Focus turns to championship for Leitrim Mens and Ladies teams

After League campaigns that both teams will want to forget in a hurry, focus now turns to the Connacht Senior Championship for both the Men's and Women's teams with Steven Poacher's side set to find out who their semi-final opponents will be next weekend.

Leitrim will take on the winners of next Sunday's first round clash between Mayo and Sligo in Hastings Insurance Mac Hale Park with the semi-final fixed for Saturday April 19.

If Mayo win, the new surface at Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada will host its first game while a Sligo win would see the Green & Gold return to Markievicz Park, the match live on the new GAA+ streaming platform regardless of who Leitrim will face.

For Jonny Garrity's Ladies squad, they must put the disappointment of last Sunday's Lidl Division 4 Semi-Final loss to Antrim behind them as they face both Mayo and Galway in a round robin provincial series - Leitrim travel to Mayo on Sunday April 27, with the Green & Gold hosting last year's All-Ireland Senior finalists Galway on Saturday May 3.

For Leitrim, it represents a difficult and somewhat unique challenge after failing to escape the League's basement division before coming up against two of the powerhouses in the Ladies game, a fact that their manager acknowledged after their 5-8 to 3-10 loss at the hands of Antrim last Sunday in Kingscourt.

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“As much as we are a division four team in the League on merit, we are a senior team on merit because we beat the best of the second tier, and now we get the fruits of that labour,” Garrity told the Observer, “We will embrace the challenge, we know it is a huge challenge, but we know that on any given day, that forward line is going to hurt any defence of any county in Ireland.”

Next weekend also sees the Connacht Men's SFC get into full swing with defending champions Galway travelling to Gaelic Park in New York to take on the Exiles next Sunday  while beaten Allianz NFL Division 2 finalists Roscommon are also on the road, heading to McGovern Emerald Park in Ruislip to take on Saturday afternoon.