A week of one high and two lows in Leitrim GAA

What a week that was for Leitrim sport with one incredible high that lifts  you  up sandwiched by two lows that can suck the life out of you. But I suppose that's the essence of sport - the difference between a pat on the back and a kick on the backside is probably about six inches.

I'll start with the high first - congratulations to Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins' on winning the Connacht LGFA Intermediate Club title last Saturday in Markievicz Park, a dramatic victory as the Leitrim women survived an onslaught from Sligo's Eoghan Rua to prompt wild scenes of celebration that I imagine carried long, long into the night around Ballinamore last Saturday.

If the explosion of joy that greeted the final whistle stood out, so too did the amazed admission from players and supporters afterwards that Ballinamore had ridden their luck against the Sligo side, hanging in there by the skin of their teeth before striking out for victory at just the right time.

I'm definitely not saying Ballinamore did not deserve their triumph, far from it - their resilience and spirit is the essence of sport, a refusal to bend the knee under severe pressure and the ice cold nerve of a killer to strike at just the right time. Many teams would have crumbled under the onslaught  but not O'Heslins and that is more than worthy of victory.

To be honest, winning against the odds without your county star and  surviving a barrage from the opposition is  the most glorious way to win -  Ballinamore lived right on the edge and that only heightens the emotion of the  experience, ensuring the words 'Markievicz Park' and 'Eoghan Rua' will immediately conjure up wonderful images for all those Ballinamore fans lucky enough to witness the drama in person last Saturday.

St Brigid's were on the other side of the coin a week before in the Junior Final. Like Eoghan Rua, they kicked a glut of wides leaving them wondering what might have been but that is the essence of the game - take your chances, confidence grows but if you don't, players become inhibited, nerves  grow exponentially and applying the killer touch under  mounting pressure is often the difference between victory and defeat.

Ballinamore were under the cosh for long periods but they seemed to revel in that pressure - that's the mark of a champion and while I left Markievicz Park mystified as to  how O'Heslins pulled it off, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised because that team is full of warriors and that is just as important as playing resources and skills when it comes down to the business end of the championship.

That steely will was forged by some heartbreaking defeats over the past three years but O'Heslins learned the lesson and learned it spectacularly!

Annaduff learned their own harsh lesson on Sunday  in Hastings Insurance Mac Hale Park against a Kilmeena team I'm fully convinced would give the Senior Championship in Leitrim a right rattle. No shame in losing to a better team as the Mayo men were simply operating in a different realm to a young Annaduff side loaded down with potential.

Tough though it was, if Annaduff can learn from Sunday's chastening defeat, it could well be the making of them in the years ahead. One of the few clubs in the county blessed with a burgeoning young population, Annaduff have put the right structures in place at underage level and are starting to produce a stream of quality young players that could go on to great things in the years to come.

That doesn't always follow but the lesson  from last Sunday can go one of two ways, either deflating your expectations or inspiring you to reach new heights. That's the question for Annaduff's young players to answer but if I know anything about that club, they'll certainly try to do that.

In fairness, Annaduff are the victims of circumstance - you can only beat what is in front of you and Joe Cox's men  did that in Leitrim but if we want to compete outside the county, we've got to raise the standard all over this county, but that's an argument for another day.

Raising standards seems, on the face of it, to be at the heart of the other low that afflicted Leitrim sport last week, the controversial proposal from Croke Park's CCCC to remove Leitrim, a Leitrim team who have won National and Provincial titles in recent years, and a few other counties from Hurling's National League, a decision that has been greeted with understandable fury by the small ball community all over the country.

Hard to see how you improve hurling by playing less games and that is what this plan proposes - I couldn't imagine Andy Moran's footballers trying to take on Sligo next year in the championship without a full programme of League football behind them.

Part of the plan calls for renewed efforts to develop the game at juvenile level and pumping money into underage hurling in Leitrim, Cavan, Louth, Fermanagh and Longford is welcome but, with no guarantees as to what finance will be behind that plan, you can understand why the hurling community all over the island are up in arms over this plan.

The suspicion is that the proposal is more of a cost-cutting exercise than a plan to develop hurling and if that is the case, well at least be up front about it. There is  genuine concern in GAA circles about the runaway train that is the cost of  inter county teams but the  same arguments  being applied to hurling's weaker counties can also be applied to football in those very same counties.

There is an urgent debate to be held on that very issue and reining in spending seems an almost Sisyphean task, rolling a boulder up a mountain eternally seems easier. Many counties are at breaking point and something has  to give  but rumours of threats to disband the county hurling team betray the very ideals of what the GAA is supposed to stand for.

Solving that riddle is not one I'd like to take on but hurling is the only truly Irish native sport, included by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and the sport has got to be protected and cherished. But the big point to remember is that  the GAA is not a financial institution and the bottom line can't be the be all and end all - if it was, we may as well give up on the football front too!