Resilient Rossies dethrone Tribesmen to complete clean sweep in Connacht

May 10, 2026

Roscommon's Diarmuid Murtagh celebrates with goalscorer Darragh Heneghan ©INPHO/James Crombie

Roscommon denied Galway a fifth consecutive Connacht senior football championship title with a thrilling 3-21 to 2-22 victory at Dr Hyde Park this afternoon.

With their backs against the wall, Mark Dowd’s side produced a brilliant finish on home turf that included two-pointers from Paul Carey, Daire Cregg and Diarmuid Murtagh (0-7) to secure their county’s first Nestor Cup success since 2019.

The result also sees Roscommon becoming the first county out west to make it a clean sweep senior, U20 and minor football championship titles in the same season.

This provincial decider had started in nightmare fashion for the hosts, with Rob Finnerty hitting their net just 67 seconds in and they’d end up going behind by 1-7 to 0-2.

Senan Lambe and Murtagh (free) saw their scores wiped out by a Kieran Molloy two-pointer, but they found a spark through a Robert Heneghan goal in the 20th minute and would back it up with another major via Darragh Heneghan a minute later.

From there, the Rossies would get within one prior to a Shane Walsh two-pointer closing the half at 1-14 to 2-8 in the holders’ favour.

Dowd’s men would finally get level through Darragh Heneghan’s point in the 43rd minute and the same player would fire in his side’s third goal two minutes later.

Galway responded to the concession well as substitute Damien Comer and Walsh sent over a brace of points each, with Sean Kelly adding another before Comer crashed the ball to the Roscommon net to make it 2-22 to 3-13.

From there, the victors sent over the next five scores unanswered, with Carey’s two-pointer being followed up by a Conor Carroll ‘45’ and a long-distance effort from Cregg.

A Murtagh free from beyond the arc was met with a mighty roar from the home contingent and the captain would provide the insurance point in the dying stages to put the seal on a historic win for Roscommon.


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