JOHN EVANS CHUCKLES when we suggest that he’s a ‘promotion specialist.’ But there’s much more to that statement than just a cliché. During his time as Tipperary senior football manager, Evans took the Premier County from Divisions 4 to 2 in as many seasons. He’s now emulated that feat with Roscommon but with one major difference – the Rossies will be playing top-flight football in 2016.
Evans smiled: ”I’ll take it, I’ll guarantee you. It’s every county’s ambition to get to Division 1. You’re in the top eight in the country, that’s the first thing. The second thing is to be part of this group or lads, who are ambitious, young, still learning and have a lot to learn yet. It’s great to be able to nurture them along, develop their skills, their pattern of play and see them growing into it.”
It was quite a weekend for Roscommon and Evans believes that the county’s U21s set the tone for what was to follow with a thrilling victory over Galway in Saturday’s provincial decider. And with such a talented bunch of players at his disposal, Evans concedes that he’s in a privileged position.
“They’re coming off the back of a couple of U21 Connacht titles but also two All-Ireland U21 finals in three years, albeit defeated by Dublin (2014 and 2012). It’s about nurturing those guys and that’s what I’m good at, good at building teams and the coaching would be my forte.”
But Evans told the42 more about Roscommon’s ‘team behind the team’, the backroom staff who compliment the set-up. Keith Carr’s strength and conditioning work is evident in the Roscommon players and a dedicated group of statisticians is led by James Boyle. Joe Sweeney coaches the goalkeepers, Gary Wynne is defensive coach and Liam Kearns, the former Limerick and Laois boss, was brought in by Evans late last year to work with the forwards. Throw St Brigid’s man Basil Mannion into the mix and Evans is pleased with his lot.
“We have a good, professional backroom team and that’s what we’ve been working off. “The players have responded to it and they’re a quiet, friendly bunch of lads as well. A lot of it this year is that we’ve kept a low profile and that’s helped us no end.”
Evans revealed that the Roscommon players resolved after clinching promotion against Offaly last year that they would do it again. And while the manager was busy playing down expectations, the men on the pitch went about their business.
“We kept it to ourselves, didn’t say it to anybody but the team and the panel. We kept it within the group that our ambition was to go to Division 1. All the talk about us not being good enough suited us at the time because all we were hearing clearly over the airwaves was the naming of five or six teams that would get promoted but not one word about Roscommon. I came up with the idea that we’d tell people we weren’t ready for it.”
But Evans is acutely aware from his time in Tipperary that what goes up can come down. He took charge of Tipp in November 2007 and oversaw successive promotions in 2008 and 2009. But Tipp were relegated back to Division 4 by the end of the 2012 League season and Evans resigned as manager.
“It was hugely important that I didn’t fall into those same pitfalls. With Roscommon, we went out and won games but in Tipp’s case, we lost by a point or two.”
Roscommon were content to play football ‘the right way’ but Kerry native Evans, the mastermind behind All-Ireland club football glory for Laune Rangers in 1996, is confident that he can mix it up against different various opponents if the need arises.
“We have a defensive system and an attacking system. Sometimes they work and sometimes they need tweaking. But I think we had the highest scoring ratio in Division 2.” He’s right. Roscommon scored 7-99 in seven games but also conceded 6-94, backing up the Evans assertion that the balance between defence and attack still needs some work.
“We scored hugely, very, very high. I’m not too much into stats but we do have a flair for scoring. We scored 24 points against Kildare and even in defeat against Laois, we scored 0-16.”
Roscommon’s League season still has at least 70 minutes to run, with the prospect of a divisional decider with table-toppers Down to look forward to. And with the Rossies on such a hot streak at the moment, who knows what could lie ahead in the summer months? On the opposite side of the Connacht championship draw to Mayo and Galway, Roscommon can reach the provincial final by defeating London and Sligo. But for now, promotion will do fine. Just fine.
