FROM THE TEAM that beat All-Ireland champions, Glen, in the Derry final, an incredible statistic was cast up online by Roger Gribben, a Newbridge clubman and son of the legendary Roddy, who played for Derry in the 1958 All-Ireland final.
An U16 team that he, along with Neil Young and Gary Walls managed, lost a final at ‘B’ grade to Glenullin, five years ago.
From that group, seven started Sunday’s final, with four more on the bench.
It shows the importance of patience with underage players, and just how little underage titles matter in the long run.
So after beating the side that won the All-Ireland (Glen), and who in turn beat the team that won the All-Ireland (Kilmacud Crokes), who in turn lost to the team in the final of the 2022 All-Ireland final (Kilcoo), where does that leaves the shake-up of teams left in the race for provincial honours and ultimately the Andy Merrigan Cup?
Look, it’s early days and all that. But let’s make a stab at throwing those left standing into four distinctive groups before plotting their potential routes to the steps of the Hogan Stand.
Past Winners
The three ‘C’s; Corofin, Crokes and, em, Cill Chua have all been All-Ireland champions since 2017.
There has been significant turnover in some of those teams, for every Gooch gone out of Dr Crokes, there is a Kieran Fitzgerald finally, finally hanging up his boots.
But so many familiar faces remain also. Gary Sice is still producing footballing clinics for Corofin, while although it may feel that Conor Laverty is already a managerial and coaching veteran, he is still called upon to bring the good ship Kilcoo back into the harbour in the closing stages of games with all that footballing IQ.
Of the three, there is some muscle memory left over in Crokes and Corofin, but the most recent know-how lies with Kilcoo.
Halfway Up The Mountain
Apart from those we have mentioned above, just two county champions have sprung out of their county who have won their province in recent times; Pearses (2021) and Castlehaven (last year).
By beating St Brigid’s in the Roscommon quarter-final, they became the team to beat. They have a wealth of young players who have featured on the Roscommon U20 teams, along with the four Daly brothers; Niall, Conor, Ronan and Lorcan.
As for Castlehaven, they beat Dingle in the Munster final of last year after extra time before falling to St Brigid’s in the All-Ireland semi-final. They have a seriously impressive strike rate when they do emerge from the county with four Munster titles now from seven Cork championships.
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In The Mixer
There is a tier of teams that are knocking on the door by virtue of being somewhat dominant in their county, but need to make more of a dent on the provincial stage.
In Leinster, we have two of these in Naas of Kildare and Westmeath’s St Loman’s.
The latter have won eight Westmeath titles since 2013 but have not been able to turn that into huge traction in Leinster. They reached the final in 2017 and lost by a single point to Kildare’s Moorefield.
Naas have come closer. They have lost two Leinster finals in 2021 and 2023, and in their defence, both came against Kilmacud Crokes.
The final side in this group are a team that have experienced the most heartache.
Equipped with a rich tradition that hasn’t translated into an All-Ireland title, Scotstown have to be seen as one of the Ulster club favourites.
Having been beaten in the Ulster finals of last year, 2018 and 2015, they haven’t won an Ulster since the previous generation in 1989.
After beating Clontibret in the county final last weekend they have been labelled an ageing team. But they have had the addition of Jack McCarron fully bedded in now, along with a serious management team involving David McCague as manager and Peter Donnelly in the background.
Bolters
This group have the potential to supply your next All-Ireland champions.
However, there is a lack of recent provincial winning experience for some, or indeed any for others.
Take a look at Cuala. Their maiden Dublin win provoked tearful and emotional scenes and their first game out is against Naas. But their status as Dublin champions makes them impossible to ignore.
Ballina have come out of Mayo and it’s 19 years since they won the Andy Merrigan. You have a host of others with varying levels of experience and know-how such as Eire Óg in Clare, Offaly’s Tullamore, and Clann Eireann in Armagh.
There’s no getting away from it though, the eyes of the nation will be on Errigal Ciaran to see what such an outrageously talented forward division can do.
State Of Play
The RTÉ cameras are for Omagh this Saturday night to get a look at Donegal champions St Eunan’s coming to face Errigal Ciaran.
Now here’s one of those curiosities that the club championships have a habit of throwing up. Despite the indisputable quality of football in each county, they have a remarkably poor strike rate when it comes to going further than domestic competition.
In 56 years of the competition, the only Tyrone club to have won the Seamus McFerran Cup have been Errigal Ciaran in 1993 and 2002.
Two clubs from Donegal have won Ulster. Gaoth Dobhair won in 2018, and while St Joseph’s won in 1975, they were a club amalgamated from the Ballyshannon and Bundoran, but two years later they separated.
Proceedings open with a meeting of Errigal Ciaran and St Eunan’s this Saturday.
The Fermanagh champions, who will be between Enniskillen Gaels and Erne Gaels who drew on Sunday, will face Scotstown.
As a reward for winning Derry, Newbridge get to face Clann Eireann who won out in Armagh, while Kilcoo face Crosserlough.
In Munster, the big two left there are Dr Crokes, who last won Munster in 2018, and Castlehaven, the only semi-finalist from last January left standing.
The two meet on 10 November with some ancient lay lines showing that Crokes won previous meetings in 2012 and 2013. The winners will be expected to beat Waterford representatives Rathgormack and reach the final.
The other side of the draw is Clare’s Eire Og Ennis, Limerick (Fr Caseys play Adare next Sunday in final), and dual chasing Loughmore-Castleiney.
Of that four, they’ve one final appearance between them, Loughmore-Castleiney back in 1973, so the deep south does not lack for novelty.
Out in Connacht, Corofin play Padraig Pearses in the quarter final on 9-10 November, with the winners facing the Eamonn O’Hara-managed Mohill in the semi-final. You wouldn’t rule out the Leitrim men as they pushed St Brigid’s hard last year.
On the other side of the draw, Ballina have to face London first-time champions North London Shamrocks. The winners will play the eventual Sligo champions; that final was a draw last Sunday between St Molaise Gaels and Coolera-Strandhill.
Round 1 of Leinster gets going this Sunday with Meath’s Dunshaughlin hoping to correct a horrendous run of form from the Royal county representatives, when they have St Loman’s.
St Mary’s of Ardee in Louth have Abbeylara of Longford, while Laois champions Portarlington have Tinahely of Wicklow.
At the quarter-finals stage, others come in with Castletown Liam Mellows of Wexford, Carlow’s Rathvilly and Tullamore of Offaly all raring to go while Naas play Cuala on Saturday 9 November under the fresh new floodlights of Newbridge.
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How is the All-Ireland GAA club football title race shaping up?
FROM THE TEAM that beat All-Ireland champions, Glen, in the Derry final, an incredible statistic was cast up online by Roger Gribben, a Newbridge clubman and son of the legendary Roddy, who played for Derry in the 1958 All-Ireland final.
An U16 team that he, along with Neil Young and Gary Walls managed, lost a final at ‘B’ grade to Glenullin, five years ago.
From that group, seven started Sunday’s final, with four more on the bench.
It shows the importance of patience with underage players, and just how little underage titles matter in the long run.
So after beating the side that won the All-Ireland (Glen), and who in turn beat the team that won the All-Ireland (Kilmacud Crokes), who in turn lost to the team in the final of the 2022 All-Ireland final (Kilcoo), where does that leaves the shake-up of teams left in the race for provincial honours and ultimately the Andy Merrigan Cup?
Look, it’s early days and all that. But let’s make a stab at throwing those left standing into four distinctive groups before plotting their potential routes to the steps of the Hogan Stand.
Past Winners
The three ‘C’s; Corofin, Crokes and, em, Cill Chua have all been All-Ireland champions since 2017.
There has been significant turnover in some of those teams, for every Gooch gone out of Dr Crokes, there is a Kieran Fitzgerald finally, finally hanging up his boots.
But so many familiar faces remain also. Gary Sice is still producing footballing clinics for Corofin, while although it may feel that Conor Laverty is already a managerial and coaching veteran, he is still called upon to bring the good ship Kilcoo back into the harbour in the closing stages of games with all that footballing IQ.
Of the three, there is some muscle memory left over in Crokes and Corofin, but the most recent know-how lies with Kilcoo.
Halfway Up The Mountain
Apart from those we have mentioned above, just two county champions have sprung out of their county who have won their province in recent times; Pearses (2021) and Castlehaven (last year).
By beating St Brigid’s in the Roscommon quarter-final, they became the team to beat. They have a wealth of young players who have featured on the Roscommon U20 teams, along with the four Daly brothers; Niall, Conor, Ronan and Lorcan.
As for Castlehaven, they beat Dingle in the Munster final of last year after extra time before falling to St Brigid’s in the All-Ireland semi-final. They have a seriously impressive strike rate when they do emerge from the county with four Munster titles now from seven Cork championships.
In The Mixer
There is a tier of teams that are knocking on the door by virtue of being somewhat dominant in their county, but need to make more of a dent on the provincial stage.
In Leinster, we have two of these in Naas of Kildare and Westmeath’s St Loman’s.
The latter have won eight Westmeath titles since 2013 but have not been able to turn that into huge traction in Leinster. They reached the final in 2017 and lost by a single point to Kildare’s Moorefield.
Naas have come closer. They have lost two Leinster finals in 2021 and 2023, and in their defence, both came against Kilmacud Crokes.
The final side in this group are a team that have experienced the most heartache.
Equipped with a rich tradition that hasn’t translated into an All-Ireland title, Scotstown have to be seen as one of the Ulster club favourites.
Having been beaten in the Ulster finals of last year, 2018 and 2015, they haven’t won an Ulster since the previous generation in 1989.
After beating Clontibret in the county final last weekend they have been labelled an ageing team. But they have had the addition of Jack McCarron fully bedded in now, along with a serious management team involving David McCague as manager and Peter Donnelly in the background.
Bolters
This group have the potential to supply your next All-Ireland champions.
However, there is a lack of recent provincial winning experience for some, or indeed any for others.
Take a look at Cuala. Their maiden Dublin win provoked tearful and emotional scenes and their first game out is against Naas. But their status as Dublin champions makes them impossible to ignore.
Ballina have come out of Mayo and it’s 19 years since they won the Andy Merrigan. You have a host of others with varying levels of experience and know-how such as Eire Óg in Clare, Offaly’s Tullamore, and Clann Eireann in Armagh.
There’s no getting away from it though, the eyes of the nation will be on Errigal Ciaran to see what such an outrageously talented forward division can do.
State Of Play
The RTÉ cameras are for Omagh this Saturday night to get a look at Donegal champions St Eunan’s coming to face Errigal Ciaran.
Now here’s one of those curiosities that the club championships have a habit of throwing up. Despite the indisputable quality of football in each county, they have a remarkably poor strike rate when it comes to going further than domestic competition.
In 56 years of the competition, the only Tyrone club to have won the Seamus McFerran Cup have been Errigal Ciaran in 1993 and 2002.
Two clubs from Donegal have won Ulster. Gaoth Dobhair won in 2018, and while St Joseph’s won in 1975, they were a club amalgamated from the Ballyshannon and Bundoran, but two years later they separated.
Proceedings open with a meeting of Errigal Ciaran and St Eunan’s this Saturday.
The Fermanagh champions, who will be between Enniskillen Gaels and Erne Gaels who drew on Sunday, will face Scotstown.
As a reward for winning Derry, Newbridge get to face Clann Eireann who won out in Armagh, while Kilcoo face Crosserlough.
In Munster, the big two left there are Dr Crokes, who last won Munster in 2018, and Castlehaven, the only semi-finalist from last January left standing.
The two meet on 10 November with some ancient lay lines showing that Crokes won previous meetings in 2012 and 2013. The winners will be expected to beat Waterford representatives Rathgormack and reach the final.
The other side of the draw is Clare’s Eire Og Ennis, Limerick (Fr Caseys play Adare next Sunday in final), and dual chasing Loughmore-Castleiney.
Of that four, they’ve one final appearance between them, Loughmore-Castleiney back in 1973, so the deep south does not lack for novelty.
Out in Connacht, Corofin play Padraig Pearses in the quarter final on 9-10 November, with the winners facing the Eamonn O’Hara-managed Mohill in the semi-final. You wouldn’t rule out the Leitrim men as they pushed St Brigid’s hard last year.
On the other side of the draw, Ballina have to face London first-time champions North London Shamrocks. The winners will play the eventual Sligo champions; that final was a draw last Sunday between St Molaise Gaels and Coolera-Strandhill.
Round 1 of Leinster gets going this Sunday with Meath’s Dunshaughlin hoping to correct a horrendous run of form from the Royal county representatives, when they have St Loman’s.
St Mary’s of Ardee in Louth have Abbeylara of Longford, while Laois champions Portarlington have Tinahely of Wicklow.
At the quarter-finals stage, others come in with Castletown Liam Mellows of Wexford, Carlow’s Rathvilly and Tullamore of Offaly all raring to go while Naas play Cuala on Saturday 9 November under the fresh new floodlights of Newbridge.
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Allstars GAA Gaelic Football State of Play