Maybe we all are the problem

It’s been a rough few months for those with Leitrim GAA in their heart and last weekend wasn’t any better as our County Minor and Senior footballers both suffered defeats that left me demoralised and despondent - and I’m far from alone in all this.

Both results were different and yet the same - Leitrim had opportunities to take control of the games in Markievicz Park and Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada but failed to do so, paying a heavy price as both Sligo and Fermanagh proved far more clinical in seeing out the games.

I'm not going to castigate young minor footballers who I'm sure will go on to long careers representing their club and county with pride but if we want to avoid what happened last weekend happening time and time again, we've got to ask some hard questions.

Tailteann dreams on a knife edge

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So as much as I was heartened by the fight and obduracy Leitrim brought to the party on Saturday, the overriding impression I took from the game was of the gulf in physical conditioning and sheer brute strength that Fermanagh possessed, qualities that Antrim used to good effect six days previously and the same qualities that saw Wexford run us down in the League game earlier this year in Chadwick’s Wexford Park.

The temptation, I’ll admit, to call down fire and brimstone, to castigate and blast all those involved in the two defeats, to, as I’m so often urged to by our own Green & Gold fans, to lay into -  in no particular order - the players, Andy Moran, the clubs, supporters, Connacht Council, Croke Park and, of course, the County Board.

Trouble with that approach is twofold - Leitrim were beaten, both in Markievicz and Pairc Sean, and Corrigan Park too, by the better team on the day! Did Leitrim have chances? Of course they did but the failure to drive home the stake into the heart of the opposition is not a new problem for Leitrim teams, nor is the apparent gulf in physical conditioning.

Understanding this means I’m seen as some “shill” for the County Board, afraid to rock the boat or challenge authority, one of the usual anonymous posters on Hogan Stand terming the Observer a mouthpiece for the powers that be. To be honest, I'll happily plead guilty on that score if that means acknowledging   that the problems afflicting Leitrim county teams go way beyond whatever manager is in situ right now or whoever is at the helm of the County Board. 

Easy to throw out accusations behind a username and make grand pronouncements and accusations here, there and everywhere about how to fix the problems in one easy go - if only it were that simple!

Sometimes I wonder if these faceless critics see what I see? Do they recognise the injury crisis ripping the heart out of Andy Moran’s senior team right now with Keith Beirne, Evan Sweeney, Ryan O’Rourke, Conor Reynolds, Jordan Reynolds, Donal Casey and Nevin O’Donnell all missing from the squad against Fermanagh? 

Do they acknowledge the loss of David Bruen, Micheal McWeeney, Shane Moran and Dean McGovern from the squad,  four almost definite starters were they available last Saturday? That’s half a team right there and while those players might not have solved the issues of physical power and know-how that beset the Green & Gold, it would have made a big difference on the field - that’s not an opinion but simply a fact.

Lashing out at Andy Moran or whoever wears a Leitrim jersey on any given day is both pointless and infuriating. I'm not saying that there aren't questions to be asked, genuine criticisms to be made, far from it, but  blowing off a bit of steam only works if you take last Saturday’s game in isolation and not as a continuation of a trend that has been there in plain sight for the past ten years.

Taken in isolation, you can certainly blame Andy Moran if you want or the Games Development Officers and administrator, the County Board or clubs if you wish but look at the record books and the  decline in our inter-county fortunes started around 2014 and accelerated since then. That decline coincided with some disastrous decisions that saw clubs  wholeheartedly embracing 9 and 11-a-side teams at underage level and a championship structure at adult level that greatly reduced its competitiveness.

For what it’s worth, here is my two cents - the standard of football, both at adult and juvenile level, is nowhere near high enough and the intensity of games, both physical and mental, to rise to the top in our fair county is not at the same level as our neighbouring counties.

Time to get back on the horse

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That’s not throwing shade at players or  clubs and certainly not at juvenile players but your standard is determined by what you need to overcome and if the standard has dropped, what you are producing for your county teams has got to suffer - a truism that if you want to be the best, you’ve got to raise your basic performance level, be it fitness or skills, and that starts with the club, first and foremost.  

Unfortunately I'm long enough in this job to remember a time when Leitrim clubs contested five Connacht Senior Club Finals in eight campaigns and that was when the population of this county was much smaller than it is today so it is not impossible to compete, even if the landscape of gaelic games, at club and county, has changed beyond all recognition in the intervening years.

Ten teams in a senior championship with only 23 clubs in the county is frankly  short sighted and self-serving. If I had my way, I’d almost cut it to six but eight is enough to increase the difficulty in winning a Fenagh Cup and I’d do the same at Intermediate and Junior level, cutting out the second teams and increasing the difficulty needed to get your hands on silverware.

I'm not beholden to one single idea, there are other suggestions that would undoubtedly work like amalgamations of Intermediate & Junior level clubs to compete at Senior level but I’d be open to explore different ideas and new ways to making life that bit more difficult so that when our players are exposed to football outside this county, then maybe they’ll have the tools to cope.

Fermanagh were streets ahead of us in terms of conditioning and physicality last Saturday but we can’t rely on the lack of population crutch  - the Erne county have 61,170 but with the religious and political divide up north, their numbers are more akin of what we have here in Leitrim so why the glaring difference?

It’s a drum I’ve been beating for years with predictable results,  accused of bias and being negative for the sake of being negative but I reckon I’m in pretty good company on that score with Terry Hyland copping a fair bit of flak for his observations on this exact issue.

The former Leitrim manager who, lets not forget, guided Leitrim to their only promotion in the League in the last 20 years, stated unequivocally that club football in Leitrim lagged well behind that of Cavan in terms of physicality and intensity - instead of taking on board what Hyland said and in echoes of the criticism pouring down on Andy Moran right now, the outgoing Leitrim boss was castigated for covering up for his own failures, nobody willing to examine the truth of what he said.

The curious case of Pep's City

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Carrick Town U14 Girls who were crowned Sligo Leitrim league champions 2023 for the second year in a row after going through the season undefeated in what was a very competitive U14 girls league. The girls' final game of the season will be the club's first ever Connacht Final when they take on Mervue United of Galway in the U14 girls Connacht Shield Final on Sunday, May 7, at Moyne Villa FC Sports ground in Headford, Co Galway at 4pm. (Back, from left) Katie O’Brien, Cait Keane, Roma Dowler, Orla Ryan, Ciara Walsh, Jane Hanrahan, Aisling Keaveney, Amy McKeon, Eibhlin Guckian, Lauren Dolan, Mona Lowe, Eabha Hennessy. (Front) Lily McWeeney, Vira Kozlova, Caragh Guckian, Lucy Maye, Anna Trench Winston, Katie McDwyer. Missing: Sophie Donohoe, Mollie Beirne, Michelle Moran

Clubs are right to champion their  own interests, I’ve no problem with that, but they’re also supposed to see the bigger picture but that has been consistently ignored for years now. Change is sometimes painful but ignoring the reality doesn’t make it go away, it only delays the inevitable.

Leitrim’s population has gone up dramatically over the past 20 years but it is concentrated in five or six areas with the rest struggling for numbers and if nothing is done, the competitive imbalances we witness today are only going to deepen and widen.

The one inescapable fact is that our County teams will get better when the raw materials being supplied to them is better. How we get there is up to us all but we can’t afford to stand still right now because if we do, we’re going to be left further behind!