LAST MONTH, IN an early summer of great escapes, Mayo briefly sensed their coffin lid creaking open.
A 10-point deficit had been cut to seven in the blink of an eye, or at least in a swoosh of Kobe McDonald’s gifted boot for a two point conversion, and with eight minutes left on the clock by the time Conor Carroll had the ball placed on the kicking tee, Mayo supporters had found their voice in the belief that something visceral was stirring.
Within seconds, they were silenced.
Carroll’s long kick-out towards the main stand sideline in MaccHale Park had turnover stamped all over it, until the outnumbered Enda Smith flicked the ball out of the air into the hands of Conor Hand, ran immediately to take the return pass, before releasing Darragh Heneghan for the goal that iced what little hope Mayo still nourished and sealed Roscommon’s place in Sunday’s Connacht final against Galway.
Darragh Heneghan scores Roscommon's second goal despite the best efforts of Rob Hennelly
Afterwards, Smith hailed his team’s second-half performance as the most “complete” he had ever been part of.
Given that he is in his 14th season and has over half a century of championship appearances – 52 to be precise – under his belt, the 31-year-old Boyle veteran was well positioned to make that call.b
His personal contribution may have been lost given Diarmuid Murtagh’s headline stealing performance that yielded 1-10, Heneghan’s support striking role that gleaned 1-3 along with Keith Doyle’s and Colm Neary’s breathless energy on a day when the entire team were uniformly brilliant.
Sift through the game, though, and Smith’s quality was illuminated in ways that even his impressive numbers failed to illustrate.
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Mayo's Ryan Donoghue and Roscommon's Enda Smith. Tom O’Hanlon / INPHO
Tom O’Hanlon / INPHO / INPHO
He would finish with 0-3, was fouled for 0-2, provided the final ball for 1-2 and was involved indirectly in the build up to another 0-4, which meant that his fingerprints were on 1-11 – just shy of 50% – of his team’s final tally of 2-25, while also winning four contested kick-outs.
That is not bad for a man whose immediate reaction when he was initially called up to the Roscommon senior panel 13 years ago was to apologise, because he believed that the then manager John Evans must have been guilty of mistaken identity.
Former Roscommon boss John Evans. Presseye / Andrew Paton/INPHO
Presseye / Andrew Paton/INPHO / Andrew Paton/INPHO
“I always remember it because it was the oddest reaction I ever got to calling a player up into a county senior panel,’ laughs Evans.
“I rang him on a Monday evening and when I announced myself and asked if he would come into the panel, there was this confused silence at the other end and then he goes – ‘Are you sure, John, you do know that I was cut from the county U21s at the weekend?
“I told him I had heard that and it did not bother me one bit, and once he came in with us he was straight back in with the U21s later that week,” chortles Evans.
If it might seem odd that Smith’s quality was not immediately recognised, then it is in keeping with a career in which he was in his 11th season before his first and, thus far, only All-Star in 2023.
Enda Smith in action for Roscommon against Cork in 2023. Lorraine O’Sullivan / INPHO
Lorraine O’Sullivan / INPHO / INPHO
Evans’ theory is that Smith’s “tall and gangly” frame was used in evidence against him when he was a teenager, but time and conditioning would take care of that.
Later that summer, the player deemed not good enough for the U21’s, made his debut in the 2013 championship in Castlebar when he was sprung from the bench to kick two points on an afternoon when there was little else to be cheerful about from a Roscommon perspective.
Pretty much since then, he has been the beating heart of the team, evolving from talented youngster, to star turn, to long-time leader.
If his status as one of football’s top players over the past decade has felt a little under-appreciated, it is the price to be paid for playing with a county that has spent most of that time occupying the margins.
Timing has not been his friend in the sense that when he started out, Connacht was ruled by one traditional governing force in Mayo and by the time he got his wings, that power was transferred to the other, Galway.
In between, he somehow managed to squeeze out two Connacht championships, both in finals in Galway in which his influence loomed large.
He was named man-of-the-match for his dominant midfield display in the nine-point stunning win over the Tribesmen in 2017, and while two years later he would limp out of the decider in the closing stages, he would be the one to raise the Nestor Cup as captain.
Enda Smith lifts the Nestor Cup in 2019 after the Connacht final. Tommy Grealy / INPHO
Tommy Grealy / INPHO / INPHO
Those successes, along with a DCU Sigerson Cup victory in 2015, for long threatened to be the sum total of a football life well played, but there is a growing sense the best is yet to come.
Last summer, despite expectations fuelled by a promising spring which yielded promotion to the top division, Roscommon felt like a team at the end of the road, trimmed by Galway in Connacht and winless in the All~Ireland group stages.
That lethargy even appeared to extend to Smith, who was substituted in the final quarter of their opening three games, before nailing three two-pointers against Meath to earn their only point in the All-Ireland series.
It did mark the end for Davy Burke, but under Mark O’ Dowd Roscommon are playing with a freedom, which Smith, in particular, is revelling in.
“He has the complete skill-set, great hands, can kick brilliant left and right, is a lethal finisher when put through on goal, but if you asked me his greatest attribute, I would say it is his game-intelligence.
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“He can smell out an opening when another player would be squinting to try and see it, and when he does he always makes the right decision.
“You look at the amount of times he is the one who plays the pass that either breaks the line or sets up a big score, and that is not by accident,’ insists Evans.
That was also evident two weeks ago in Castlebar, where Heneghan’s late goal was the third of three goal chances which were created by Smith.
After 10 minutes, he fielded Carroll’s long-kick out and instantly slipped the ball inside to Murtagh who crashed his effort off the post, while before half-time he released Heneghan for a goal opportunity, which the latter declined to take a point.
In a game where Roscommon have been given licence to thrill, Smith is the one most likely to load the chambers that will allow them to go for the kill.
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'He has the complete skill-set': Roscommon's long-time leader as they chase Connacht title
LAST MONTH, IN an early summer of great escapes, Mayo briefly sensed their coffin lid creaking open.
A 10-point deficit had been cut to seven in the blink of an eye, or at least in a swoosh of Kobe McDonald’s gifted boot for a two point conversion, and with eight minutes left on the clock by the time Conor Carroll had the ball placed on the kicking tee, Mayo supporters had found their voice in the belief that something visceral was stirring.
Within seconds, they were silenced.
Carroll’s long kick-out towards the main stand sideline in MaccHale Park had turnover stamped all over it, until the outnumbered Enda Smith flicked the ball out of the air into the hands of Conor Hand, ran immediately to take the return pass, before releasing Darragh Heneghan for the goal that iced what little hope Mayo still nourished and sealed Roscommon’s place in Sunday’s Connacht final against Galway.
Afterwards, Smith hailed his team’s second-half performance as the most “complete” he had ever been part of.
Given that he is in his 14th season and has over half a century of championship appearances – 52 to be precise – under his belt, the 31-year-old Boyle veteran was well positioned to make that call.b
His personal contribution may have been lost given Diarmuid Murtagh’s headline stealing performance that yielded 1-10, Heneghan’s support striking role that gleaned 1-3 along with Keith Doyle’s and Colm Neary’s breathless energy on a day when the entire team were uniformly brilliant.
Sift through the game, though, and Smith’s quality was illuminated in ways that even his impressive numbers failed to illustrate.
He would finish with 0-3, was fouled for 0-2, provided the final ball for 1-2 and was involved indirectly in the build up to another 0-4, which meant that his fingerprints were on 1-11 – just shy of 50% – of his team’s final tally of 2-25, while also winning four contested kick-outs.
That is not bad for a man whose immediate reaction when he was initially called up to the Roscommon senior panel 13 years ago was to apologise, because he believed that the then manager John Evans must have been guilty of mistaken identity.
“I always remember it because it was the oddest reaction I ever got to calling a player up into a county senior panel,’ laughs Evans.
“I rang him on a Monday evening and when I announced myself and asked if he would come into the panel, there was this confused silence at the other end and then he goes – ‘Are you sure, John, you do know that I was cut from the county U21s at the weekend?
“I told him I had heard that and it did not bother me one bit, and once he came in with us he was straight back in with the U21s later that week,” chortles Evans.
If it might seem odd that Smith’s quality was not immediately recognised, then it is in keeping with a career in which he was in his 11th season before his first and, thus far, only All-Star in 2023.
Evans’ theory is that Smith’s “tall and gangly” frame was used in evidence against him when he was a teenager, but time and conditioning would take care of that.
Later that summer, the player deemed not good enough for the U21’s, made his debut in the 2013 championship in Castlebar when he was sprung from the bench to kick two points on an afternoon when there was little else to be cheerful about from a Roscommon perspective.
Pretty much since then, he has been the beating heart of the team, evolving from talented youngster, to star turn, to long-time leader.
If his status as one of football’s top players over the past decade has felt a little under-appreciated, it is the price to be paid for playing with a county that has spent most of that time occupying the margins.
Timing has not been his friend in the sense that when he started out, Connacht was ruled by one traditional governing force in Mayo and by the time he got his wings, that power was transferred to the other, Galway.
In between, he somehow managed to squeeze out two Connacht championships, both in finals in Galway in which his influence loomed large.
He was named man-of-the-match for his dominant midfield display in the nine-point stunning win over the Tribesmen in 2017, and while two years later he would limp out of the decider in the closing stages, he would be the one to raise the Nestor Cup as captain.
Those successes, along with a DCU Sigerson Cup victory in 2015, for long threatened to be the sum total of a football life well played, but there is a growing sense the best is yet to come.
Last summer, despite expectations fuelled by a promising spring which yielded promotion to the top division, Roscommon felt like a team at the end of the road, trimmed by Galway in Connacht and winless in the All~Ireland group stages.
That lethargy even appeared to extend to Smith, who was substituted in the final quarter of their opening three games, before nailing three two-pointers against Meath to earn their only point in the All-Ireland series.
It did mark the end for Davy Burke, but under Mark O’ Dowd Roscommon are playing with a freedom, which Smith, in particular, is revelling in.
“He has the complete skill-set, great hands, can kick brilliant left and right, is a lethal finisher when put through on goal, but if you asked me his greatest attribute, I would say it is his game-intelligence.
“He can smell out an opening when another player would be squinting to try and see it, and when he does he always makes the right decision.
“You look at the amount of times he is the one who plays the pass that either breaks the line or sets up a big score, and that is not by accident,’ insists Evans.
That was also evident two weeks ago in Castlebar, where Heneghan’s late goal was the third of three goal chances which were created by Smith.
After 10 minutes, he fielded Carroll’s long-kick out and instantly slipped the ball inside to Murtagh who crashed his effort off the post, while before half-time he released Heneghan for a goal opportunity, which the latter declined to take a point.
In a game where Roscommon have been given licence to thrill, Smith is the one most likely to load the chambers that will allow them to go for the kill.
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Connacht enda smith GAA Roscommon