2 days ago
Roscommon GAA appoint new football manager with just three vanancies to fill
Roscommon GAA have recommended Mark Dowd to succeed Davy Burke as their new senior football manager, meaning there are now just three inter-county senior football jobs to fill.
The only current vacancies are in Westmeath, Waterford and Antrim following the recent appointments of Ger Brennan (Dublin), Dermot McCabe (Cavan) and Paul Madden (Clare).
Dowd is one of six managers who will make their inter-county bow next year, including a joint manager ticket in Sligo.
The other five are Dessie Sloyan/Eamonn O'Hara (Sligo), Gavin Devlin (Louth), Ciaran Meenagh (Derry) and Paul Madden (Clare).
On top of this, Brennan and McCabe have moved back to their own native counties, while Andy Moran previously managed Leitrim for three seasons, meaning there will be seven entirely new management teams in place in 2026.
Dowd is the man a committee appointed to find the new boss came up with and his name will now go before the Roscommon County Board for ratification.
The current Roscommon Gaels boss is steeped in GAA in the county and has his fingerprints all over some of their biggest football successes over the past two decades.
Strokestown native Dowd was part of Fergal O'Donnell's management team that led Roscommon to All-Ireland minor glory in 2006, defeating Kerry in a replay in the final.
Dowd also guided Roscommon under-21 footballers to a Connacht Championship triumph in 2015, before losing out narrowly against Mayo in the provincial final a year later.
He has twice been involved in Roscommon Senior Connacht Championship wins, being in the backrooms of Fergal O'Donnell (2010) and Anthony Cunningham (2019).
At club level Dowd has an extensive CV, helping Mayo side Ballaghaderreen to a Senior Championship and a Connacht Final in 2012, where they lost out by nine points to Roscommon side St. Brigid's.
On the Roscommon scene, Dowd was part of the Strokestown management that landed the 2022 county title, their first in 20 years and eleventh in total.
Last year Dowd managed Roscommon Gaels to the County Final, where they lost to Pádraig Pearses and he's back for another shot at a county title this year.
Amazingly, he is the first Roscommon native to take sole charge of the team since Des Newton in 2012.
Since then Roscommon have been managed by Kerry man John Evans (2013-15) Mayo man Kevin McStay, who lives in Roscommon Town (2015-18, with the first year as joint manager with Fergal O'Donnell), Galway's Anthony Cunningham (2019-22) and Kildare's Davy Burke (2023-25).
In fact, since Galway's John Tobin took over as Roscommon boss in 2001, they've had a whopping nine outside managers, also including Tommy Carr (Dublin), Val Daly (Galway) and John Maughan (Mayo)
As things stand, in 2026 there will be eight outside managers, including Offaly joint boss Mickey Harte, with seven of them from Ulster.
The odd one out is Mayo man Mike Solan, in charge of Longford.
The other outside managers are Wicklow's Oisin McConville (Armagh), Laois' Justin McNulty (Armagh), Derry's Ciaran Meenagh (Tyrone), Tyrone's Malachy O'Rourke (Fermanagh), Leitrim's Steven Poacher (Down) and Louth's Gavin Devlin.
Oisin McConville is the only outside boss currently in a job to have served three years - and he recently agreed a fresh two year term.
Dowd has a big job on his hands with Roscommon's last Connacht title coming back in 2019.
This year they exited the All-Ireland series in a preliminary quarter-final defeat by Cork, having made last year's quarter-finals where they lost out to eventual Sam Maguire winner Armagh by 2-10 to 0-10, after shocking Tyrone in the previous round.
Roscommon GAA Chairperson Brian Carroll pointed to Dowd's wealth of experience as he unveiled the county's new man at the helm.
'We are delighted to welcome Mark Dowd as the incoming manager of the Roscommon senior football team,' said Carroll.
'Mark has an outstanding track record at both club and county level and he brings with him a wealth of knowledge, experience, and passion for Roscommon football.
'We are confident that his leadership will help drive this team forward and build on the progress of recent years.
'I have had the pleasure of working with Mark on numerous occasions over the last 12 years and I know the Roscommon senior football team is in safe hands going forward.
'On behalf of Roscommon GAA, I would like to wish Mark every success in the role and assure him of our full support as he begins this exciting new chapter.'
