GAELIC GAMES:WHILE THE Kilkenny hurlers were maintaining their flawless start in the National Hurling League – a 0-14 to 1-10 victory over Cork at Nowlan Park putting them joint top of Division One with Galway – their footballing counterparts kept up a less impressive 100 per cent record.

The Cats were hammered by Leitrim in Division Four of the National Football League on the astonishing scoreline of 3-19 to 0-0. The westerners led in Ballyragget by 1-9 to no score at half-time, and the gap between the teams grew further in a second-half where Kilkenny created a number of chances but failed to take any of them.

It’s the Cats’ third-successive loss in this year’s league campaign, but they did at least trouble the umpires twice in those other games, losing to Clare on a scoreline of 4-17 to 1-1 and to London by 0-16 to 0-2.

Indeed, you have to go back as far as the league campaign of 2008 to find the last time the Kilkenny footballers earned a win in the NFL, when they defeated their visitors London in Nowlan Park by 2-13 to 0-15.