After Roscommon felled Leitrim in Carrick-on-Shannon a couple of Sundays ago, the players meandered towards the dressing-rooms looking kind of flat. Sure, they had won but there was nothing remotely approaching euphoria about their body language. Maybe even an unspoken disappointment at the manner of their play.
"I think that our reaction perhaps illustrated how much expectation has grown in Roscommon over the past year," says Ciaran Heneghan, the Dublin-based half back.
"Maybe our fans came to Carrick hoping to see us work our way to a 10-point win and that might have rubbed off a little on us, but it was never going to happen. Leitrim had been focusing solely on that match for five or six weeks and playing them at home was always going to be difficult. So we watched a video of the game a few days later and concentrated on the positive sides of our game, which were numerous."
That Roscommon folk could shrug at a championship victory may point to soaring hopes - a stark contrast to this time last year - but it also reflects the mindset of Gay Sheerin's current crop of players. The word is that Sheerin is somehow extracting every ounce of worth from his charges, transforming them into a unit that neither of the Connacht big guns will fancy squaring up to.
Yet last year, they prepared for their semi-final game against Sligo with such pessimism that it seemed they had all but resigned themselves to losing. What happened?
"It's difficult to pinpoint," says Heneghan. "I came into this squad in 1996, made a debut against Mayo in the championship and at that time we were regarded as being a bit behind such counties and played as such. You know, losing championship games by three or four points. It was as though we had no right to win and that attitude prevailed until, I think, the last 10 minutes of the game against Sligo when we came from seven points down to force a draw.
"We walked away from that in the knowledge that we'd played some football and just continued to build on it. The mood going up to Markievicz Park for the replay was just incredible, a total turnaround."
Roscommon's subsequent skyshooting form saw them push Galway to the brink in a provincial final replay. Reviewing the eventual AllIreland champions' season, some felt that Galway had been lucky to scrape past Roscommon.
"I went to the (All-Ireland) final against Kildare. I'd imagine watching them would get at some lads but I just took encouragement from it. At least it showed me the level we were at. Naturally, there was a pang of jealousy when Ray Silke went up to take the Cup and there's always the thing of `what if', but we looked at the positives of running the best in the country close and carried that through the year."
And, not surprisingly, they cruised through their division, gaining elevation to the top flight despite a sole stumble against Wicklow in Aughrim.
"Well, anyone who gets a win in Aughrim deserves it," said Heneghan. "But yeah, we were happy with the consistency of our play and that the self-belief which we fostered last summer has just grown. A lot of that is down to Gay Sheerin. The dedication the man shows to the county is just humbling. It makes you want to put in more. And besides that, he's a great motivator.
"I think back to a few years or so when I believed I was giving it my all then. The intensity level is much greater now, as is the expectation."
And so to Sunday, when Roscommon venture down to Castlebar to face a Mayo side hoping to emerge from the shadows for one last fling with history.
"We are playing the guts of a team that should have won an All-Ireland. I heard someone way that it's a massive game for both teams. It's that Mayo team's last run at the championship and it's a day for us to vindicate last summer, to prove that it was no flash in the pan."
And now, he feels certain that Roscommon won't wilt in the face of tradition. "I'm sure Mayo will still be favourites in many people's eyes and coming down to Castlebar is no easy task. But we just feel that we are good enough to go in there and get a win. We have to."
