THE LAST POINT: Grading Leitrim’s 2026 far from an easy task
THE LAST POINT
We’re nearing All-Ireland Final time and the end of the inter-county season, a time of the year full of giddy excitement and glorious anticipation for those lucky enough to reach Croke Park on Final day and sorrowful, almost painful introspection for the teams who lost out at the penultimate stage while everyone else looks on enviously and already starts planning for 2027 and what they are going to do different.
If it seems very early to be talking about reviewing the past inter-county season for our Green & Gold inter-county teams, consider the words of Cork manager Ben O’Connor in the aftermath of Saturday’s demoralising All-Ireland Hurling Semi-Final second half collapse against Galway, where he spoke of the Rebels meeting up three or four times a week since last September in advance of the 2026 season. Two things leapt out for me from that statement – so much for the ban on inter-county training during the club season and, second, the inter-county season simply doesn’t stop!
Now, maybe the early start was down to O’Connor being a first year manager and he was trying to put his stamp on the Rebels but this was a Cork team who had reached the All-Ireland decider a matter of weeks earlier, so fitness wasn’t an issue, nor strength and conditioning given the way they had beaten Limerick and a few other counties to reach the Final. But it does back up Steven Poacher’s assertion a few weeks back when Wexford ended Leitrim’s Green & Gold campaign that the hidden, unglamorous work that goes in with all inter-county teams doesn’t stop just because the season ends.
So in that spirit, and now that enough time has passed since our three adult inter-county teams ended their official season, I thought I’d take a look back at the season, not so much at the minutiae of the actual results but more a general sense of how the season went: was progress made, what was the vibe come the end of the season and maybe a stab at predicting what might happen next year, as fruitless as that often is.
Starting with the team most recently in action, the Ladies achieved the vast majority of their goals and any season you win promotion in the League and win a Connacht title is a good one. Yet, on the back of the shock loss to Roscommon just a few weeks ago, there has got to be frustration and regret, emotions amplified when they look back on the loss to Carlow in the Division 4 League Final in April.
I wonder if I’m being unrealistic in my expectations of this group of players – compared to 2024 when they won the All-Ireland Intermediate crown in such spectacular fashion, there is far more strength in depth but the startling fact is that now, two years after that famous day in Croke Park, only eight of the 18 players who saw action against Tyrone were involved in the team that lost to Roscommon. That’s a frankly incredible turnover with only Michelle Guckian (playing in a new position), Charlene Tyrell, Sarah Reynolds, Muireann Devaney, Niamh Tighe, Leah Fox, Ailbhe Clancy and Laura O’Dowd surviving from that day.
Maybe that’s why Jonny Garrity spoke after the game about retaining older players for next year and others returning to the side but again, the most important question remains is Garrity’s own future. Four years into the role, Garrity has seen his teams win an All-Ireland title, two Connacht IFC crowns and finally achieve promotion out of Division 4 and his presence is just as important as any of the players – his future is just as important.
Mike Wall is another manager who has made a huge impact, this time for Leitrim hurlers – in his second season, the Green & Gold small ball gang made it all the way to Croke Park, the third time Leitrim have contested the Lory Meagher Cup Final and they were right in contention until the final quarter when strength in depth and the absence of Daniel Miller proved so costly at GAA headquarters.
Safe to say the Kilkenny man has made huge progress in revitalising the hurlers, introducing new blood and driving the team forward. The challenge his team face are different to the other Leitrim adult teams as the lack of games for his charges, particularly in the early stages of the League, puts his team at a huge disadvantage but if they can adapt and overcome that and add a few players, the hurlers will be challenging for League and Championship honours.
Reviewing the footballers’ season is both simple and complex – it seems outrageously simple to claim that had Barry McNulty being available for a few more games, both in League and championship, Leitrim’s season might have been different and there is truth in that, certainly for the leadership and emotional impact he has on his teammates.
But the Glencar Manorhamilton man was on the field for the depressing losses against Antrim, Tipperary and Carlow and those games, as much as the wins over Sligo and Carlow, tells us where Leitrim’s season was in 2026, a frustrating lack of consistency and tantalising glimpses of potential most evident in the final Tailteann Cup clash against Wexford – blown off the park in the first half, Leitrim roared back into the game in the second half but the damage had been done, leaving everyone wondering what if.
Holding onto players is the biggest challenge Steven Poacher faces, much the same for Mike Wall and Jonny Garrity but the Down man has suffered the most dammed ill-luck when it comes to injury, McNulty’s woes compounded by cruelly ill-timed injuries to Tom Prior, Gavin Reynolds, Cillian McGloin and Michael McKiernan to name but a few.
A fully fit Leitrim, armed maybe with a few returned exiles perhaps, would challenge for promotion in 2027 but that is far from a given – Tipperary, Antrim and Wicklow pose formidable challenges and you can add Fermanagh and Limerick into that mix and the fear that Leitrim might be more of a Summer, hard ground team is there in the back of the mind but, in all honesty, Steven Poacher’s team head into 2027 in far ruder health and with a lot more confidence than they have in some time and that is real progress