GAELIC GAMES:SHORTLY AFTER three o'clock yesterday, GAA president Nickey Brennan was paraded into the middle of Pearse Park. He ascended a large, round stage and declared the 121st All-Ireland championship officially open.

"Let the games begin," he exclaimed to rapturous applause from the sell-out crowd, and with that a 64-piece brass band led a procession of female flag-bearers representing all 32 counties. The match that followed was acclaimed a championship classic.

Actually, that's how we imagined it might some day be. For now, the GAA is content with humbler championship openings. So after a quick march by the Longford Pipe Band, the ball was thrown in, to lethargic applause, and the match that followed was the classic championship bore.

It was a drab, uneventful, negative sort of a game. Not my words, but the words of Longford manager Luke Dempsey.

I think we made every mistake in the book out there today. Not my words, but the words of Westmeath manager Tomás O Flatharta (for once, managers agreeing). The crowd was estimated at 8,000 and never did the place feel even half full.

At least we had a winner - although judging by the look of the teams leaving the field it was not entirely clear who that was.

The score read Westmeath 2-10 Longford 1-10. On the balance of play, that was a fair result. But it seemed as if the players were aware of the general mediocrity, all played out in front of a live television audience as well.

The match came alive only in the last five minutes. Longford had trailed practically throughout, surrendering two first-half goals: an Alan Mangan penalty and a dubious-looking effort from Denis Glennon. But when Longford's Paul Barden burst through on 65 minutes and put the ball in the net, and Brian Kavanagh and Diarmuid Masterson added points, it was a two-point game.

A year ago, Westmeath had surrendered a greater advantage, but now their nerves held. It was, incredibly, their first win in the Leinster championship since they won the title in 2004, but there was hardly a hint of a celebration.

Offaly, after all, are waiting in that dreaded long grass, and Ó Flatharta was aware of that.

Dempsey had other concerns. Longford are out again in the All-Ireland qualifiers on July 19th - a full 10 weeks away.

"It's a ridiculous sort of championship to be running," he said. "They (players) will go back to their clubs. Some may decide to go abroad. You'd be worried about that, especially with all the poaching that goes on with American clubs, and which I totally disagree with."

Meanwhile, only time will tell when the 2008 championship really feels like it has started.