Harsh lessons now may yet bear fruit

Where to start this week? The obvious starting point is Leitrim's exit from the TG4 LGFA All-Ireland Intermediate Championship last Sunday at the hands of two time finalists Wexford but even within that, there are  different stories and themes to be explored and teased out - so where to start is the question?

The protests sweeping both Ladies football and camogie is one you can get your teeth into and Leitrim and Wexford players stood arm in arm for the National Anthem in Chadwicks Wexford Park, reflecting the obvious ire among their ranks over inaction on the issue of equality of treatment.

But  it is an issue that deserves far more detailed discussion than to be squeezed in along with any  analysis of Sunday's game but rest assured, I'll be returning to the topic because it is one of those uniquely Irish conundrums that features  both right and wrong at one and the same time.

A strange evening in Drumshanbo

THE LAST POINT

What about the lack of support for a Leitrim team in an All-Ireland Quarter-Final? The diehards that made the journey down to the sunny south east  deserve nothing but the highest praise but those supporting the Green & Gold were predominantly  friends or family and that is kind of depressing.

Believe me, I know all too well that you can't make people support a team but it is hard to reconcile the Leitrim crowd that went down to support Andy Moran's team last February against Wexford with the diehard few that have supported the County's Ladies footballers or even the hurlers who have both reached League Finals this year!

In fairness, it's not just Leitrim teams that suffer - one Wexford scribe was telling me that a Ladies Club football final would only attract about 500 spectators in a county that has appeared in the last two All-Ireland Finals while a Club Camogie Final would have at least 2,000 fans at it.

Ranting and raving about it won't change people's minds and the journey up and down to Chadwicks Wexford Park isn't a short one so I  can understand the reluctance. But I'd imagine if the Men's team were  playing Waterford in Timbuktu or playing  some pre-season game off in wildest Connemara, you'd have had more Leitrim fans there than the entire attendance that was in Wexford Park last Sunday.

It's got to be disappointing for Leitrim players who have, in 2023 alone, contested a League and Provincial Championship Final and reached the knockout stages of the All-Ireland championship.  The Men's team are also in the basement division and competing in a secondary championship but fans have no difficulty travelling to the four corners of Ireland supporting Andy Moran's troops - it is baffling to say the least.

Yet for all that, the deepest disappointment has got to come from the sense that the Ladies put themselves  within touching distance of glory this year only to fall short. In the League Final, Leitrim twice cut the gap to three points, in the Connacht decider the Green & Gold took the lead after halftime and last Sunday, the scores were level at the break yet in each game, the opposition took control and then victory.

Antrim are  proving their class since then and I wouldn't bet against them when they face Clare in the  All-Ireland Semi-Final the next day out. But the Division 4 Final was still a game the Green & Gold  expected to win and even Roscommon's woes in the All Ireland series can't hide the fact that they were convincing winners in the Connacht Final.

Looking back to last Sunday, it feels much the same - Wexford were just that bit better, even if Leitrim put them to the pin of their collars to emerge with a victory.

We need both the chicken & the egg!

THE LAST POINT

Just how much home advantage and Wexford's comfort with a possession based game played in their victory is impossible to quantify - the same Wexford scribe told me the Model County are much more accomplished against the wind so when Leitrim went in level at halftime, I was certainly worried that the second half wind advantage wasn't going to play out as we hoped.

As much as Leitrim  fought and harried and ran themselves to a standstill on the superb surface in Wexford Park, Wexford always looked to have that little bit extra -  Wexford had 12 wides or balls dropped short to just five from Leitrim which maybe gives a better indication of how the game flowed.

Truth be told, I can't pinpoint one wasted opportunity that might have made the difference and that is hard to take. You can certainly point to the fortunate bounce Wexford profited from when Charlene Tyrell's block on a Chloe Fox's shot went straight to Ciara Banville but the Wexford midfielder soloed in 20 yards before unleashing a shot to the roof of the Leitrim net for her team's second goal.

If anything, the dogged refusal of Leitrim's players to meekly surrender kept the game much closer than it probably was  - nothing to be ashamed of when you lose to a better team and Wexford were just that little bit better, the only shame is in not trying and judging from how hard the Leitrim players chased and ran, they fought as if their lives depended on it.

That's not to say everyone was happy, with a few of the  fans  unhappy with the team selection and switches that were made on the day but that's  the beauty of sport - we don't always agree on who should play or where and when. Would I have made different decisions? Probably, but then I don't see these players in training week in, week out and  I don't have to come up with a plan to tie it all together. 

It wouldn't have taken much for Leitrim to sneak a result last Sunday, it would have been against the odds but they were hanging in there right to the end. Yet the manner in which Wexford kept a hold of the ball for over seven minutes at the end of game, not even giving Leitrim a hint of a chance, suggests there was just that little bit more quality in the ranks of the home side.

Do we really know what we want?

THE LAST POINT

For all that, it is ultimately a disappointing year - the talent is undoubtedly there but you wonder what difference  a Muireann Devaney, Aine Tighe or Dearbhaile Beirne might have made. It's  easy to pluck names from the air but the reality is that scoring has not been Leitrim's weak point, it's keeping the scores out and winning enough possession that has hit Leitrim hardest in my opinion.

Clare Owens, Mary Alice Maguire, Ailish Cornyn, Sharon Kerrigan & Sinead Tighe were all mainstays of the defence over the past four or five years and replacing that  quality isn't easy. But it is the next step, so as tough as it has been at times this year, the harsh lessons learned  by a young defence, players of real potential,  will hopefully stand to the Green & Gold in the years to come.