets not forget our lads donât lie down. They are adept at taking the punishment without getting too wound up bar a couple of exceptions (Clucko and Crazy Horse). We are a much better footballing side at the moment and I am sure we canât keep getting rode by the officials. When teams play like Donegal or Kerry against us we should just not try to break through them but keep ball and drag them out of position until we win a free or open them up by bringing them out of their comfort zone. Once we get ahead then the onus is more on them to play. It may not be entertaining but it will show the flaws in the blanket game plan. It is not our responsibility to produce an entertaining game anymore than the oppositions.
Ah , we are " keepers of the flame nua " course it is
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It should be a game that we win comfortably, but I would always be afraid of a weak team putting in one big performance when playing a top team. Also even in their loses so far, Roscommon have managed to create quite a few goal chances, even if they havenât taken that many of them.
We really should be targeting a 10 point plus victory here to help get us through to the final.
Its going to be a good dry night and I think this will suit us a lot, be interesting to see starting line up. I hope we score freely and conditions should suit our ball handling and speed of the off loads. I hope if MDMC starts he has a better game than in Tralee, against Mayo he was very good but very poor last week.
I just hope Gaelic football is the winner âŚ
Roscommon wonât like the wide open spaces of CrokerâŚ
Ohhhh like the look of that . Its go time now Jim 
Thatâs 10 of team that started all Ireland final replay
No : cooper Mannion small Connolly Kilkenny
I wonder is Kilkenny getting a rest as he played all other games - good subs to have in any case !!
Much better balance to that forward line
Iâm disappointed for McHugh. If he got to run riot in croker it would be great for his confidence - not that it should be lacking after his last few games.
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Heâll be on at some stage iâm sure. suspect JG wants bernard to get a game under his belt.
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Yeah, while itâs regrettable that we canât give some of our less prominent players another game I think some of the more established players do need to get some game time to get up to match sharpness. Hopefully the likes of McHugh will get to come on as the game opens up and defenders get tired.
Fun fact ⌠and something to consider âŚ
JG has started the named XV maybe once in the last 3 years âŚ
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