THE FOOTBALLERS OF Tipperary and Westmeath are celebrating tonight after memorable victories at Croke Park earlier today.
Westmeath saw off Wexford in the Allianz League Division 4 decider, before Tipperary got the better of Louth in the Division 3 showpiece.
If you missed any of the action, you can catch up with our match reports:
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First league title in 9 years for Westmeath footballers as they rout Wexford by 13 points
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Sweeney bags 2-5 as Tipperary claim Division 3 National Football League title at Croke Park
As is the case with most big days out at Croke Park, the games provided plenty of talking points.
Here, we’ve picked out 6 of them:
1. Happy return to Croke Park for Tipperary
Last August, Tipperary rocked up to Croke Park for an historic All-Ireland semi-final clash with Mayo, but lost out after having Robbie Kiely black-carded in the ninth minute.
This was a much happier outing for the Premier County, a performance that rekindled memories of their stunning victory over Galway in the 2016 All-Ireland quarter-final.
Tipp took their time in seeing off Louth but once they got going, and despite registering 15 wides, there were flashes of last season in their play.
All Tipp can do now is wait until June 10, when they tackle Cork or Waterford in the Munster SFC semi-final.
It’s time to recover after five matches in as many weekends and Tipp will welcome back some more players before the championship start.
2. Westmeath finally move on from Dessie Dolan
One of our loyal readers popped us an email after the game, pointing out a very interesting piece of Westmeath-related trivia.
Pat Ryan informs us that this is the first trophy (apart from minor and junior) that a Westmeath team has won without former attacking ace Dessie Dolan leading the line.
One Leinster senior title, three Division 2 crowns, two Leinster U21 wins, one All-Ireland U21 success and one Leinster club title (Garrycastle in 2011) was the sum total of Westmeath trophies collected, before the Division 4 triumph over Wexford.
Dolan had a big part to play in all of the previous successes but in recent times, the attacking baton has been well and truly passed to John Heslin.
Dolan’s making a decent career for himself as a TV pundit and while his exploits will never be forgotten, the current crop seem intent on writing fresh history for themselves, as Heslin continues to carry the can up front.
3. League finals fail to capture the public imagination
Conditions couldn’t have been much better, save for a breeze blowing towards the Hill 16 end.
Croke Park looking immaculate, temperatures in the mid-teens and yet, only 5,823 patrons bothered to turn up.
Average that figure out across the four counties and that’s less than 1500 people per county.
That’s difficult to comprehend when you consider that national finals don’t come along too often for the four participants.
It was Tipp’s first League title since the Division 4 win in 2014, and their first Division 3 success since 2009, while Westmeath hadn’t lifted League silverware in nine years.
The mystery is why Croke Park on a Saturday afternoon wasn’t the attraction that it should have been.
4. A lot done, more to do for ‘Banty’
Wexford certainly struck gold with the appointment of their senior football and hurling managers for the 2017 season.
Hurling boss Davy Fitzgerald has masterminded promotion from Division 1B while also securing a League semi-final slot, while his footballer counterpart Seamus ‘Banty’ McEnaney steered the Model County out of Division 4 of the Allianz League.
The concern is that Wexford, if they come through a first round clash with Carlow in the Leinster championship, will be annihilated by Dublin in the quarter-finals.
Losing by 13 points to Westmeath, who also beat them by 3-24 to 0-9 in the penultimate group match, doesn’t bode well for the Slaneysiders ahead of the summer campaign.
There’s simply not enough genuine class in the Wexford ranks to trouble the top-tier counties and, in truth, Division 4 was low on quality this year.
Westmeath were by far the best team in the pool and made their presence felt by winning the divisional showpiece at their leisure.
5. Tipperary defy the odds to land national silverware again
Their own county board delegates defying their wishes and voting for the super 8 championship format, a fifth game in five weekends, a player injured in a club game on the Friday night before travelling to Armagh, and the first half of a double-header postponed even though Semple Stadium looked in fine nick?
In this League campaign, no bother to the Tipp senior footballers, who continue to roll with the punches and produce results against the odds.
The travails of an incredible bunch, often fighting forces within their own county, have been well-documented in recent years but it seems that nothing will stop the Tipp seniors from doing what they love doing.
A talented bunch of players are being well-managed by Liam Kearns, while the backroom team contains top quality in the form of coach Shane Stapleton, former goalkeeper Paul Fitzgerald, ex-Munster rugby star Ian Dowling as physio, renowned strength and conditioning coach Dave Moriarty and ex Tipp and Kildare star Brian Lacey in the video analysis set-up.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way and after a well-deserved few days of celebration which will no doubt follow, it’s back down to business as Tipp target Cork or Waterford in the Munster SFC semi-final. Before that, they’ll embark on a pre-championship training camp in Limerick, with a challenge against Clare pencilled in.
It’s a formula that works well last year and while Kearns has added more depth to his panel this year, in many ways it’s still very much a case of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’
6. More refereeing inconsistency
Just the one black card across two games today, Wexford reduced to 14 men when sub Conor Carty was dismissed with six minutes left, after all six replacements had been made.
Nothing unusual there, you might think, but a couple of blatant black-card indiscretions went unchecked today.
Tipp’s Emmet Moloney will know that he was lucky to get away with one against Louth and when James Dolan was hauled down by Wexford’s Paul Curtis to concede a penalty in the Division 4 decider, it looked for all the world like a black card offence.
On both occasions, the respective referees deemed both offences mere ticking offences. Not even yellows, never mind black.
In theory, and as Tipp’s Robbie Kiely pointed out in this morning’s interview, the black card can be a good thing. And that’s coming from a guy who many feel was unlucky to get one in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final.
The problem is, and will continue to be, the maddening inconsistency when it comes to the application of the rule as it stands. Black card offences are offences for a reason, and if this rule is to remain in place, those offences must be punished in the appropriate manner. Better still, get rid of the black card and come up with an alternative because it’s simply not working.
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