A recent debate about what is the best dual county in Ireland got us thinking. Okay, so this is a very arbitrary way of sorting such matters but what would each county’s final position in the 2024 football and hurling leagues tell us about their relative merits in each code?
Removing sides who only enter the hurling leagues and ranking them 1-32 based on their finishing positions (we told you this was crude) throws up some interesting comparisons. With a new format coming in for the 2025 hurling league (Divisions 1A and 1B will be more of a meritocracy and beneath those are Division 2, 3 and 4), it is slightly easier to put a linear ranking on the hurling league counties than in the past.
Which means that according to our highly scientific system, the top-ranked dual counties in the National Leagues are Galway and Dublin in joint-first, followed by Cork and then, slightly surprisingly, Kerry.
Propping up the table are Longford, followed closely by Leitrim and then London.
Tommy Fitzgerald to succeed Darren Gleeson as Laois senior hurling manager
Derry’s Rogers believes Rory Gallagher will return to intercounty management
Ciarán Murphy: Limerick and Dublin now bereft of linchpin players
Walter Walsh looks to life after intercounty hurling retirement as injuries start to take toll
Evergreen Murphy still strutting his stuff
So Meath will face Louth in round one of Sam, which will surely dredge up memories of 2002 when two injury-time goals saw the Royals pull off one of the all-time great smash-and-grabs.
On that occasion, Richie Kealy and Ollie Murphy (who set up Graham Geraghty’s winner) were the super subs.
Last week, Murphy came on in a Division 9 match for Carnaross against Drumbaragh alongside his son Charlie, who teed the old man up for a late point.
In a 1995 interview, Murphy said his best-ever performance was when scoring 1-8 in a SFC match against Skyrne. Little-known fact: Murphy actually lined out against Louth in a challenge later that evening and hit 2-3!
Little did anyone think (bar the man himself, perhaps) that he’d still be scoring 29 years on.
Premier class Darcy points way for Longford
The race for the Lory Meagher Cup is heating up, with Fermanagh, Longford and Cavan all in contention for a place in the final heading into next weekend’s final round of matches.
The big result in round four on Saturday was Longford defeating erstwhile favourites Cavan by 0-25 to 1-19. Star man was Tipperary native Cian Darcy, who struck 0-16.
While there are some stand-out names in the competition who have played at higher levels with other counties (Warwickshire’s former Kerry attacker Jordan Conway is one example), Darcy seems like the MVP at present.
A member of the Tipp senior panel until recently, the 26-year-old has minor and U20 All-Ireland medals and was the match-winner with 2-2 in the 2022 Tipp county final.
Taxing times for ‘Donegal Piper’ Murray
This split season, eh? Performing week on week means the inter-county game is now a very demanding gig – and we’re not even talking about the players!
Spare a thought for the popular ‘Donegal Piper’, Christy Murray, a regular fixture at Donegal matches where his playing is accompanied by intermittent shouts of “Up Donegal!”.
“It’s hard to prepare for every game now, they’re coming at you so fast,” dedicated Raphoe man Murray told the Irish News.
Word of Mouth
“The GAA is one of the richest organisations in the world” - Sean Cavanagh on The Saturday Game in relation to GAAGO.
By the Numbers: 13
Kildare scorers against Longford, equalling their championship record (previously they managed it against Laois in 2017 and Louth in 2013), according to @CillDaraTimes on Twitter/X.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Find The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
