Paul Earley believes Roscommon's emphasis on underage coaching over the past decade is now paying dividends.

The Rossies have followed up their famous 2006 All-Ireland minor success with a first Connacht senior title triumph in nine years and are preparing to face Cork in Sunday's All-Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park.

"Roscommon started that work a few years ago and were in four Connacht minor finals and a couple of under 21 finals and won it this year," said former All-Star Earley, who served as interim manager following John Maughan's controversial resignation in the spring of 2008.

"Some of those lads have achieved more success than failure. You can't buy that confidence they bring into an environment and it rubs off on the senior players.

"A lot of the more established players had suffered and no doubt their confidence had been dented as a result of that. They (the 2006 minors) were brought in very early because they needed to and the talent pool wasn't there at senior level, and hadn't been there for a few years."

The TV3 analyst continued: "Certainly, some of those lads would have experienced heavy losses in the league and the championship last year.

"Winning the (Connacht) under 21 was a big boost as they were knocking on the door and very close to breaking through. It reassured them that they can do it after struggling for a couple of years.

"Fergal (O'Donnell's) work and the quality coaching has brought them on." Tweet

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