THE LAST POINT: Patient work starting to bear fruit

As Hannibal Smith of the A-Team used to say, I love it when a plan comes together, so first and foremost, congratulations to all those who drove the decision to revamp underage structures in the county, a decision that ultimately led to the County winning the Fr Manning Cup last Saturday.

To some, that will seem like a stretch but when the first three of the county's four successes in this prestigious competition that celebrates its 60th birthday next year came in a 15 year spell between 1975 and 1990, you've got to ask what happened over the past 34 years - the Green & Gold not even appearing in a decider until last year when Longford, a Longford team who went on to win this year's Leinster Minor title, pipped Leitrim with a late goal.

Back in those halcyon days, underage football in this county was organised on a 'Towns' and 'Rural' basis with games at 15 and 13-a-side and the Special Leagues thrown in at the end of the year for clubs not able to field in those competitions. Whatever else it did, that structure seemed to prepare the young footballers of those eras much better for adult club and county football.

Consider the facts - four years after winning the Fr Manning in 1987, Leitrim won the Connacht U21 title in 1991 and contested the Minor decider. The 1975 success may not have had a direct impact but the county's first U21 title followed in 1977 as the competitive structures produced footballers operating at a more competitive level and it showed on the field.

I don't know if last Saturday's victory will have the same impact, not even Nostradamus can predict that but on the back of last year's Humphrey Kelleher success and far more competitive displays from the County Minor and U20 teams in recent years, the graph is trending upwards and that's down to often unpopular decisions that are now bearing fruit.

THE LAST POINT: THE DAWNING OF A NEW AGE

Safe to say, the decision to do away with 9 and 11-a-side underage competition was not universally welcomed - some still hanker for those days, citing research about touches and small sided games as vital for the development of a player's footballing skills - points that are all true but that neglect to mention that all those small sided games take place on pitches far shorter and narrower than what games are normally played on.

The approached leads to a few easy  county titles but the sight of a good full-back, a good midfielder and one good attacker running up and down a full sized field in 9 & 11-a-side games did little to develop game's based skills,  understanding or the ability to pass the ball accurately under pressure - it may actually have hindered quite a few clubs who are now struggling to field at adult level.

The decision to switch back to 15 and 13-a-side  in 2017 was not easy and I fully understand  a club's desire to field their own teams at underage level, to protect their identity, but the proof is there, plain to see - we're seven years into the change and our County underage teams are better, considerably so, and that is only to the betterment of club and county.

One of the apparently fun activities of 'fans' in recent years has been to castigate the Leitrim Games & Coaching Development set-up on social media, slamming both coaches and officials in often quite brutal terms, pointing the finger for Leitrim's woes at adult level at this body but it is that group of dedicated coaches and officials who have been behind most of the reforms in underage football in the county over the past ten years.

Do they get everything right? Certainly not but then nobody does -  and most of the reforms that have been introduced, again I must stress in the face of strong opposition, have been a success and that is to their credit. Are there still areas that need work? Of course there are and the fact that there are only four teams contesting the Division 1 U15 championship this year, no matter how impressive those teams are, can't be good for the development of football in the county.

I'll stipulate certainly that comparing the wins in 1975, 1987 and 1990 is difficult to this year's triumph - back then the Fr Manning was restricted to six counties and in Westmeath, Offaly, Longford, Roscommon, Leitrim and Sligo, it was the premier competition that every county aimed for. Nowadays, the structure of underage development competitions is somewhat more varied with the big counties divided up into geographical areas like South Kerry and Galway City West who Leitrim beat on their path to the final.

There are now five U16 competitions with the counties divided and graded between them and the emphasis is on development - 34 years ago, winning the Fr Manning Cup was an end in itself but now, the emphasis is quite rightly on bringing through players for Minor (U17) and U20 level.

THE LAST POINT: CARPE DIEM THE ONLY IMPERATIVE

Hopefully, Saturday's success will herald a new era for Leitrim - Daire McCabe, Gearoid Curley, Conor Reynolds, Jack Prior, Cillian McWeeney, Karl Gethins, Senan McGowan and Scott Kerr all saw game time with the County Minors this year but they'll face a full strength Galway next year and the Tribe will have the motivation of Saturday's defeat to drive them on.

It is not that I'm being defeatist, far from it but I'd prefer not to heap pressure upon young footballers, some of whom may well be sitting exams next year. But what Saturday's win will do is open new horizons for a group of players who are driven and ambitious and that can only be good for the game.

This ambition needs work that takes time and it also takes vision and, I suppose, the work is never finished but it is only right that we dole out the credit when credit is due - criticism is never in short supply when things go wrong so, in so far as the players and management take the lion's share of praise,  take a bow the Leitrim Games & Coaching Development set-up, it is well deserved.