THE LAST POINT: Not a happy first in Clonmel

Clonmel marked a first for myself and Willie Donnellan when we pulled into the Aldi carpark last Sunday afternoon beside the Clonmel Sportsground - a new venue for us to witness the latest chapter in the Leitrim football journey as Tipperary were the opponents in Clonmel's Sportsground. Unfortunately that chapter was more horror than fairytale.

It was a hell of a journey, passing through seven counties with stops to recharge the car's electric battery as well as taking on much needed sustenance. Conversation flowed - as most of you know, Willie is a great conversationalist and the topics were as varied as the landscapes that sped by us.

One topic that came up was the greatest opposition player we've ever witnessed against Leitrim - I immediately nominated Padraic Joyce with a mention for Peter The Great and while Willie agreed, he couldn't in all honesty not mention two Rossie legends in Dermot Earley and Tony McManus.

To pass the time, we took it upon ourselves to go through all the venues we've witnessed Leitrim teams play in. Croke Park, Pairc Ui Chaoimh, all the big venues in Connacht and quite a few in Ulster were joined by Wexford Park, the dreaded Echelon Park in Aughrim, Netwatch Cullen Park, Tullamore and many, many more.

We've been blown away by the Atlantic winds at Milltown Malbay, saw Leitrim teams  in hurling's legendary grounds of Semple Stadium and the Gaelic Grounds. We've been to Dowdallhill in Dundalk for a League game and enjoyed the revamped facilities in Newbridge, having endured the old set-up as well.

Inniskeen has a wonderful set-up, Willie remembers a hairy game in Scotstown that ended with controversy while Kingspan Breffni Park is a personal favourite.  Ruislip in London and New York's Gaelic Park are truly memorable experiences, not just for the matches but also to see what it means to the county's exiles to see a Leitrim team in action overseas. 

A few surprising ones crept into the list too - anyone remember Kerry facing Leitrim in Longford's Keenagh in Longford after Pairc Sean was washed out? Or what about Clonbur hosting a FBD League clash with Galway on a day when it rained so hard that the dugouts ended up being flooded?

Willie reckons that Kerry, Kilkenny and Waterford are the only counties he hasn't taken pics of Leitrim teams in. I worked in Kerry before joining the Observer but I've never witnessed Leitrim in the Kingdom, Kilkenny nor Derry but I have been to Fraher Field in Dungarvan, a fantastic facility with a unique seaside setting.

As I said, on a three hour plus journey, you desperately find new subjects to talk about and boy did we cover some ground on the journey there and back as Clonmel joined the list of venues myself and Willie were lucky enough to witness Leitrim play in - or maybe that was unlucky given the way the game turned out.

To be honest, there was a nagging sense that Tipperary were playing mind-games, switching the game from Semple Stadium. Thurles would have attracted a much larger travelling Leitrim support than the die-hards who did make the trip and the surface would undoubtedly have been in far better condition - although with the rain that fell over the last few weeks, that's no fault of anyone.

Part of me raged at the switch but  if Leitrim had the option to choose a venue that gave us an advantage, we'd have done the same with no qualms - any team will seek every advantage it can get and Clonmel, a town of nearly 19,000 souls, is right in the heart of Tipperary football territory.

Clonmel is their spiritual home - Moyle Rovers are just out the road and even The Nire, Waterford’s footballing kingpins, are across the river and up the mountain! Football is the game  and while the crowd wasn’t enormous, I’d imagine the Leitrim fans would probably have outnumbered the home support had the game taken place in Thurles.

But perhaps the biggest reason was one I hadn't considered, a purely emotional one - when Leitrim  played Tipperary last June, Philly Ryan was their manager and the tight-knit footballing community in the Premier County are still reeling from his untimely passing last October. Clonmel Commercials was his club and with the memory of that Tailteann Cup clash memory still strong in the players’ minds, Tipperary took the game to his home, a fact eloquently made by Steven O'Brien in interviews after the game.

Tipperary had motivation, chasing promotion as Leitrim were, but with the added emotional heft of Ryan's memory, it was no surprise to see Tipp players plough up and down the field like tireless terminators and that physical power, just as against Antrim, was the decisive factor on a day when strength and sheer pigheadedness counted for so much.

We endured the rain and wind in Pairc Sean against Antrim but this was worse - both Willie's camera and my notebook had to go onto the radiator to dry out when we eventually arrived home at 8pm, having left Carrick 11 hours earlier - suffice to say, conditions were brutally draining and I was just walking from the stand to the dressing rooms!

Nonetheless, we can’t overlook that it was the most disappointing display of Steven Poacher’s reign. The hammerings in Division 3 last year came with a caveat of the Down man’s late appointment and exodus of players from the squad but last Sunday was a tough watch for the Leitrim fans, particularly the first half that set the tone for the rest of the contest.

It wasn’t that Leitrim didn’t create chances - six two point attempts with the wind in the first half were missed but you couldn’t say that Tipp weren’t the best team and were it not for the heroics of Killian Gaffey twice denying Sean O’Connor certain goals, it would have been much, much worse.

But those missed chances with the wind summed up Leitrim’s day - nothing went right, the nadir when Eoin McLoughlin stumbled just when the Green & Gold put together a move that cut through the Tipp defence. That was just pure bad luck but when momentum goes against you, it just builds and builds and sometimes all you can do is put the game behind you and look ahead.

In those sort of conditions, the imposing size of the home side and their physicality were significant factors in the demoralising defeat, an advantage that was magnified on a heavy pitch and in dreadful playing conditions.

Let nobody have any doubt, it  did have an effect - chatting to two Leitrim players after the game, both spoke of how they felt their legs were gone after 20 minutes, so heavy the surface but they came around in the second half on a pitch that  suited the big diesel engines of the home side far more than the lighter Green & Gold.

I’m not going to rehash columns about patience and waiting for a Leitrim team to physically mature, we all know the harsh truth that it will take time but I also wonder if Leitrim were over-awed by the high promotion stakes as much as Tipperary were emotionally charged by the occasion.

Right now, we're struggling as we transition from a team that was built on the Minor & U21 teams from 2014. That is going to take time but the startling fact is that Tipp say they're in the same boat, replacing the heroes who led them to the Munster title in 2020, an All-Ireland Minor crown in 2011, an U21 Final in 2016 and another Senior Semi-Final but I guess we might call that first world problems!