Five Things We Learned: Sligo are up for the fight, but provinces are dying a sad death

Sligo see nothing to fear in mixing it with the big boys

So now we know. Sligo will be the Division Four team in the Sam Maguire section of the All-Ireland championship when the draw is made next Tuesday (May 2nd). They will be in the second pot of seeds, assuming they don’t pull off an earthquake and actually win the Connacht final. One way or the other, they know they are going to be the team everyone is looking to be drawn against. No disrespect, just business.

Tony McEntee was chomping down on a tasty-looking chicken curry when we grabbed him outside the dressing rooms in Markiewicz Park on Saturday. In the cold and wet of the rotten weather, we swallowed our envy and got on with asking our stupid questions. None stupider, in fact, than whether or not he and his team would be nervous about going up against the bigger counties when the time comes.

“No,” he said, suspending a frankly delicious-looking morsel in mid-air, halfway between his plate and his mouth. “No there is no nervousness. I’m sure on match days it might be a different situation.

“To be honest, we have no opportunity within the next couple of years to play those Division One teams under normal circumstances so this gives us that opportunity. Next season we are in Division Three and we may or may not be promoted from Division Three. But we won’t be playing Derry or Armagh or any of them teams in the near future so this was a big day for us. We’re relieved that we now have nine successes in a row. It has given us confidence that we can go on and test ourselves against some of these teams. Whatever happens, happens.

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“This is good times. We are now living in good times. This is not the time to be worried or anxious about anything. This is an opportunity to learn and grow and develop and why not? Why would we be apprehensive about playing these teams?”

No reason at all, Tony. Now, are you going to finish all that or do you want a hand with it? Malachy Clerkin

The provincial championships are dead ... let it go

I have seen the All-Ireland champions. Write it down. Dublin will win the All-Ireland. I’m telling you now, so write it down.

I was thinking of my father pulling out of Portlaoise on Sunday evening. In his many long years in this business, this was his enthusiasm, it always preceded him, and nothing could drag him or it down.

Not even the dispiriting non-event that was Dublin’s unmerciful hammering of Laois in the Leinster football quarter-final. No match, only a sad and lonely mismatch.

There were times we shared the drive to such opening acts, his anticipation carried all the way, from his early arrival, the best parking spot, the French press coffee, to the final whistle. There was expectation, maybe some old context too, but never the sense or feeling this was a futile or forlorn exercise.

But that was the lingering sense coming out of Portlaoise on Sunday. On select occasions we would pull off the motorway and head towards one of our old suburban favourites, which depending on the sunlight, could be the Bottler’s Bank, or the Blue Light.

I have seen the All-Ireland champions, he’d say. Write it down. At the start of the summer it felt like it had some meaning back then. Desperately, less so now. The provincial championship is dead. Let it go. Ian O’Riordan

RTÉ's new game gets off to a promising start

When The Saturday Game was commissioned as a load-bearing sibling for The Sunday Game, it was important that it wasn’t a clone. Just like Match of the Day 2 on the BBC, it needed to have a different tone and, over time, a distinctive personality. This weekend the new show made a really promising start.

Damien Lawlor brought a light, confident touch, letting the conversation flow, without permitting it to go off-beam. They were burdened with a series of drab, one-sided, rain-soaked and, in some cases, pointless matches, but they made a good fist of it.

The highlight came towards the end when Lawlor and the four pundits, Donal Óg Cusack, Jackie Tyrell, Colm Cooper and Ciaran Whelan congregated on the couch and chewed the cud. Cusack and Tyrell couldn’t disguise their hurling supremacism (no argument here) and bridled at suggestions from Whelan that hurling wasn’t as entertaining as it used to be.

It was the kind of conversation that could have happened at 10 to 11 in any Saturday night pub near you, but not with that cast of All-Ireland winners and Hall of Famers. Like all the best pub chats nothing was resolved, of course.

The show won’t be back for a few weeks. We look forward to it. Denis Walsh

Galway have some serious game ... and they are improving

Galway’s first-half display against Roscommon was controlled and commanding, they didn’t allow the home fans among the huge crowd of almost 17,000 the oxygen of hope in that opening 35 minutes. Roscommon failed to score from play, in fact their first shot on the Galway goal not from a placed ball didn’t come until the 26th minute. The Rossies were hanging on at the break, blessed to be only four adrift.

Still, defeat looked inevitable. Galway were so good at turning Roscommon over, Seán Kelly was bombing up the field at will, Damien Comer was like a wrecking ball marauding all over the pitch, and they kept Enda Smith out of the game completely in that first half.

The third quarter of the contest saw the game slip off track and Roscommon’s 1-3 without reply suddenly provided the home fans with that oxygen. And while that period will be a concern for Padraic Joyce, not least due to some uncharacteristic mistakes from senior players giving away possession, the response of his team to the situation will have been hugely encouraging. They were mature and calm in a situation that could easily have become chaotic and open to chance. Instead, Galway steadied matters and their big players stood up – none more than Comer who was making injury-time blocks in his own defence.

He is a real onfield leader, but he’s certainly not their only one. Kelly was influential as always, while Matthew Tierney and John Maher kicked important scores when they were needed midway through the second half. Galway weathered the Roscommon storm with the air of a team confident in the knowledge they would do so. They went about their business with composure, something you can only really get from the experience of operating at the top level consistently. They will head to the Connacht final as strong favourites, but already Galway have shown their All-Ireland credentials remain as strong right now as at any stage in recent years. Gordon Manning

Let them go ahead and find out that way

This weekend reminds us that no matter how solid the conviction, sport is sport.

In Thurles on Sunday, heading into the final quarter, Limerick’s former Hurler of the Year, Gearóid Hegarty has been sent off and Aaron Gillane has failed to convert a penalty. Waterford are just two behind. Is this it for those of us who have been cheerfully feeding the consensus that Limerick – short of forgetting to turn up – will be crowned four-in-a-row champions on July 23rd?

In another newspaper in a faraway time, an irascible editor is demanding to know why GAA previews don’t have a much higher rate of accuracy. Why? What are we going to do?

Tentatively, the reply came: “Suppose we’ll have to let them go ahead and find out that way.” Seán Moran