Leitrim captaincy a huge source of pride for Donal Wrynn

It may be his second stint wearing the captain's armband but it was no less special for Donal Wrynn to lead out Leitrim last Sunday for the opening round of the Allianz NFL Division 4 campaign.

Leitrim scored a 3-18 to 0-11 victory over Waterford with Donal admitting his delight at taking on the role despite his new found status as one of the team's elder statesmen!

“Unfortunately, it has got to that stage now,” laughed Donal before adding “It is a massive, massive point of pride, it is a huge honour for me. My uncle would have played with Leitrim and I suppose it is a bit of tradition within the family but it is a massive honour for me to captain the team.”

Wrynn named as Leitrim Senior Football captain for 2023 with Diffley in as Vice-Captain

Leading the team a second time around, Donal hopes to learn from his first stint leading the Green & Gold: “Having been there before, definitely a bit easier. I suppose I’m a bit older now, probably matured a bit. It is easier in some ways and in some ways, it is not but I’m more comfortable in the role this time around.”

Next up is London and Donal is looking forward to renewing rivalry with the Exiles: “They had a good enough result last night in Wexford so they’re no joke. It will be a tricky enough one. We beat London last year in the championship, they beat us in the League so it is tit for tat and I don’t expect it to be much different next weekend.”

Leitrim turn on the second half jets to cruise past Waterford

LEITRIM 3-18 WATERFORD 0-11

The temptation is to believe there was a fair amount of roaring and shouting going on in the Leitrim dressing room at halftime but that was far from the case according to Donal Wrynn who said management emphasised a few tactical switches ahead of the second half.

“The first half we knew it’d be tricky enough playing against the breeze. Obviously we wanted to get the breeze and push on but we lost the toss. It was just important we stayed in the game, which we did, and we knew we had the legs on them, we have a lot of work done over the winter and we felt we were well capable of pushing on in the second half. I think we did a good job in fairness.”

So there weren't any tea-cups thrown at halftime as Leitrim trailed by a point? 

“Not really, some tactical switches and things like that but I think it was more controlled. We knew from the start of the game that we had to stay in it and we had the firepower to push on when we had the breeze on our back and we had the players to do that. 

“It wasn’t a case of throwing the toys out of the pram trying to sort things, it was nothing like that - it was nice and controlled, we were right in the game and it was just about pushing on.”

Reading the tea-leaves from The Dome

by John Connolly, Sports Editor

Donal was also delighted to see the impact of the young players on the field: “We’re still a young team but maybe maturing but a lot of youth in the team. It was great to see the likes of Paul Keaney coming in and kicking a few scores. A bit of experience, a bit of maturity around the place too but nice to see the young blood coming in.”

“We have a couple of injuries on the back of this game, Aidan is a bad one and we have to see what happened with Donal Casey. We’ll regroup tonight and see where we can go from here.”