GAVIN CUMMISKEYsenses from Donie Shine he is more than hopeful Roscommon can defeat Tyrone on Sunday
THERE IS no doubt Donie Shine is a winner. He has an All-Ireland minor medal from 2006 to prove it. Kicked the killer point in the final replay against Kerry.
Shine also has 0-10 in brackets beside his name from the 2010 Connacht final. And another landmark winners’ medal. He even has O’Byrne and Sigerson Cup success with DCU.
He is a winner all right, even if he didn’t sound like one this week. Granted, there are mitigating circumstances.
Tyrone come to Dr Hyde Park tomorrow for the round two qualifier.
It is not the Tyrone side that eased away from Roscommon in last year’s qualifier. Former footballer-of-the-year Seán Cavanagh, responsible for two goals that day, is crocked for the season. Others have retired.
Maybe Shine was going for the low-profile approach in the telephone interview brokered by championship sponsors Eircom. He spoke about the loss of David O’Gara and David Keenan to American for the summer being evened out by the promotion of successful under-21 graduates like Cathal Compton, Niall Kilroy and Niall Daly.
He spoke about confidence gained from the storming second half that put Armagh to the sword on July 1st.
“If we can just put a good performance together on the day and hopefully Tyrone don’t play to their potential, that’s the way we can get through it, I think.”
The New Zealand media accused Brian O’Driscoll of adopting a defeatist attitude because he used the word “hopefully” during the recent Test series against New Zealand.
Hopefully it is an Irish trait. It seems certain that Shine, like O’Driscoll with Ireland, believes Roscommon can beat any team.
Hopefully he simply wishes to avoid being put in the tall poppy bracket. Another Irish trait, for sure.
“You have to believe you are as good as anybody because if don’t believe that then you won’t be, if you do believe it you may be,” so said Mickey Harte earlier this week, when Shine handed over the phone to the Tyrone manager.
We think Shine doesn’t just hope, that he believes.
“We knew we were well capable of beating Armagh, I don’t know how good Armagh were on the day. They probably played well for the opening 20 minutes and probably took their foot off the gas a bit.
“It didn’t look too promising for us but we regrouped and came out in the second half and a few breaks fell for us. We got a goal. The crowd got behind us. We just took it from there.”
This is not the same Tyrone that captured the 2008 All-Ireland but they remain, in Shine’s mind, one of the best football counties in Ireland.
“They are definitely top three or four. They are well capable of winning the All-Ireland. They are a Division Two team this year but got promoted, really they are a Division One team. We’d be struggling in Division Three.
“It’s going to take a big effort on the day for us to get a result. We’re just going to have to hope that everything goes right for us.”
There’s that word again.
Hope.
Maybe Shine is taking the Andy Dufresne approach; on the surface clinging to hope, while engineering his escape away from prying eyes.
Maybe the 3-15 to 0-10 defeat by Galway knocked the belief out of Roscommon. Maybe the Armagh victory gave it back to them.
“It was a disappointing performance against Galway but hopefully it will go right the next day.”
Hopefully it was just the manner in which this interview was conducted.
ROSCOMMON(SFC v Tyrone): G Claffey; S McDermott, N Carty, S Purcell; N Collins, P Domican, I Kilbride; C Shine, K Mannion; N Kilroy, C Cregg, N Daly; S Kilbride, C Compton, D Shine.
