What a difference 30 years make. In 1994, Leitrim famously beat Roscommon, Galway and Mayo to win the Nestor Cup and when they lost to Galway in 1995, the county was stunned.
“The numbness and shock that pervaded all round Leitrim on Sunday evening and Monday morning more than adequately illustrated the disbelief of Leitrim supporters who just couldn’t believe or understand that their heroes had lost a game they had so dominated,” wrote John Connolly in the Leitrim Observer after a late Niall Finnegan free saw Leitrim beaten by a point.
“We really were set up to win [Connacht] again,” team manager, the late John O’Mahony, recalled in 2015.
“I’ll never forget the six minutes of injury time against Galway and then Galway went on to hammer Mayo in the Connacht final.”
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In the meantime, things have changed utterly. A battling first-half performance and an eventual seven-point loss to Mayo on Saturday was, perhaps understandably given recent turmoil, greeted with near-glee by the home supporters.
“You’d have been hard pressed to know who had won Saturday’s Connacht SFC semi-final if you were judging the reactions following the final whistle - Leitrim fans were all grins, happy and buoyant,” Connolly wrote this time.
Since 1994, Leitrim’s record against the big three out west reads played 28, won one (the Connacht semi-final against Roscommon in 2000), drew one (2004 against Roscommon) and lost 26.
Ulster schedule out of kilter with old order
Munster hurling is booming, with unrivalled provincial pulling power – and it’s even impacting the GAA culture wars!
How? Well, critics of the split season have used falling attendances to bolster their argument. For example, Cavan and Tyrone recently drew less than 7,000 punters for an Ulster quarter-final whereas last year, they attracted 10,000 and in their previous two meetings, 2016 and 2005, for Ulster semi-finals, the crowds were 20,000 and 25,000 respectively.
Others have understandably held up the extremely well-supported Munster SHC as a rebuttal.
It’s interesting to note, though, the impact of the redrawn schedules on both competitions. Between 1999 and 2019, the Munster final was wrapped up by July 10th on 14 occasions; 10 times, it was over by the first weekend in July, with several finals in June.
Its new slot – last year the final was June 9th – is not that drastic of a change compared to what was once its football equivalent, the Ulster SFC, which will be completed by May 11th this year. That is as much as 10 weeks out of kilter with the old order and earlier than when it traditionally would have started.
League form is a precursor championship success
If you were looking for a reliable indicator as to football championship results this year, you won’t have gone far wrong with National League standings.
There have been 22 provincial football championship matches played to date. Of the 21 relevant fixtures (New York v Galway is excluded as the Exiles don’t play in the National League), on just a single occasion has a team been beaten by a side who finished lower in the final league tables.
And even that exception - Kildare defeating Westmeath – in a sense proves the rule as there was only one place between them, Westmeath finishing bottom of Division 2 (16th in the standings) and Kildare topping Division 3 (17th).
While there were obviously some mismatches, league placings held true in all cases bar that one, even in close-looking contests such as Wicklow (27th) v Longford (30th) and Laois (22nd) v Wexford (25th) in the Leinster SFC.
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“It just goes to show you, a seven-point lead is nothing any more whereas in the old rules, you were dead and buried.”
Down’s Ryan McEvoy found the net late on as his side rose again for a famous Easter weekend win over Fermanagh.
Stage set for intriguing handball finals
While the pitch at Croke Park was not used at the weekend, the National Handball Centre at the venue was packed, with the All-Ireland Senior Singles semi-finals taking place on Saturday.
The game of the day was the meeting of world champion Paul Brady and rival Robbie McCarthy of Westmeath. Brady, on the comeback trail, was well in control against McCarthy in last year’s final only to lose on an injury default.
This time, the Cavanman turned the tables, winning in a tense tiebreaker. In what is likely to be his swansong, the 45-year-old will meet Cork’s first-time finalist David Walsh, 20 years his junior, in the decider at HQ on May 10th.
The ladies final will be contested by two former champions in Galway’s Ciana Ní Churraoin and Limerick’s Martina McMahon.
Number: 2,512
Days since Offaly had previously competed in the Leinster SHC. Their final match prior to demotion was a 2-24 to 0-13 loss to Dublin; on their return, they lost 1-25 to 2-19 to the same opposition.
