The Schemozzle: Loyalties colour reportage as Rossies look on bright side

Irish Times

19-05-2025

It's always interesting to check in on the local media during championship season and take the temperature. The lesson is that opinions vary – wildly.
Take Kerry's win over Roscommon. In the view of Radio Kerry analyst Billy O'Shea, it was a forgettable affair.
'I was actually half falling asleep there with 10 minutes to go to be honest with you and that's the truth because I was all on my own in the booth next door to the boys,' O'Shea commented.
Meanwhile in Rossieland, the headline on Ivan Smyth's report in the Roscommon Herald said a lot ('Roscommon outclassed in Killarney') but the Roscommon People felt the Rossies emerged with credit.
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'A strong start, featuring some excellent play, and an encouraging finish meant Roscommon senior footballers left the pitch with their heads held high as their opening round robin fixture ended in a 10-point defeat to Kerry,' reporter Paul Healy wrote.
Elsewhere, in the Kerryman, 12 of the 21 Kerry players were rated 7 out of 10, with four 6s and a 5.
One notable stat from the game came via Sylvester Hennessy of Kerry's Eye, who noted that Seán O'Shea (26) is now in Kerry's top three championship scorers of all time, after landing 0-7 on Saturday. The top five, per Hennessy, reads: Colm Cooper (23-283), Mikey Sheehy (29-206), Seán O'Shea (7-220), Maurice Fitzgerald (12-204) and David Clifford (17-177).
Hope springs eternal as 13 await senior provincial success
A starter for 10: what do Leitrim, Carlow, Kilkenny, Longford, Offaly, Clare, Limerick, Waterford, Antrim, Fermanagh, London, New York and Down have in common? That's right – they are the 13 counties who have failed to win a provincial senior football title in this century. Unlucky for some.
With apologies to some of the others, Down and Offaly are the obvious outliers there considering they're the only two to lift Sam Maguire in the last 100 years. Down also made a senior All-Ireland final 15 years ago and produced an All-Ireland senior club winner in recent history too (Kilcoo in 2022).
Offaly and Down are also the only two without a provincial title to have won minor or under-20 All-Irelands this century and were the highest finishers in the 2025 National League (Down 15th, Offaly 18th).
Both had positive showings over the weekend, as it happened. Down defeated Clare by 3-27 to 1-16 in their opening match in the All-Ireland – which they qualified for by winning the Tailteann Cup last year – while Offaly took a step towards emulating that feat as they defeated Waterford by five points.
Louth players celebrate the All-Ireland U20 semi-final win over Mayo at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park, Longford. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
Canny Kingdom legend Galvin quick to spot Louth's potential
Speaking of Kerry, hats off to Paul Galvin who was surely one of the first outsiders to spot something spectacular was brewing in Louth.
On April 23rd last year, Galvin attended the Leinster Under-20 Championship semi-final at Parnell Park in which Louth beat Dublin. Afterwards, Galvin tweeted: 'Louth 20s the most exciting side I've seen play this year. Bursting with football, pace, power and size.'
While Louth ultimately lost that Leinster final to Meath, fast-forward 13 months and they have turned the tables on the Royals in this year's provincial decider and subsequently beat Mayo to reach their first-ever All-Ireland final in the grade.
Thirteen of the 15 who started the 2024 Leinster final remain on the panel, with seven starting both finals and one 2024 starter coming on this year.
Bravo, too, to the father of one prominent Louth footballer who reportedly backed the double at a meaty 250-1 (or bigger, depending who you ask!)
Cavan produce seismic shock at Mayo's expense
While it will be hard to top Dexit – Meath's win over Dublin in the Leinster semi-final – for sheer drama, Cavan's victory over Mayo in Castlebar on Sunday was surely the next biggest shock in this year's football championships to date, across provincials, Sam Maguire and Tailteann Cup.
For one thing, the disparity between both sides' relative standings in the National League was the widest by a distance this season; Mayo finished top of Division One, Cavan were 11 places lower (fourth in Division Two).
The Blues hadn't beaten Mayo in championship football since the 1948 All-Ireland final and lost the same fixture at the same venue by 0-20 to 1-8 last summer. Not many of Cavan's famously vociferous supporters made the trip west for a game which attracted just 7,387 to MacHale Park.
Number: 9.1 points
The average margin of victory in the first two rounds (16 matches) in the 2025 Tailteann Cup.
Quote
'Everybody knows that himself and one or two more of them, they actually despise me and that's fine, I can get over that. But don't take it out on the players, you have to see everything.' – Antrim manager
Davy Fitzgerald
wasn't happy with the refereeing in his side's 28-point loss to Galway.