Wild Rose blooming did it
Writing in the Leitrim Observer during the week, sports editor John Connolly whetted the appetite for Sunday.
“This column was going to have the heading ‘Two into one won’t go’ as the ludicrous clash of Leitrim’s Men’s and Ladies teams next Sunday grows ever more absurd,” Connolly opened.
“But then, I mused, maybe we should be approaching this weekend in a positive frame of mind as both teams have a chance to make a serious statement.”
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In the event, the ladies were beaten in extra time in the Division 4 league final but the men recorded a memorable win over Sligo at Markievicz Park.
“Sligo,” Connolly noted magnanimously, “are a county that Leitrim considered themselves the equal of but they have moved a good bit clear of us in recent years.”
Before Sunday, Leitrim had recorded 19 wins from 73 championship matches this century, nine coming against London and New York.
The 2018 qualifier victory over Louth, relegated from Division 2, stands out but with a young side, this first win over Sligo in 15 years feels more significant, as the celebrations afterwards showed.
“When nobody expects them to produce something out of the ordinary, Leitrim do just that,” Connolly wrote – and how right he was.
Family ties in the Faithful County
Former Offaly county secretary Brendan Minnock produced the “Gaelic games wholesome fact of the week” on Twitter. Commenting on the Offaly Under-20 squad named for their clash with Meath, he highlighted a remarkable situation.
“You’d never guess what Andrew Hogan, Sean Carey, Patrick Lyons, Mark Mulrooney and Oisín Carroll from the Offaly Under-20 squad have in common ... Well, they are all great-grandsons of players on the first Offaly team to win an All-Ireland title – the 1923 Junior Hurling Championship!”
Incidentally, it was a bad week on the football front for Offaly, who fell to Laois in Leinster before 2,841 fans. The sides are no longer the draws they once were; when they met in Portlaoise for an All-Ireland qualifier 20 years ago, the attendance was 16,800.
Six goals but no fest at Pearse Park
Two majors apiece from Luke Loughlin and Brandon Kelly and one for Shane Corcoran helped Westmeath into a 5-9 to 1-8 lead at half-time in their Leinster Championship opener against Longford at Pearse Park and, at that stage, further green flags looked a certainty.
“There will be more goals in this game because Westmeath are just cutting through them,” RTÉ analyst and former Lake County All-Star Dessie Dolan, not unreasonably, suggested.
No doubt reporters were confident of reaching for the lesser-spotted “goal-fest” for their copy (for the avoidance of doubt, The Schemozzle’s rule of thumb is there must be at least seven goals to justify rolling out that beauty).
Alas, the goals dried up, with the visitors winning the second half by 0-16 to 0-7.
Laois add to trend buckers
In recent years, one fairly reliable indicator of early-round championship form has been league standings. Last season, for example, of the first 21 matches played in the football championships, 20 were won by the team ranked higher in terms of their final National League placing, with the exception being 17th-ranked Kildare turning over 16th-placed Westmeath.
This year, that trend has already been bucked after just one weekend as Leitrim (31st) beat Sligo (21st), Laois (20th) saw off Offaly (16th) and 27th-ranked Wicklow turned the tables on Carlow (25th), who had beaten them in the league.
In numbers
4-37: What Cork’s Katie Quirke, the top scorer in Division 1, landed in the Ladies NFL. Her 1-3 in the final helped the Rebels see off Galway with a late surge.
In words
“Yes, there are Tyrone people here and I’m very much one of them!” – Sean Cavanagh’s slightly pointed reaction on the wireless after Ben McDonnell’s equalising goal forced extra time against Armagh and belatedly brought the Red Hand fans to life.
