Roscommon manager John Evans believes his side's promotion to Division 1 of the Allianz Football League and a third Connacht U21 title in four years is evidence of a "county on the rise".
The Rossies sealed back-to-back promotions with victory over Westmeath on Sunday and Evans said reaching the top tier had been their firm ambition since clinching a place in Division 2 last season.
"We're really happy," he told RTÉ Sport. "We've been putting everything into this for the last two years. When we finished against Offaly last year, we had got promoted within five games.
"We bonded together and said that from that day on we didn't want to be in the second division. It's Division 1 for Roscommon.
"We've really worked hard at trying to look for promotion [again]. We stayed nice and calm, and low-profile, when the likes of Kildare, Meath, Down and Galway were all tipped as favourites.
"There's a crop of young fellas coming through for the last couple of years. Why we were so anxious to get to Division 1 was to give these fellas a taste of what it is to play in the premier division."
"It was Division 1 we wanted to get to, it's Division 1 we're in and who knows, these guys may get cuter" - John Evans
Division 2 went right down to the wire, with every team having something to play for in the final round of games.
"It's brilliant for building character, that's for sure," said the Kerry native of the day of excitement. "Any given day, there was only a couple of points in it or someone lost in the last few minutes, of a lot of games.
"It was a credit to our management team to get the lads into good shape. It was a credit to the lads to stay competing.
"It was brilliant, great experience but it was Division 1 we wanted to get to, it's Division 1 we're in and who knows, these guys may get cuter, they'll get faster and stronger for next year."
Roscommon retained the Connacht U21 title on Saturday and Evans said that he was working closely with that team's manager Mark Dowd to try and balance the workload for the senior side's younger members.
"Mark Dowd and myself are working really well together on sharing the players and getting it right," said Evans. "These guys want to play football, its their life.
"To see everybody here today, they're really proud, and to see the support the U21 team had in Tuam last night, you know you're in a footballing county that's on the rise."
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