All-Ireland Intermediate semi-finals
(Allenwood v Cullyhanna, today, 1pm, Páirc Tailteann, Navan)
(Castlerea v Cill na Martra, today, 2.30pm, Laois Hire O’Moore Park, Portlaoise)
All-Ireland Junior semi-finals
(Lahardane v Listowel, today, 1pm, Glenisk O’Connor Park, Tullamore)
(Arva v Milltown, today, 1pm, The Downs, Westmeath)
Often in Connacht, Roscommon don’t get their fair dues.
The draw was handy, or the superior Galway/Mayo of any given year didn’t show up in the day.
The engine of the fair play brigade is powered by misplaced, condescending arrogance.
It’s no wonder the frustration builds. Sligo U20 captain Canice Mulligan felt it too. If the pressure valve didn’t fully release at the full-time whistle, it did in his post-match speech that gave us one of the GAA moments of the year:
“We’d a tough road to the final. Three away games, all the big dogs. But Sligo are now a f****** big dog now.”
Perhaps a fear of that kind of frustration is partially why Cill na Martra and former Roscommon manager John Evans is wary of Castlerea:
“They have beaten the Galway and Mayo champions, and when you do that in Connacht you must be doing something right.”
His final line in that Echo Live interview summated the encapsulation of club football:
“Whoever is the last person out of Cill na Martra turn off the lights.”
You can pass that message on to Johnny Doyle’s folk in Allenwood, the Milltown clan beside him, and the football-mad Cullyhanna.
You can tell them in Lahardane, and you can shout it from the rooftops in the town of Listowel and the village of Arva.
Make sure the immersion is off, turn off the lights and get out of town.
All-Ireland semi-final weekend, let the mass migration and the madness begin.
