As 32 counties begin their National Football League campaign this weekend, you run your finger down the list of teams in the top flight and ask one question.
All-Ireland champions Armagh, National League champions Derry, Ulster champions Donegal, Leinster champions Dublin, Connacht champions and All-Ireland finalists Galway, Kerry who need no introduction, Mayo (behave), and Tyrone under the management of Malachy O’Rourke now.
Which of those are you ruling out of an All-Ireland title in 2025?
Even outside of that group, starting Division 2 life this weekend by hosting Down in Dr Hyde Park are a Roscommon side who had a long, hard look at Armagh and asked why they can’t do that for themselves.
Last year, the sides faced each other in the All-Ireland quarter-final in Croke Park. Just prior to half-time, the Rossies lost Ruaidhrí Fallon to a red card. Despite that, they were just three points adrift when a second half short kickout by goalkeeper Conor Carroll reached Niall Higgins, but he was swallowed up in a pincer movement from Tiernan Kelly and Conor Turbitt before the latter rattled the net.
In action against Armagh. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
The Connacht side went into that game off the back of a win over Tyrone; Daire Cregg’s three points were enough to get the job done in Healy Park. By then it felt like the Tyrone public had abandoned their team, but it wasn’t so for Roscommon players, who were embraced by supporters with tears in their eyes.
“It was two weeks on from a game we were on a massive high and it all capitulated,” said Cregg.
“It just didn’t work out for us on the day and that Armagh team have been there and thereabouts for years. They had the little bit of experience on us.
“But I think we are in a really good position. Armagh winning the All-Ireland inspires everyone in the country, but we definitely believe in ourselves. We have always believed in ourselves, but I think it’s growing year by year.”
Such is Cregg’s belief, that upon the conclusion of last year’s championship, he had a decision to make.
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Carlton Blues of the Australian Football League had been tracking him for some time as one of the bright young things of Gaelic football, blessed with a bit of height, a fluid runner, and all the other qualities they look for with potential recruits. They had been keeping an eye on him since the U20 days.
They had been over and checked him out in a challenge match against Kildare before going along to see him in the Connacht defeat to Mayo.
The day after, they called him up. Lunch? Sure. No bother.
He heard them out. He watched their neat video clips and listened as they hit their quota of buzzwords about ‘culture’ and ‘environment’ of the club. All that good stuff. Come out to Australia, enjoy the sunshine, play a bit of footie.
They might as well have been asking a Healy-Rae for all the interest Cregg had.
“I was confident in my ability and my cardiovascular fitness. I was good at jumping and different things. All that stuff,” he says.
“We had a chat for an hour, an hour and a half, and talked it out.
“I suppose they were probably looking for a commitment from me that it was something I really wanted to do, and we were bang in the middle of the championship and that was my only focus at that time.
“So I put them on the back burner for a while, and further down the line they were looking for a further commitment.
“It wasn’t something I was prepared to give. I didn’t grow up wearing a Carlton jersey and going to Carlton games. It was never a love thing for me. The parents have been dressing me up since I was two or three and going to Roscommon games.
“It was something I always wanted to do, play senior intercounty football.”
Twenty-one years old and doing a Masters in UCD in Project Management – with an upcoming Sigerson Cup quarter-final against DCU soon – Cregg is a throwback to certain values that are increasingly seen as old-fashioned at best, naïve at worst.
“I love the amateur feel of the game. I love being able to… I actually enjoy the ability to go to college the next day or doing some work. Something different, and finding the balance that way,” he says.
Evan Logan / INPHO
Evan Logan / INPHO / INPHO
“Listen, if you are playing big games over in Australia, it’s great. If you are playing in front of 90,000 every week, that’s lovely.
“But if you are not making the first team, which inevitably you won’t be for the first two years, and you are playing the Victorian Football League which is the second division, there is nobody at the games, you are playing glorified challenge games, that’s a different story.
“It’s a different story from when we played Tyrone last summer. There might have only been 7-8,000 at that game, but there’s people on the pitch after crying and telling you how much it means to them.
“I love that thing of going training and we love that feeling, that hour-and-a-half, two hours to get down, having the craic.”
At home in Boyle, Cregg and his brother Oisín — who is with him in UCD, and this year joined Davy Burke’s Roscommon squad — have their commitments to the family farm. They keep up to 100 dairy cattle and beef cattle, and Daire’s studies are in the Agricultural Science area.
“There are a lot of moving parts in it but it is a big business really for the country,” he says.
“I am potentially looking at dairy farming down the road, trying to match it up with football at the moment. At the moment, time-wise it’s a challenge, but it is something I would be looking to explore.”
For now, it’s Roscommon. The county seems to be learning the lessons of recent history. Armagh’s squad was packed with players that had known the lean times, but they never lost faith.
In recent times, the turnover in the Roscommon panel was so great they were only getting to know each other by the time of high summer. That’s changing now, Cregg believes.
“It’s been an issue. Since before I was even in the panel, I would remember lads on about the turnover in the panel and lads coming and going,” he says.
“Thankfully this year we have three or four big players back for a year, maybe more. We also have a really good cohort of U20s players from the last two or three years.
“We haven’t lost anyone, we have kept the basis of the team together, and are in year three of the same management team. We have a great management team, Mark Doran is on doing the coaching ,and they are all excellent.
“We are buzzing to be honest, and hopefully with the new rules, it could elevate us a bit and we would be able to take to them well and push on.”
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'I didn’t grow up wearing a Carlton jersey' - Turning down AFL and focusing on GAA
FOR NOW, LET’S call it The Armagh Effect.
As 32 counties begin their National Football League campaign this weekend, you run your finger down the list of teams in the top flight and ask one question.
All-Ireland champions Armagh, National League champions Derry, Ulster champions Donegal, Leinster champions Dublin, Connacht champions and All-Ireland finalists Galway, Kerry who need no introduction, Mayo (behave), and Tyrone under the management of Malachy O’Rourke now.
Which of those are you ruling out of an All-Ireland title in 2025?
Even outside of that group, starting Division 2 life this weekend by hosting Down in Dr Hyde Park are a Roscommon side who had a long, hard look at Armagh and asked why they can’t do that for themselves.
Last year, the sides faced each other in the All-Ireland quarter-final in Croke Park. Just prior to half-time, the Rossies lost Ruaidhrí Fallon to a red card. Despite that, they were just three points adrift when a second half short kickout by goalkeeper Conor Carroll reached Niall Higgins, but he was swallowed up in a pincer movement from Tiernan Kelly and Conor Turbitt before the latter rattled the net.
The Connacht side went into that game off the back of a win over Tyrone; Daire Cregg’s three points were enough to get the job done in Healy Park. By then it felt like the Tyrone public had abandoned their team, but it wasn’t so for Roscommon players, who were embraced by supporters with tears in their eyes.
“It was two weeks on from a game we were on a massive high and it all capitulated,” said Cregg.
“It just didn’t work out for us on the day and that Armagh team have been there and thereabouts for years. They had the little bit of experience on us.
“But I think we are in a really good position. Armagh winning the All-Ireland inspires everyone in the country, but we definitely believe in ourselves. We have always believed in ourselves, but I think it’s growing year by year.”
Such is Cregg’s belief, that upon the conclusion of last year’s championship, he had a decision to make.
Carlton Blues of the Australian Football League had been tracking him for some time as one of the bright young things of Gaelic football, blessed with a bit of height, a fluid runner, and all the other qualities they look for with potential recruits. They had been keeping an eye on him since the U20 days.
They had been over and checked him out in a challenge match against Kildare before going along to see him in the Connacht defeat to Mayo.
The day after, they called him up. Lunch? Sure. No bother.
He heard them out. He watched their neat video clips and listened as they hit their quota of buzzwords about ‘culture’ and ‘environment’ of the club. All that good stuff. Come out to Australia, enjoy the sunshine, play a bit of footie.
They might as well have been asking a Healy-Rae for all the interest Cregg had.
“I was confident in my ability and my cardiovascular fitness. I was good at jumping and different things. All that stuff,” he says.
“We had a chat for an hour, an hour and a half, and talked it out.
“I suppose they were probably looking for a commitment from me that it was something I really wanted to do, and we were bang in the middle of the championship and that was my only focus at that time.
“So I put them on the back burner for a while, and further down the line they were looking for a further commitment.
“It was something I always wanted to do, play senior intercounty football.”
Twenty-one years old and doing a Masters in UCD in Project Management – with an upcoming Sigerson Cup quarter-final against DCU soon – Cregg is a throwback to certain values that are increasingly seen as old-fashioned at best, naïve at worst.
“I love the amateur feel of the game. I love being able to… I actually enjoy the ability to go to college the next day or doing some work. Something different, and finding the balance that way,” he says.
“Listen, if you are playing big games over in Australia, it’s great. If you are playing in front of 90,000 every week, that’s lovely.
“But if you are not making the first team, which inevitably you won’t be for the first two years, and you are playing the Victorian Football League which is the second division, there is nobody at the games, you are playing glorified challenge games, that’s a different story.
“It’s a different story from when we played Tyrone last summer. There might have only been 7-8,000 at that game, but there’s people on the pitch after crying and telling you how much it means to them.
“I love that thing of going training and we love that feeling, that hour-and-a-half, two hours to get down, having the craic.”
At home in Boyle, Cregg and his brother Oisín — who is with him in UCD, and this year joined Davy Burke’s Roscommon squad — have their commitments to the family farm. They keep up to 100 dairy cattle and beef cattle, and Daire’s studies are in the Agricultural Science area.
“There are a lot of moving parts in it but it is a big business really for the country,” he says.
“I am potentially looking at dairy farming down the road, trying to match it up with football at the moment. At the moment, time-wise it’s a challenge, but it is something I would be looking to explore.”
For now, it’s Roscommon. The county seems to be learning the lessons of recent history. Armagh’s squad was packed with players that had known the lean times, but they never lost faith.
In recent times, the turnover in the Roscommon panel was so great they were only getting to know each other by the time of high summer. That’s changing now, Cregg believes.
“It’s been an issue. Since before I was even in the panel, I would remember lads on about the turnover in the panel and lads coming and going,” he says.
“Thankfully this year we have three or four big players back for a year, maybe more. We also have a really good cohort of U20s players from the last two or three years.
“We haven’t lost anyone, we have kept the basis of the team together, and are in year three of the same management team. We have a great management team, Mark Doran is on doing the coaching ,and they are all excellent.
“We are buzzing to be honest, and hopefully with the new rules, it could elevate us a bit and we would be able to take to them well and push on.”
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Contenders Daire Cregg GAA Gaelic Football Roscommon