Leitrim entitled to big day out, says Dolan

Depending on who you're listening to this week, Leitrim are about to enjoy their biggest day in Croke Park in 12 years or are just getting in the way of the Dublin supporters.

They play Louth in Sunday's Tommy Murphy Cup final, the competition introduced two years ago to give teams beaten early in the football championship something more to play for.

One of the incentives to make the final is that it's played in Croke Park with one of the All-Ireland football semi-finals - which this year happens to feature Dublin against Mayo. Leitrim and Louth have together received around 11,000 tickets; Dublin's share is around 26,000. While that hasn't satisfied certain Dublin supporters, Leitrim manager Dessie Dolan has little sympathy for those who believe Sunday's game should be predominantly - if not all - sky blue.

"Well, sure every supporter believes they have the divine right to see their team," says Dolan. "But what I would say is that Leitrim have got to Croke Park on Sunday on merit, and they're as entitled to bring their supporters there as anybody else.

"Dublin will still have something like 60,000 there to support them when all is said and done, and most of them have only to walk down the road. Leitrim people have to drive three or four hours to get to Croke Park. And I believe Leitrim do as much for the GAA as Dublin do, and our players and supporters are every bit as much entitled to be in Croke Park as anyone else."

As a Westmeath native - and the famous father of Westmeath's famous footballing son - Dolan can only guess what Sunday means to the people of Leitrim. Yet he has a fair idea. The last time the county got a big day in Croke Park was the 1994 All-Ireland semi-final (when, incidentally, they lost to Dublin), though they also played Dublin in Croke Park in the National League later that season.

"It's hard for me to fully appreciate what it means to Leitrim," admits Dolan. "I know Westmeath had a great experience in 2004, winning the Leinster title, and that gave everybody in the county a huge lift. Obviously Sunday's game is not nearly as important, but it's still the final of a competition, and this team will be running out on to Croke Park to a packed stadium. And I know Leitrim people are delighted with that; it's a big thing for them.

"Gerry McGovern, the county chairman, was just telling me that there's a huge interest in the game."

Despite some of the hype in Leitrim, Dolan is not getting carried away with the whole thing either: "Of course you have to keep things in context. There can only be one All-Ireland winner, which means every other manager is a failure. We know we're not in the top level of teams, but we're in the final now, and lots of other counties aren't, so we're going to make the most of it.

"And we haven't made a huge effort to win the thing, to be honest. The players have been back with their clubs, so we haven't been training consistently really. We had a good session on Tuesday night, but prior to the other games we didn't do a whole lot at all.

"The fact is it's not as important as a Connacht championship match. It's a nice chance to win some silverware at the end of the summer, but the biggest bonus I see in the thing is that the players are out in Croke Park at the end of August, and that's a nice reward for all the training over the year. This is also a very young Leitrim team so I think it will serve them well for the future whether they win or lose."

Dolan will announce his team after training this evening but still has several injury problems since the semi-final win over Carlow a fortnight ago - including Declan Maxwell, Gary McCluskey and John McKeon. Johnny Goldrick is definitely out with a broken hand.