It has always been a balance in the modern GAA. Provinces which offer opportunity and competitiveness don’t always produce All-Ireland contenders. There are obvious exceptions in Munster hurling, which has produced the last eight MacCarthy Cup winners, a record sequence for a province in modern times, spread around three counties. It has been intensely competitive, but until last year Limerick had won six provincial titles in a row.
The fact that two other counties, Tipperary and Clare, could win three All-Irelands between them in the gaps left by Limerick suggested a rising tide lifting all boats. Intriguingly, though, the counties that beat John Kiely’s team have so far failed to add the All-Ireland.
Ulster football has seven All-Ireland wins this century, again shared by three different counties, but in general equal access doesn’t guarantee elite achievement.
Twenty years ago, speaking in the wake of a sequence that saw five counties win the Leinster football championship in six seasons, then provincial chair – and future association president – Liam O’Neill summarised the dilemma.
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“If winning All-Irelands was our only focus we’d target Offaly, Meath, Dublin and Kildare. As it is we spread the butter thinly and spend more per player in Longford and Laois than in the other counties. We have developmental responsibilities. That’s our brief – to maximise the playing potential in every county. Our success is our failure, if you want to call it that.”
That changed within five years, as the arrival of Dublin’s most successful generation led to unparalleled domination of the All-Ireland series. It was accompanied by a record in Leinster of 18 titles in the 20 years since O’Neill made those comments on these pages.
Hurling in the province echoed similar themes. In the first 16 years of the century, Kilkenny won 13 Leinster titles and 11 All-Irelands – only requiring the qualifier route once, in 2012.
Dublin didn’t win as many All-Irelands as Kilkenny but the percentage strike rate in Leinster was more or less identical. It also cast the football province into even blacker darkness than hurling, as only Meath and Louth broke through in those 20 years. In the summer of 2010, Meath lost their next match in the All-Ireland quarter-finals, as both Dublin and Kildare overtook them to reach the semi-finals.
Three counties took a Leinster each during Kilkenny’s reign, Wexford, Galway and Dublin but only Galway got to the All-Ireland where they found Brian Cody’s team waiting for them, smarting from a 10-point defeat in the Leinster final. And in those days, nobody gave Kilkenny double-digit beatings twice in a row.
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Galway’s arrival in Leinster in 2009 was intended to add competitive balance to Kilkenny’s overwhelming presence but for a long time acted more as a speed bump than a roadblock.
Eventually, Galway did break through and won the 2017 All-Ireland but for a county actually from Leinster – apart from Kilkenny – to appear on the roll of honour, you have to go back to Offaly in 1998.
Which brings us to the weekend just gone, which may prove to have been a watershed for the province for whom a concerning aspect of this decade has been Kilkenny continuing to rack up provincial titles without adding an All-Ireland and reaching only two finals.
Unless Leinster champions are capable of disturbing the by now serene progress of Munster counties, the latter’s unprecedented run of success will just get longer. Maybe Micheál Donoghue’s Galway, who have impressed this season, can step up but as with any team in development, that is not a given.
Offaly have threatened Dublin before in the championship and only last year were unlucky to be beaten. On Saturday they might account themselves unlucky not to win, although a draw was probably fair. With all of the recent underage progress, improvement has been expected and as the talented hurlers mature physically, there are high hopes of delivery.
The county certainly won’t be fazed by playing Wexford and Kilkenny and they get a go against Galway this coming weekend. The round-robin format requires four counties to compete for the three qualifying places. Leinster may be in the happy position of now having five.
The province’s football weekend was no less eventful. The most highly rated team in the league was Meath, who cracked open Leinster last year by defeating Dublin and bringing a 14-year reign to an end. As can be the case, the hand that wields the knife doesn’t always wear the crown.
Robbie Brennan’s team then won the Division Two title and with it, promotion to the top level.
Few were prepared for them to come a cropper against Westmeath – who will be two divisions below them next season – on Sunday but it happened and threw a spanner into the provincial football championship.
There were also eyebrows raised when Dublin huffed and puffed to get past Division Four Wicklow, albeit in Aughrim. As detailed, the visitors had never lost a match against their neighbours in league or championship. A two-point win spells trouble for a team that was able to field All-Ireland winners and half a dozen All Stars.
In their pomp, Dublin terrorised Leinster football and had an average winning margin of 17 points in all provincial championship matches. When the first sign of slippage came in 2021, that average was down to seven and they duly lost in the All-Ireland semi-final to Mayo.
During the Indian summer of 2023, the county got the average back up to around 17 again and went on the lift Sam Maguire. The margin against Wicklow in the past year has slid from nine to two. Manager Ger Brennan is suspended from team activities for weeks to come and captain and lifeline Con O’Callaghan had to leave the field injured yesterday.
All the while Louth, who are actually Leinster champions, looked impressive in dismissing a Wexford side, which will be in Division Two next year, by – coincidentally – 17 points. They face Dublin in a fortnight, confident in their ability to go on and successfully defend their provincial title for the first time since 1910.
Leinster has gone from a province of restricted practices and monopoly to a deregulated market.
