Rossies lead the way in a league no one wants to win

After three rounds of the league and surveying the top of the Division 1 table, I'm tempted to lead with 'Connacht domination!' or 'Connacht supremacy!', though perhaps would be pushing it for February.

It does bode well that we do have three teams consistently competing at the top level - currently 1, 2 and 3 in the highest tier of Gaelic football. They've done their work thus far, they have the points. But it's a long season and nothing's handed out in February.

Roscommon are sitting pretty, looking down on everyone. The yo-yo tag has been buried for this year. They're getting a great consistency of performance, which traditionally had been a problem.

In my time as a player, Roscommon were always an unknown quantity - which made them a very dangerous opponent. But often you were never sure whether you were going to encounter a confident bunch who were in the mood - or a rusty team who weren't at the pitch of it.

I always remember a few years ago, in 2016, they played Cork and put 4-25 on them. A few weeks later, they were badly beaten by Kerry in a league semi-final and their championship season came apart a bit, almost losing to New York in Gaelic Park.

I remember when we played them in the Covid championship in 2020, the game became akin to a dead rubber in the second half. It seemed the Roscommon boys lost interest and just wanted to get it over with and we ran out easy winners.

But now there's a consistency about them - and they're finishing games very strongly. They had patchy first halves against Galway and Armagh. But they're powering through in the fourth quarter of games. Against Tyrone, the contest had narrowed to a one-point game midway through the second half and they pushed the accelerator. The Galway game down