What the papers say

Westmeath's papers understandably continued the county's celebrations of their under-21 success with an array of colour specials, the Westmeath Examiner producing a four-page effort. The papers from the defeated county, Kerry, also caught the eye, with The Kerryman (right) borrowing the Sun's Gotcha headline. Match reporter Eamon Horan felt Kerry were a "pale shadow" of the team that won the Munster final, while he lauded Westmeath as a "fighting fit team that was hungry for glory".

In Mayo, where the local population are still recovering from John Maughan's Monica Lewinsky joke on Marian Finucane's radio show last Monday (when he asked "what have John Maughan and Monica Lewinsky in common?" you could almost hear Finucane miss a heartbeat), there was still some legs in the Kieran McDonald story. Ivan Neill's news piece in the Western People was a rebuttal of a flier that McDonald, estranged from the Mayo panel, is the subject of a "battle royale" (sic) between other counties - including Dublin, Kildare and Meath - competing for his services. The story rested on a single, pithy quote from McDonald. "It's not true," McDonald told the People. That's the end of that then.

The Longford Leader was typical in its straight-talking after the county's Leinster Championship replay success over Wexford. Little time for fancy notions after this win was the headline on editor Eugene McGee's piece, while a sidebar piece down the page criticised the absence of county colours on display in Longford town. All six businesses that trooped the colour got a mention for their patriotism.

Alan Ahearne, assessing the county's defeat in The Wexford People, got to the nub of the problem regarding championship structures with the following passage: "The saddest aspect of this defeat is the fact that Wexford's next competitive game won't be until mid-October. This developing team will be idle during the four best footballing months."