THE LAST POINT: Leitrim enjoy their day in the sun

Burning sun so hot that it might fry an egg on the stones, if you had an egg, as a famous TV ad of the eighties once mused - yes  championship weather arrived with a bang last Sunday in Glennon Brothers Pearse Park and for once, Leitrim got to enjoy a day in the sun!

Not that it was a relaxing day mind you - a stubborn Longford clung on desperately to a Leitrim team who wasted enough chances to turn a nailbiter into an afternoon of enjoying the brilliant sunshine but I guess that's the life of a Leitrim supporter, nothing is ever easily won but when it is won, by God it is won.

Leitrim and Longford have a strange kind of rivalry - we share a pretty long border along Bornacoola, Gortletteragh, Cloone, Aughavas and Carrigallen but being in different provinces, there is not quite the same depth of feeling there is with the Rossies or the Yeatsmen or even the Breffni Blues, but maybe it is returning.

When I first joined the Observer, Longford and Dessie Barry were a team to emulate - the rise of PJ Carroll's team and then John O'Mahony's side saw us leave our neighbours somewhat in the shade but as the years have passed, we've been enviously looking at what Longford, clubs and county, have been achieving, their latest feat a Leinster Minor Football Championship Final victory  on Monday against the Dubs!

More often than not, when Longford and Leitrim football is mentioned, it is what we should be learning from our neighbours. It is not as if we haven't tried with Padraig Davis, Tommy McCormack, Denis Connerton and Liam Keenan all tasting  glory in the championship in Leitrim while we've often wondered how it is that Longford, with similar resources and population, seem to punch far above their weight compared to Leitrim.

THE LAST POINT: DEALING WITH GREAT EXPECTATIONS

With a record of defeats in Glennon Brothers Pearse Park going back almost 30 years, that is why winning Sunday's Tailteann Cup clash was so important for Leitrim. Yes there was the prize of a guaranteed home advantage for at least a preliminary quarter final but more importantly, an opportunity to lift Longford's boot off Leitrim's neck and make a statement about where Leitrim football is heading. 

Now, it wasn't a definitive statement - Longford, under a cloud and seemingly not pulling great together, came very close to rescuing at least a point but maybe that elevates the victory because it shows the levels Leitrim need to reach, a lesson our Minor footballers again had to endure when Sligo again beat them by a point last Friday in the Connacht Minor Shield Final.

That those Minors are the match of their Sligo counterparts is obvious but a few absent players and maybe lacking the belief that seems to course through the Yeatsmen makes a big difference at Minor level - it makes a big difference at Senior level too and you can never tell what one victory might do for a generation of Leitrim footballers. Hopefully this Minor team can do something in the All-Ireland C championship, starting off next Sunday against London and you never know what it might start.

That's exactly what Andy Moran is hoping for - Kildare are up next and it might be time to take another hard decision with a view to the longer term. Only a win would see Leitrim leapfrog into the quarter-finals proper but the schedule of games in June is quite astounding with preliminary quarter finals, quarter-finals proper and semi-finals on consecutive weekends after the final round over June 1-2.

That's a tough schedule to negotiate even for a buoyant team on a run so you wonder do we go at Kildare ball-headed or maybe hold something back for a preliminary quarter-final? It calls for hard decisions, ones I'm not qualified to make but ones that are often second guessed afterwards, in the way that the decision to hold Barry McNulty and Jack Foley for the U20 side also caused division.

I suppose hard calls were evident in Pearse Park as Liam Devenney did what few referees ever  manage to do and that was to  unite both sets of fans in complaining about his performance. Did the Mayo man get some decisions wrong? Of course he did, the same way Leitrim and Longford players kicked some terrible wides or made mistakes.  I wonder if our Green & Gold  partisan blinkers  obscure that Devenney did exactly what fans have been pleading for for years - he let the game go, facilitating a physical contest with good old fashioned physical contact!

I'll agree the whistle should have sounded for fouls on Ryan & Riordan O'Rourke and Jamie McGrail in particular but I'd also agree that Longford should have had a chance to equalise from a free as he played advantage deep into added time, blowing the long whistle as the home team still thought they had advantage.

 But here's a thought for you - had the match official awarded a free for what everyone felt was a foul on Ryan O'Rourke when he was double teamed by two Longford defenders, Leitrim would have lost the game! A free would almost certainly have been scored but by allowing play to continue, Longford lost the ball, Riordan O'Rourke's shot fell short and Barry McNulty blasted to the home team's net from close range - that's a two point swing there and then, the difference between victory and defeat, the difference between a home tie in the preliminary quarter-finals and an away trip for the Green & Gold!

It is that sort of championship and why coming out on the right side of a titanic struggle is so important for the development of this team so let's see where the Summer takes us.

THE LAST POINT: LEITRIM'S WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS

Finally, I want to finish by offering the sympathy of the Observer staff to the extended O'Rourke family on the sad passing of Vincent O'Rourke over the weekend. A man immersed in Gaelic games at club and county level, Vincent was also elected as the first chairperson of the Leitrim LGFA County Board and his family have followed his lead, deeply involved in gaelic games at all levels with Vincent Junior serving on the County Board's Management Committee  and Secretary of the Leitrim CCC. 

His grandsons Ryan and Riordan honoured their granddad in a way that would have brought a smile to his face by playing key roles in Leitrim's victory over Longford last Sunday while another grandson, Ruairi, came on as a sub for the Minor team in Friday's Connacht Minor Shield Final in Ballinamore. To the entire O'Rourke clan, we offer our deepest sympathy on their great loss. May Vincent Rest In Peace.