The football championship throwing in on Easter Sunday may still take getting used to but the opening weekend eased the process by providing a raft of surprises and outright shocks to command the immediate attention of the GAA public.
Connacht was the epicentre with two of three fixtures defying the odds. New York came up with their first win in the championship since first entering it over 20 years ago.
Leitrim were the unfortunate fall guys for this piece of history – losing a penalty shoot-out in Gaelic Park after extra time had failed to separate the sides at 0-15 apiece.
The decisive penalty was scored by a New York native with a heritage name, Mikey Brosnan. They will travel in a fortnight to take on Sligo for a place in the Connacht final.
Where Roscommon’s win over Mayo in Castlebar came on the Richter scale was in dispute with victorious manager Davy Burke taking umbrage at the extent of his team’s underdog status.
“The players felt a little bit disrespected during the week,” he said, “the commentary was a bit one-sided. We finished third in Division One on merit, a kick of a ball away from Kerry from being in a league final ourselves. That kind of went unnoticed and I’m sure it got a few of their danders up.”
The way this fixture goes, who can ever be surprised? Four years ago, they came to Castlebar and beat Mayo for the first time since the 1980s and maintained the tradition of spoiling their hosts’ league title – a dose they repeated this time.
The victory was built on smart tactics, applied with conviction. Roscommon’s defence was tight and unyielding, making all Mayo’s scores hard-quarried from a determined rock face.
Burke, who achieved his priority of keeping the team in Division One, has brought great discipline and structure to the defence. He paid tribute to his coach Mark McHugh, the former Donegal All-Ireland winner.
“Huge,” he said of that contribution. “Mark knows a lot about defending too and he has helped us big time in that regard. But his energy – Mark is going places as a coach. He’s infectious and has a top-class football mind. What a sweeper he was. We all know his brain – his football brain is his best attribute but his brain combined with his energy is hard to beat.”
Roscommon now proceed to a provincial semi-final against All-Ireland finalists Galway, who defeated them in last year’s Connacht final. Needless to say, Burke is looking forward to the challenge in a fortnight.
“They’re All-Ireland finalists. I’m not sure we are there yet. We beat them in Salthill, a very understrength Galway but in the Hyde we have to be 50/50. Championship in the Hyde 50/50 – that’s what I love! Tell me fellas won’t get a bounce out of that.”
Who would dare tell him anything of the sort?
Opposing manager Kevin McStay was gracious as he tried to formulate a response to the swing in fortune from winning a league to losing a provincial quarter-final.
Invited to find fault with Cavan referee Noel Mooney, who had penalised his team about twice as much as the visitors, he wisely declined.
“We never whinge, win, lose or draw – and even some of those decisions, I was so far away from them, I couldn’t see them. Overall, we didn’t do enough, even though, I have to emphasise, we kept going to the bitter end.
“We fought hard. It was a tough finish. Roscommon were breathing hard as well at that stage. There was plenty of fight in us today, but it just didn’t happen for us.
“No excuses, no turnaround from the league, none of that nonsense. Roscommon were the better team on the day.”
A surprise of great significance took place in Ennis where Clare registered a narrow win over Cork. This puts Colm Collins’s team into the Munster semi-final against Limerick but it also impacts in Leinster where Meath now need to reach the provincial final in order to contest this year’s Sam Maguire.
Cillian Rouine was the match winner in injury-time, pushing Clare ahead just at the right time.
Meath finished sixth in Division Two and are vulnerable to teams from outside the top two divisions of the league reaching provincial finals as it edges out the lowest finishers in the league from the top 16 places.
It all adds a good bit of pressure to Colm O’Rourke’s team when they contest the Leinster championship.
The hurling championship has yet to start but, in an impressive warning shot, champions Limerick added the league title in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, overwhelming last year’s defeated All-Ireland finalists Kilkenny, 2-20 to 0-15.
