Graham hopes Leitrim players remember Croke Park hurt to drive them on in future

Deeply disappointed that Leitrim’s players didn’t show their true worth, Mickey Graham urged the Green & Gold players to remember the hurt they endured on Saturday evening in the Allianz NFL Division 4 Final to drive them on in the future.

Speaking after the 3-14 to 0-9 loss, Leitrim’s selector admitted he was baffled by what had occurred: “Very disappointed to be honest, there is no other way to describe it. The lads themselves are really down in themselves, they know they are better that what they showed there today - that wasn’t the real Leitrim team. 

“I think a lot of it was down to our own doing, we just forced too many turnovers, got caught in contact and gave them energy every time we did that. We talked at halftime about keeping the ball better, working our shots way better, trying not to force things but we just seemed to keep doing it for some reason whether it was the occasion or whatever it was but yeah, just disappointed for the lads because they are better than they showed there.”

Indeed, Graham hopes that the hurt will inspire Leitrim’s players in the future: “I hope the lads remember days like this because it is not a nice feeling when you’re sitting in a dressing room after losing a final and maybe the next time they get back here, please God in the near future, maybe they will learn from this.”

The former Cavan manager echoed the words of Andy Moran when pointing to Laois’ physicality but also pointed out that perhaps Laois weren’t as switched on in Portlaoise two weeks earlier as they were in Croke Park: “As I said at the time, when we played them two weeks ago, Laois were as good as promoted so probably didn’t have that same intensity that you require when you’re fighting for promotion and we had it. 

MCNULTY SURPRISED BY LAOIS MARGIN OF VICTORY

“But they learned a lot from that but physically wise, you could see they are a year or two ahead of us as well. It is a good learning curve for the lads because they are going up to Division 3 next year and the higher you go up, the more physicality teams bring and you could see that today, their physicality was a lot better than ours. 

“But as Andy says, we’re only three years into the process but that takes a lot of time to get up. It is an indicator of where we need to get to.”

Leitrim have a quick turnaround with Sligo next up on Sunday in the Connacht SFC and rather than seeing it as a handicap, Mickey believes it may serve Leitrim well: “There is nothing like having something to focus the mind on - if it was three or four weeks’ time, you have a lot of time to think about it. 

“We just have to dust ourselves down, there is nothing we can do about it, it is done and dusted, it is over. We just have to lift ourselves, get back training on Monday morning and focus on Sligo because there is still a lot of football to be played.”

Nevertheless, Mickey knows the task that awaits the Green & Gold on Sunday: “Sligo have a lot of work done, they started this process a few years ago and you can see it, there is great work being done at underage structures and it is starting to bear fruit at Senior level. I saw them first hand when I was with Cavan, they are a serious outfit, some real quality footballers.

MORAN HIGHLIGHTS LAOIS PHYSICALITY AFTER DIVISION 4 FINAL DEFEAT

“You saw them there last week when they beat a good Westmeath team. They are a team on the rise and a team for the future as well. We’re under no illusions about how tough a game it is going to be - it is about how we recover and how we get fixed up, get a performance next week and putting that disappointment behind us.”