Wee County's struggles an inspiration

Optimism is a tricky thing. If you ever wanted to see how emotions can wildly vacillate from one moment to the next, how optimism can turn into pessimism and back again with the kick of a ball, just imagine what Louth fans went through last Sunday in the Leinster Final, a day that started with bright optimism, descended into dread, lifted itself back into belief before yet more dread but, once the final whistle sounded, an outpouring of incredible joy.

Louth fans experienced the entire gamut of emotions - two quick fire goals punctured early Meath dominance but the Royal County endured, looking ominously powerful right up until Craig Lennon lit up Croke Park with a spectacular goal before halftime, a goal that brought the belief flooding back into the hordes of Wee County fans in Croker.

The second half must have felt like a torture for the Louth faithful - Ger Brennan's team is superbly drilled, brilliantly conditioned and obviously mentally strong but their style of play can be described as functional and efficient at best, not that I'd complain if Leitrim won the Nestor Cup playing the same way!

Inch by inch, Louth scraped and fought their way in front - at times, it looked as if they were going to blow it but when they went two up with about ten minutes to go, I thought 'they're about to finally do it', the Wee County finally lifting the Delaney Cup for the first time since 1958.

But, as any Dub will tell you, Meath are never dead and buried in a Final until you are in the dressing room with the Cup for at least ten minutes! Out of nowhere, the ball was pilfered, it looked like a foul on Sam Mulroy but as only they can, Meath reacted with a swiftness that evoked memories of Ollie Murphy slicing open opposing defences to find the net.

THE LAST POINT: MENTALITY AS IMPORTANT AS ABILITY

I'm sure I wasn't the only one who believed that Louth were dead and buried, another heartbreaking failure but no, there is a steel in this Louth team and they reacted as if they expected something like that to happen, simply going back to their gameplan to squeeze the life out of the Royal County.

True, they got a free that is best described as soft to edge them back in front but from them on, they strangled the life out of Meath, barely allowing them touch the ball apart from kickouts to end their Provincial famine and spark off celebrations that will probably continue for the rest of the year.

Why, on a weekend when Leitrim suffered probably their highest ever points concession in a championship match, do I spend so much time chatting about Louth? It is an historic victory certainly, a sentimental one absolutely, but what struck me was how much a devastating Qualifier defeat at the hands of Leitrim all of seven years ago was referenced by Louth players last Sunday.

Leitrim famously beat Louth in the Qualifiers in 2018, winning 0-25 to 1-12. It was only Leitrim's third ever Qualifier victory who remarkably hit 21 points from play! In the midst of all the Louth joy, that game in Carrick was referenced as a nadir so you can see why it caught my attention. Incredibly, eight of Louth's heroes last Sunday played in 2018 - in contrast, just two of the 21 Leitrim players are still with Steven Poacher's side, James Rooney and Cillian McGloin, and that gives you pause for thought when we start wondering why Leitrim football is struggling at the moment.

I'm not saying Leitrim can emulate what Louth are currently achieving, there is a big disparity in population and resources, but maybe, you hope that what Leitrim endured last Saturday in Cedral St Conleth's Park won't last forever.

I'll not sugar coat what transpired, it is hard to get away from a team registering 36 points! But it doesn't tell the full story as Leitrim, despite struggling terribly on the kickout, trailed the home side by just two points after 26 minutes. Of course, the warning signs were there but Leitrim were competing and competing well. Then it all went, for want of a better phrase, to hell! 

Kildare are one of those teams that can hit you with an avalanche of scores and either side of halftime, they buried Steven Poacher's team under a blizzard of scores that turned what was a competitive outing into a rout and this was where Leitrim's inexperience and youth, an average age of just 22, was cruelly and horribly exposed.

Leitrim were as much architects of their own implosion - misplaced passes and errors crept into Leitrim’s performance and were ruthlessly punished by the Lilywhites. A more experienced, even cynical, team would have had one of their players go down with a phantom injury, halting Kildare's momentum and giving Leitrim a chance to regroup, but Kildare's blitz was so sudden and so overwhelming that before anybody knew it, the game was gone.

This time last week, I was optimistic that Leitrim could build on what they had shown against Mayo and with good reason. That optimism looks foolish now, naive even but the cascading nature of the errors that afflicted the Green & Gold can be worked on and eliminated. Granted last Saturday was not as conducive, weather wise, to tying up the opposition in knots as Leitrim did against Mayo but the sheer chasm in physicality and power that the Lilywhites possessed was even greater that what we witnessed in the Connacht Semi Final.

Losing to Kildare is not a disgrace but the trouble is the 25 point winning margin leaves Leitrim desperately in need of positive results against Sligo and Tipperary. With scoring differences coming into play thanks to New York’s spot in the preliminary quarter-finals, a minus 25 points tally is an enormous handicap that can only be overcome by victories and that is going to take an incredible transformation.

Nobody was more stunned than the Leitrim players who looked shell-shocked after the final whistle - it was an awful come down after the optimism of the Mayo game and it will be doubly difficult to lift oneself again for the visit of Sligo next Sunday, another team that gave us a good trimming in the League.

I'll end with three shout-outs - one a general shout-out to the dwindling band of  Leitrim fans who made the journey to Newbridge, they were few and far between but the faithful diehards were there, probably knowing full well that Kildare would prevail but still supporting their county through thick and thin and if you'll forgive me, I'll mention two specifically, Mary Mahon and Ben Gilmartin who I had the opportunity to chat to in the bar in the fabulous new stand at Cedral St Conleth's Park at halftime.

THE LAST POINT: WHAT A CHANGE IN JUST 24 HOURS

Congrats also to Eilish O'Dowd on winning another Leinster title with Dublin last Sunday, scoring a vital goal when the Jackies were under immense Meath pressure in the first half. Dublin were four points adrift of the Royal women with a quarter of the game to go but hit eight unanswered points to work their way to their 12th Provincial title in a row and a third for the Ballinamore woman.

Of more immediate local interest is Dublin's victory sets up an intriguing battle of the sisters when Leitrim take on the Dubs in the TG4 All-Ireland series, Eilish facing not just her sister Laura but quite a few former club and county teammates  - should be an interesting time in the O'Dowd household in the coming weeks!

Finally, congrats to Gerard O'Donnell, head coach of the Irish 4 x 400m team who qualified for the Mixed and Women's relays at the world championships later this year in Tokyo. The Carrick on Shannon AC athlete guided two of the three Irish teams to Tokyo thanks to some skilful manoeuvring of his team line-ups while three of the athletes he personally coaches delivered big, big performances.