THE LAST POINT: What a weekend of drama & glory

When you get a phone call first thing on a Monday in this job, your initial thoughts are 'oh no, who is giving out to me now'! So you can imagine the welcome surprise I got when all the person on the other end of the line wanted to do was dole out what they felt was some justified praise for some young footballers.

Gretta O'Neill, daughter of the great Ned Dolan who was a member of the immortal 1927 Connacht Senior Championship winning team and one of the first Leitrim players ever to don the Connacht jersey, was the voice on the other end of the line and the subject was the Dolan Cup Final last Friday evening in Kiltubrid.

Given the drama and the quality of football we witnessed in Ballinamore over the weekend and in Cloone, Mohill & Drumshanbo, it is some statement to say that Friday's Newtowngore Engineering U17 Division 2 Final might just have been the best of the lot in a game that had everything - played at an incredible pace, wonderful scores, high fielding to beat the band and two teams that went out to play quality football.

Gretta felt the imperative to compliment both  the St Patrick's Dromahair and Rinn Gaels teams and their management teams for what they served up. It was, she said, a wonderful advertisement for all that was good in Gaelic football and as one of the lucky spectators, I found myself in full agreement with Gretta.

It is a sentiment that could be applied to Saturday's Connacht Gold Senior Final as well - the unfortunate clashes between games over the weekend meant I missed the Senior & Junior Ladies Finals and the Junior Men's decider but I know from chatting to Eoin Gallagher that the two Junior Finals were immensely entertaining affairs.

THE LAST POINT: A TALE OF TWISTS & SLIPS

Saturday's showdown in Pairc Sheain Ui Eslin will live long in the memory - not just because Mohill won their first ever back to back Senior titles or that the Final was decided by the first ever penalty shootout in a Leitrim adult championship final but mainly because what we witnessed would not be believed unless you saw it yourself in the flesh.

Mohill and Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins went toe to toe, almost as if it was a heavyweight world title fight, trading blows, each delivering what looked like a fatal knockout blow only for the other to get back up off the canvas and hit right back. I got it wrong when I opined last week that the replay would be a dour affair after the exhilaration of the drawn game but if anything, Saturday was better!

Ballinamore didn't do a lot wrong but it was obvious from the get-go that Mohill had absorbed a lot of lessons from the drawn game - their ponderous approach play vanished as they attacked with speed and intent, their midfield dominated and their defence was miserly. Yet they couldn't quite kill off the indomitable spirit Ballinamore possessed and, just like the drawn game, they were damn lucky to salvage a late draw.

There'll be regrets in the O'Heslins camp, chief among them that they had the winning of both games in injury time at the end of normal time but a slip here, a misplaced ball there and Mohill grabbed their lifejacket with  the urgency of a drowning man. It is a true measure of the resilience in this Mohill squad.

Penalties are a cruel way to decide any contest but no matter how this one was decided, it was going to sting for the losers. I'm one of the few on record stating I don't mind penalties and for all the complaints, I can't imagine what it would have been like asking both sets of players to come back for a third installment, given the energy already expended, the constraints on their time and personal lives and the mounting injury toll on both teams - player welfare has got to be more than a buzzword, you have to back it up.

Cruel as penalties seem to some, it pales in comparison to what Allen Gaels suffered at the hands of an indefatigable Melvin Gaels in Sunday's Smith Monumentals IFC Final in Ballinamore - entering the last minute of the sixty, Jake Tobin bore down on goal only for man of the match Kevin McGloin to make a wonder save to keep Melvin Gaels' deficit at an imposing eight points.

What transpired after defies belief as Shane McGloin, Liam Ryan and Gary Clancy plundered three goals  to take the title back to Kinlough, the sort of turnaround that leaves you gobsmacked, bewildered and astonished and ranks right up there with the most fantastic finishes to a county final we've ever seen. Not even the most die-hard Melvin Gaels fan could believe it but credit their resolve and never-say-die spirit - when their chance opened up, they took it in devastating fashion.

Unfortunately, not everything in Ballinamore was quite so inspiring as the managers of both Mohill and Melvin Gaels received straight red cards for incidents involving match officials. I'm not going to go into the nitty gritty of either incident, I'm sure there will be disciplinary proceedings coming down the line but both incidents took a bit of the gloss off a famous day for both Mohill and Melvin Gaels.

Emotions run high in the heat of battle, antics on the sideline can get out of hand - haranguing the referee over every decision may be a ploy to influence the course of the game but it wears thin. Running down the field to celebrate in the face of your rival fans and bench might be a spur of the moment thing but it lacks a graciousness so at odds of what we think sport represents. 

THE LAST POINT: YOU CAN'T BEAT AN INJURY TIME WINNER

But there is a line that shouldn't  be crossed and that is interfering with match officials - no matter what wrongs you believe have been done to you, it is completely unacceptable and should be condemned by all as such.

I'll end by congratulating  the winners and wish them good luck in Connacht  - five in a row for Glencar Manorhamilton Ladies may be the standout achievement of an incredible weekend but in saluting the winners, hard not to think of the Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins, St Joseph's and Allen Gaels camps at the moment. 

Cruel to lose on such tight margins but given what I know of those clubs, hard not to see them coming back with renewed ambition in 2025. And that is something we can all look forward to with genuine excitement.