Louth win more than just the Delaney Cup - what we learned from the GAA weekend

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Louth look forward while Meath prepare for the hard road

The Delaney Cup wasn’t the only prize on offer at Croke Park yesterday – once all the flare smoke cleared, everyone’s thoughts began to turn to the All-Ireland series. A quick look at the draw shows that the reward for being Leinster champions extends far beyond a homecoming appearance by Marty Morrissey. Louth and Meath go down very different paths now.

Meath have to go to Cork in a fortnight before hosting Kerry in Navan, finishing off with a game against Roscommon in a neutral venue next month. That’s a rough road, particularly if Ronan Jones is going to be out for a while – he pulled a hamstring catching a high ball in training last week and while Robbie Brennan couldn’t say how long he’d be gone, he wasn’t confident.

By contrast, Louth have Monaghan in a fortnight, followed by Down in Newry and then Clare at the neutral ground. It raises the question, first and foremost of where the Monaghan game will be played. Louth have been using Inniskeen as a home venue so it obviously won’t be there. Navan is the early favourite.

That said, Ger Brennan did suggest afterwards on Sunday that maybe it could be in Croke Park, folded in with another game as part of a double-header. But the only other game that could feasibly be moved there is Dublin’s Leinster hurling encounter against Galway, which is in Parnell Park that afternoon. Feels unlikely.

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One way or the other, Monaghan, Down and Clare is a far more workable route to the business end of the season than Cork, Kerry and Roscommon. As the heads clear this morning, it will make victory feel all the sweeter. – Malachy Clerkin

Sound of two trees falling

Munster GAA Senior Hurling Championship Round 3, Cusack Park, Ennis, Clare 10/5/2025 Clare vs Tipperary Mark Rodgers of Clare at the final whistle. Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Natasha Barton

On Saturday, both All-Ireland champions were defeated. Armagh went down in another Ulster final epic in Clones and Clare lost their equally gripping round-robin encounter with Tipperary in Ennis.

Of course, there is no finality to such things in modern championship and Armagh simply proceed to a different group in the All-Ireland stages. Clare’s fate isn’t as clearcut but the county could be facing the end of their championship depending on how next weekend’s results go.

The effort to identify a similar day or weekend takes us back all of 27 years to August 1998 and a similarly consequential weekend when in those days it spelled the end of the road for the champions.

In hurling, Clare were again involved but it took the bizarre events of that year’s All-Ireland semi-final to bring them back to the same weekend as one of the football semi-finals.

Saturday, August 29th saw Clare face Offaly for the third time after a draw and the famous, prematurely-ended replay. The rematch was in Thurles and Offaly won on the way to an unexpected All-Ireland.

A day later, Mick O’Dwyer enjoyed probably his best day with Kildare, as the newly crowned Leinster champions dethroned his own county and reigning All-Ireland champions, Kerry. – Seán Moran

1v1 throw-in an unnecessary change

Has the 1v1 throw-in at the start of each half actually added to the game?

There have been plenty of plaudits going the way of the Football Review Committee in recent weeks and certainly the entertainment served up so far indicates the new rules are having a positive impact on Gaelic football.

However, the 1v1 throw-in seems to have been a needlessly fussy change. It all looks very unnatural and unnecessary to have two players starting the game on the sideline and then dashing in when the ball is tossed up by the referee.

The concept behind the rule was to reduce the risk of jostling and fouling to occur in the moments just before or when the ball is thrown in. And by having only one player from each team contesting the throw-in, the midfielder who wins possession would immediately have an opportunity to advance forward.

But of the many issues that had been hampering Gaelic football, the throw-in wasn’t one that had folk frothing at the mouth. There have been signs the new rules are reducing elements of physicality in the game. Hurling matches often start off at a blistering pace with the tempo set by those players contesting the throw-in. That aggression and energy fuels the atmosphere. If we want a game with physicality, why in Gaelic football are we removing an element at the start of each half that can also add to the occasion? And by changing it, are we gaining anything substantial?

In setting out the terms of reference for what they hoped to achieve the FRC said they wanted to “create a more exciting and dynamic playing and spectator experience”.

But with the 1v1 throw-in it feels something has been taken away from the game, not added. – Gordon Manning

Carlow get the look right, and result follows

Carlow’s Mikey Bambrick. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

You have to hand it to the Carlow footballers. After all the unpleasantness during the league, with players walking out and ultimately Shane Curran leaving the set-up midway through, they caused a big shock in the opening round of the Tailteann Cup by beating Fermanagh in Enniskillen.

Nobody saw it coming. Whatever about last week, it was definitely not on the cards a month ago when Curran walked at the end of the league. Joe Murphy came in and has been quite open about the sloppiness and general lack of a high-performance environment he found when he arrived.

“I didn’t think we looked like a county team in our attire and the way that we presented ourselves at training, we wanted to get the optics right first. You are what you represent. We wanted to look collectively like we are a county team and that we’re representing the county.”

They did that and more on Sunday, running up a 3-18 to 2-18 win over a fancied Fermanagh team. It was the only win by a Division Four team over on from Division Three in the opening round of this year’s Tailteann Cup – and only the second time Carlow have managed to beat a team from a higher division in the competition. – Malachy Clerkin

Leinster football is back in business

Louth fans celebrate winning as Meath fans look on dejected after the game. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho

Leinster Council must have ruefully reflected on the past couple of years when the turnstile count showed 65,786 at Sunday’s provincial football final. Louth’s historic win, bridging 68 years, and putting 2010’s controversial defeat by the weekend’s opponents, Meath created a record attendance for a Leinster final not featuring Dublin.

The “chilling” impact of Dublin’s serial 14-year success had completely depressed attendances at the fixture, certainly since Covid, culminating in last year’s meagre crowd of 23,113 for the Dublin-Louth decider.

Sunday’s figure was the biggest for the final since Dublin-Kildare drew 66,734 in 2017.

Historically, Dublin have been in a lot of Leinster finals and 15 years ago, was the most recent one without the county’s presence. On that occasion Louth and Meath were watched by 48,875 spectators.

Just over 20 years ago when Laois and Westmeath had breakthrough wins in the province, the crowds were 61,786 and 56,440 for the matches against Kildare and Laois respectively.

The new Croke Park obviously added to those numbers with its enhanced capacity but even back in the golden age of attendances touching 90,000 in All-Ireland finals, the crowds coming to Leinster finals weren’t commensurate.

Sixty-five years ago, Offaly and Louth drew just 35,624 for the 1960 provincial final. A year later when Offaly defended their title against Dublin, the match was played in Portlaoise and attended by 26,836 – in a year when the All-Ireland record was set by Down-Offaly at 90,556.

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