Years don't dull County Final day drama

If the sense of anticipation course through my veins right now ahead of next Sunday's Connacht Gold Leitrim SFC Final  as I pen this column is anything close to what the players are feeling, then I don't know how they're going to get through the next few days with all their marbles intact.

Everywhere I go these past two weeks, all I get is “how's it going to go” and “who will win it” and that's from neutrals so it appears that I'm not alone when it comes to excitement about County Final day, the single best day in the Leitrim GAA calendar.

Whether they're involved or not, fans from all over the county will make the trek to Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada next Sunday to see who are crowned kingpins of Leitrim for 2023 and if there is a sense of the familiar with the pairing of defending champions St Mary's Kiltoghert and a Mohill team lining out for the fourth year in a row on County Final day, it doesn't lessen the anticipation - maybe it only increases it!

New beginnings and familiar tales

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Congratulations to Carrick-on-Shannon’s Mark Kelly who has recently won a prestigious prize for his photographic work on JRN (Junior Rowing News), one of the largest rowing media platforms in the world. Mark, a former rower himself, won the Professional Portfolio section with his photos from the Home International Rowing event at the Lough Rinn Regatta course seeing him scoop the prestigious prize. The above photo, entitled “Balancing Act” was one of a superb series submitted by Mark whose work has regularly appeared in the pages of the Observer - congrats again Mark!

I've written often about the phenomenon of “County Final Day” - how the occasion takes on a life of its own, how players become heroes and some heroes become villains and referees are never forgiven for whatever perceived errors they make. But as the years pass, even in this more cynical and worldly society we live in, County Final Day brings it all back to us just what the GAA means to communities all over this country.

Whoever wins next Sunday, the images and videos of their celebrations will be mirrored all over the country - St Loman's won yet another Westmeath title last weekend but their joy was not less than if they had won their first while I'm sure the extraordinary BallymacarbryLadies are celebrating a frankly astonishing 42nd County title in a row just as fiercely as their first after withstand an almighty scare last Sunday from Comeragh Rangers.

It wasn't the outright Senior Final for Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins last Sunday but after the heartbreak of so many losses in finals over the past four years, last Sunday's Gotham Dry Wall Senior B Final victory over an emerging St Mary's Kiltoghert felt all the sweeter precisely because of those defeats.

They say you have to lose one before you can win one and St Mary's will take those words to heart but their Ballinamore foes might not quite agree with that sentiment. But the experience of losing those games, even the words penned in last week's Observer preview of the game which were read out at a team meeting on Friday night, obviously armed O'Heslins players with a desire and ferocity that drove them to a long awaited and well deserved victory.

It's disconcerting when the impact of words you write are referenced back to you but the days of the “Observer curse” on County Finals is long gone - I don't know if that means we've got any better at predicting results or that teams aren't quite as superstitious as they used to be but most appear to accept previews for what they are - an opinion on how a game might turn out and that's all!

Do managers and players still seek to thrust the tag of favourites on their opponents and lessen expectations on themselves? Of course they do, they wouldn't be human if they didn't but in an age of information overflow and paralysis by analysis, it's hard to imagine any player or team getting carried away by what the Observer might write or what an opponent might say about them in the lead-up to a County Final.

Alex Ferguson's mind games were legendary and I can still remember the horror around Ballinamore when Olly Honeyman, a legend of Ballinamore and Leitrim football, confidently predicted before a Final that the defending champions would retain the title in 1991! The fact that Allen Gaels burst onto the scene to win their first ever Fenagh Cup compounded it all but Olly wasn't wrong - Ballinamore were the kingpins of Leitrim football and even now, over 30 years later, I can remember the shock rippling through Leitrim when the Drumshanbo men won it all.

You can't beat “The Big Mo”

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That Allen Gaels would go on to win four more titles, contest a Connacht Club Final and produce  some of the best club footballers ever seen in the county didn't lessen the shock as generations of players would run a mile before ever admitting they were confident of winning a match!

Maybe it is not so much that players have changed but the country. The Celtic Tiger brought many things, some good, some bad but it certainly imbued the citizens of this country with a brashness and self  confidence that was utterly alien to most of us back then. It could have been a legacy of a society that tended to cut down the tall poppy, a country that exported so many of its best and brightest all over the world for decades in search of work and almost looked down on itself as a consequence.

The Celtic Tiger brought out a brashness many lamented but even today, I wonder at the eloquence and confidence and self-awareness of the many players and managers I interview before and after games, a contrast to the mono-sylabic replies I used to get in my early days with the Observer - it was probably easier in those days to get through the Aughawillan defence than to get a prediction of victory from a team that went into every game  not just expecting victory but demanding it!

Yet Declan Darcy was one of the first I remember being straightforward about his ambition - interviewing him before the 1994 Connacht Final and even the All Ireland Semi-Final against the mighty Dubs, Leitrim's captain exuded a confidence that his teammates certainly felt but were reluctant to show.

Nowadays, it is common for players to declare their confidence of victory, albeit often with caveats that they fully respect the opposition and they know how hard it is going to be, but the right attitude and self-belief appears every bit as important as drills, defensive structures and attacking alignments for the modern day footballer, male and female.

Nerves and caution, understandable as it may be, undoubtedly play a part when players and managers talk before a big game - afterwards, it is a much different task with the joy of victory seeing words spill out at a mile a minute when trying to find words to describe the despair of defeat often feels like intruding upon some private grief.

Its that human drama, from one end of the spectrum to the other, that so enthrals me about County Final day and it is why I'm looking forward so much to the occasion because no matter who wins, there are some great stories to be told and a chance to write yourself into local folklore!

Think I'm overstating it? If anything I'm underplaying it because even now, 33 finals later, I can still remember Paul Kieran plundering two goals to snatch victory from the grasp of Aughawillan back in 1990 and I can still remember the annoyance I caused when I reckoned that Mickey Quinn was Man of the Match despite suffering defeat.

We're all champions of the world

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On foot of last week's column on America's NFL, I didn't expect to get a picture on Sunday evening all the way from the US of four Leitrim lads enjoying the action Pittsburgh's Acrisure Stadium last Sunday. Making me very envious, Gerry Gallagher from Aughawillan, Tom McCaffrey from Ballinamore, Austin Harkin from Drumkeerin and Sean McCaffrey from Chicago were cheering on the 49ers and they had a lot to cheer about as San Francisco demolished the Steelers 30-7

There have been controversies as much as deeds of daring do but the good and the bad are remembered in every parish up and down the country. Aughavas winning in 2000, Kiltubrid and Annaduff taking titles in 2004 and 2005 are still as vivid to me as the devastation still felt in Bornacoola and Fenagh St Caillins at missing out on the biggest prize of all.

It's why County Final day is so special but whatever happens next Sunday, you can be sure that the day will create memories in Mohill & St Mary's that will last a lifetime!