THE LAST POINT: Hold off on the panic button

Maybe it is a symptom of the times we live, the era of instant social media reaction, that we tend to react with wild extremes in this modern sporting world - a win is the best ever, the current star the undoubted greatest ever while a defeat or a sub par display are greeted with gnashing of teeth and the donning of sack cloth!

That seems to be the way of things when you read the autopsies on the reigns of Ruben Amorin at Man Utd, Chelsea's Enzo Maresca and the unfortunate Wilfried Nancy at Celtic who had the bad luck to take over just after Martin O'Neill had righted a sinking ship only for that vessel to promptly capsize under his stewardship in almost unheard of fashion.

In a familiar tale, we're now hearing of the behind-the-scenes machinations that saw Maresca, Amorin and Nancy depart the scenes. Of the sacked trio, you could say that only  Celtic's Nancy was locked in a downward spiral of results that looked impossible for the great Glasgow club to pull out of, resulting in many wondering what where the Board thinking when they appointed him.

When Amorin took on the United job, I happened to be on holiday in Portugal and any local I spoke to was only enthused by the idea of Amorim taking on the Reds, the feeling that the Portuguese man was more than up to the task of restoring glory to Old Trafford. 

Maresca, just a few months ago, led Chelsea to victory in the Club World Cup and the  UEFA Conference League and delivered a  Champions League place following a fourth-place finish and with the seemingly bottomless pit of players at Stamford Bridge, it looked ordained that success would come to the London blues.

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But perception can  change in an instant and managers who were heroes just a few weeks ago are now, with the benefit of hindsight, regarded as monumental errors - maybe that's part and parcel of professional sport, the bottom line, i.e. results, is all that matters and proof of the pudding in the annual “Black Monday” cull of coaches in America's NFL, six head coaches getting the chop just this week!

With all that being said, it is probably why I've always been a little reluctant to over-react, both positively and negatively, to any result of our County teams, taking the view that a season, a player or a manager can only be assessed with the benefit of time and careful consideration. That thought came to mind last Sunday after Leitrim suffered a trimming against Roscommon but, and here's the rub,  just going on the bald scoreline is a trifle misleading.

There was a small Leitrim crowd at the Connacht Centre of Excellence, understandable with the weather and the late change of venue from Elphin  albeit with a few diehards braving the cold wintry sunshine, but  from my admittedly limited encounters with Green & Gold supporters over the past few weeks, optimism seems to be in short supply heading into 2026.

First of all, I'm not saying that  there aren't  reasons for concern, particularly when you lose a game by 18 points but it isn't the first time Leitrim suffered a heavy beating in the FBD only to turn in a solid performance in the Allianz League just a few weeks later and unlike many of those days, this was far from a full-strength or even half strength Green & Gold outfit.

I'm not saying that to  diminish those who put on the Leitrim jersey last Sunday but, by my count, six current U20 players saw action as a very young team took the field but experience and physical maturity counts quite a bit. Even some of those who have a bit of experience are not long out of the U20 grade and they came up against a vastly more experienced, if also understrength, Roscommon team looking to make an impression.

That's the real story here  - Roscommon have the playing resources to field a physically mature and experienced team on a weekend when their   Senior and Intermediate champions St Brigid's and Strokestown were in All-Ireland Club action. And they didn't even have Enda Smith but they did have Diarmuid Murtagh who landed 2-3 in a deadly display.

I mention Murtagh specifically because the St Faithleach's man was a member of the Roscommon team that brushed aside the last Leitrim team to reach a Connacht U21/20 Final way back in 2014! James Rooney is the sole Leitrim survivor from that team - a statistic that brought  up a quite frequent comment last Sunday about the struggle Leitrim always endure in holding onto players from year to year  and building a culture and foundation for the future.

Granted, there were quite a few players watching the game along the sideline who would be first choice and there is an enormous Donal Casey sized hole in the centre of the defence with the Leitrim Gaels clubman out of action but Steven Poacher is not the first Leitrim boss to have to start almost from scratch at the start of the year.

In fairness, Poacher has a full pre-season behind his squad this year but the absence of a Barry McNulty, Ryan O'Rourke and Casey was complicated by the loss of the influential  Cillian McGloin barely a quarter into the contest. 

But looking along the sideline you saw McNulty, O'Rourke, Conor Reynolds & Darren Cox  from Annaduff, St Mary's Gavin Reynolds, Ballinamore's Michael McKiernan, Fenagh's Oisin McLoughlin, Allen Gaels Radek Oberwan and while you might not be knocking down the doors of the bookies to place bets, Leitrim aren't in that bad a place yet.

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There are, however, some curiosities - County Champions Leitrim Gaels had just one representative in the squad which, considering just how dominant they were in lifting the Fenagh Cup, is a curious phenomena. That, unfortunately, is not a new complaint with a revolving door of players  departing the squad over the years but that makes laying the foundation stones of the Leitrim Senior team all the harder.

If we're to read  into what is really just a glorified challenge match, it is the familiar refrain of the greater physicality of opponents - that's not an overnight fix but rather a product of years of work in the gym and on the pitch, building on what was done the year before and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the great circular hole Leitrim find themselves in.

I imagine Sunday was something of an eye-opener for Leitrim's young players but maybe that is the only way - platitudes are all well and good but when you see the reality of a Division 1 team up close and personal, it gives you a different insight into what is required in inter-county football.

Yet the simple fact remains that Leitrim won't face a team anything like Roscommon in Division 4 but playing the Rossies might open up the horizons of this young team. What I will say is that Leitrim never took a step back, even the new kids, and battled as if their lives depended on it -  you can build on that so maybe that's why I'm not reaching for the panic button!