THE LAST POINT: Time for faith to be rewarded

Confession time here - I've been struggling to find a theme for this week's column. It's not that there isn't a shortage of topics to sink the teeth into but rather, how do I make sense of the four or five days championship action that encapsulated everything we've enjoyed and endured about Leitrim football in recent years.

The natural starting point is last Sunday in Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada, even if it was the last of three Leitrim games that ran the gamut of emotions last week. But it was also the game that most perfectly embodied everything we love and despair about when it comes to our men's county football teams, a potent mix that fills you with hope while, at the same time, ripping the guts out of you that a chance has been missed.

What struck me most after the game in Pairc Sean was the deep disappointment among the players, a regret that a glorious opportunity to get one over on a recent nemesis was spurned. While supporters, me included, were thrilled with easily the best display of the year, there was no back-slapping or  congratulations but rather dismissive comments about moral victories and this team certainly doesn't want that.

Part of me wonders if that is all part of the necessary self-delusion that all sports people possess - you don't step out onto the field of battle unless you think you're going to win but from what well did Leitrim's belief spring? Just eight days previously, Kildare stomped all over them down in Newbridge, winning by a mind-boggling 25 points while Sligo themselves put 22 points on the Green & Gold in the final game of a traumatic League campaign.

Yet out come Leitrim with an intent  in the sweltering heart of Pairc Sean and displayed an aggression and self-belief that Sligo were never able to shake off, playing with a focus that speaks of a team who believes deeply in themselves and their management and that, to my mind at least, is remarkable given the year they've endured on and off the pitch.

THE LAST POINT: WEE COUNTY'S STRUGGLES AN INSPIRATION

Of course, it wasn't perfect - poor finishing cost Leitrim big time down the final stretch but maybe it wasn't even just poor finishing, maybe it was the inexperience of a very young Leitrim side. Sligo captain Niall Murphy suggested that the Green & Gold might have been wiser to take their points late on, whittling down the Yeatsmen lead rather than going bald-headed for goals and it is a point well made.

From what I've learned from those on the field, Sligo were right on the edge of panic during Sunday's contest, Leitrim's resolute defiance upsetting their plans but Murphy, in particular, was able to steady his team, forcing them to concentrate on the task in hand and that knowledge and hard won experience from years in the trenches was enough to get Sligo across the line.

Truth be told, I shared the players' frustration because chances like last Sunday don't come around too often - it has been 14 years since we last beat Sligo in championship football and even over the last few years of titanic struggles, the best we've managed is a draw in a Tailteann Cup game we lost on penalties. But that sort of profligacy in front of the posts is not a new story for Leitrim, it has dogged us down through the years.

Maybe all it takes is one positive result - the Dubs could never beat the big teams before 2011 and now they're the epitome of cold-eyed assassins. I was over in Salthill on Saturday and that assurance that you will win a game was never better summed up when Tom Lahiff swivelled between the Galway lines to score the winner. Not many Dubs would have put money on the St Jude's clubman executing that shot but perhaps the team's culture meant Lahiff never had a moment's doubt he wouldn't score.

Kerry have possessed that trait in spades down through the years but perhaps all Leitrim need is just one breakthrough moment and new horizons will open up for them. Sounds fantastical doesn't it but the Minors did just that last Saturday while I was over in Galway, twice coming back from the dead with almost mythical two pointers from Senan McGowan and then winning a first ever penalty shootout for a Leitrim men's football team (the U20 hurlers did it last year to win the Andrew O'Neill Cup).

From what I've gathered, Down looked the better team for long periods and probably thought they had the game won at least twice only for Leitrim's indomitable spirit to see them refuse to bend the knee - that's the sort of stuff you try to instill in a team but it takes time and a bit of luck and maybe that is all Steven Poacher's team are missing.

Credit where credit is due, Steven Poacher and his management team are getting real buy-in from their players - more than once last Sunday, players, unprompted and spontaneously, talked of their belief in what the Leitrim manager is trying to incubate in this young team, a team with an average age of just 22 and minus a raft of injured players and those who have departed the scene after years of service.

You can't buy that - that faith in your manager, faith in the system and faith in each other. Players make teams, I've always believed that but a manager provides the framework and ambition that can get the best out of a team and I've seen plenty of Leitrim teams down through the years, led by managers with stellar reputations and great achievements that have lost the dressing room but that doesn't appear to be the case here.

One swallow doesn't make a Summer and losing a game you probably should have won seems like a weird hill on which to make a stand but if you consider that last Sunday was the first time Leitrim have led a game at halftime all year, the first time apart from the Mayo Connacht and Offaly League games that they had been had not trailed by nine points or more, then it seems that whatever about the general public, Leitrim's players believe in Poacher and his management team and that is all that matters.

THE LAST POINT: MENTALITY AS IMPORTANT AS ABILITY

Belief was evident, even in defeat, in King & Moffatt Hyde Park when Westmeath had just too much of everything for a Leitrim U20  team that promised quite a bit but probably didn't get close to delivering on its vast potential this year - and again, that's a strange statement since they brought home the Philly McGuinness Cup for the first time ever and a Cup is nothing to sneeze at.

Barry McWeeney's comments after the game about revamping the club scene echo a lot of points I've made down through the years, I wonder if the former Leitrim player will get much traction but at least, McWeeney is asking for the conversation and the least we can do is actually facilitate that conversation because there are things that are working and things that could be much better.

It is a theme all three Leitrim teams - Senior, U20 & Minor - have embraced in 2025. We all roll our eyes when we hear managers pontificate about 'projects' and 'visions' but be it Steven Poacher with the Seniors, Barry McWeeney and the U20s and Danny Beck and Ciaran Kennedy with the Minors, even Mike Wall with the hurlers and Shane Ward with the Leitrim Schools team, time is the most important ingredient for plans to come to fruition.

For their own sake, Poacher's team need a win and that won't be easy - Tipperary are a big powerful team who really put it up to Sligo & Kildare so despite the good vibes radiating from Sunday's display, nothing is guaranteed in the final Tailteann Cup game. And while you don't always get what you deserve, this Leitrim team deserves something to reward their faith after a tumultuous year.