September Road: The length of a football match is 70 minutes in Ulster – it’s much shorter down south

Twenty points – the average winning margin in the three Munster senior football championship matches so far this summer.

And will Cork’s clash with Clare on June 23rd bring the average down by much?

Doubtful.

Connacht’s average of a 14-point difference between the teams is skewed by London’s one-point victory over Sligo – which only shows how lopsided the other two games were between Leitrim and New York and between Mayo and Galway.

For matches where the fans have to stay until the final whistle, Ulster is number one – with the biggest margin to date being Donegal’s 2-10 to 0-10 victory over Tyrone.

AGAINST THE ODDS

A bet you could have had, but it's too late now . . .
Limerick to beat Tipperary by 1-3 points was 7/1!

MAYO, CAVAN AND LOUTH WANT TO GO BACK TO THE ’50s

You don’t want to be a member of the 1950s club.

Three counties are.

Mayo (1950 & ‘51), Cavan (1952) and Louth (1957) all brought the Sam Maguire Cup back to their respective counties during the decade.

The three had muscled in on the powerhouses of Kerry, Dublin, Meath and Galway, and looked to many to be settling in for a long stay at the top table.

However, despite all three having won All-Ireland medals before the 1950s, they never climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand again as winners.

It’s accepted as a curse in Mayo, but perhaps all three should have know their fate.

The omens were there – in the form of the songs that escaped from the tube radios in the days surrounding their last successful appearances in the All-Ireland senior football deciders.

Don’t believe me, see for yourself.

MAYO
Music hit of Autumn, 1951: Because of You,
by Tony Bennett

Includes lyrics . . .

Because of you there’s a song in my heart,

Because of you my romance had its start,

Because of you the sun will shine,

The moon and stars will say you’re mine,

Forever and never to part.

CAVAN

Music hit of Autumn, 1952:

You Belong To Me,
by Jo Stafford

Includes lyrics . . .

Just remember till you’re home again,

You belong to me,

I’ll be so alone and without you,

Maybe you’ll be lonesome too and blue.

LOUTH

Music hit of Autumn, 1957:

That'll Be the Day,
by the Crickets

Includes lyrics . . .

Well that’ll be the day,

When you say goodbye,

That’ll be the day,

When you make me cry,

You say you’re gonna leave,

You know it’s a lie,

Cause that’ll be the day that I die.

Mayo, Cavan and Louth all started the 2013 football championship as if they mean business this summer.

However, as Louth found out yesterday, the (music) gods are against them.

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND

"It's pure constipated hurling. They're so inhibited in everything they do"

– Ger Loughnane on the Dublin hurlers

TIME TO SPIT OUT THE DUMMY

And while we're thinking of Ger Loughnane, when are the GAA going to do something about the tradition of naming a "dummy team"?

GAA director-general Páraic Duffy has spoken out against it recently, but it hasn’t stopped many counties – such as Mayo for the Galway game, and Clare for the clash with Waterford – naming players a few days before their respective games that they knew would not start .

Wexford brought it to farcical proportions at the weekend, naming six players on the team last Wednesday that didn’t start on Saturday.

Even just before throw-in, the stadium announcer at Wexford Park read out the home team as it appeared in the programme.

However, Mark Fanning, Tomás Waters, Keith Rossiter, Ciarán O’Shaughnessy, Eoin Quigley and Podge Doran were all miraculously brought into the first team at the last minute.

Even more laughably, as far as we could make out, only one player, midfielder Harry Kehoe, actually began the clash in the position he was named on the Wednesday.

The GAA needs to either fix it or abandon the obligation to name teams before match-day.

It goes to an under-lying mentality – rugby teams believe the media is there to be used to promote their sport; GAA teams believe the media is there to trip them up.

THEY SAID THAT? TWITTER TWADDLE

Mark McHugh @MarkMcHugh
Just heard the Donegal v Down game fixed for Cavan Breffni Park! Great spot for a game with great atmosphere!

Aindreas Doyle @aindreasdoyle
Delighted with the win! After losing my place during the league, getting back in for today's game makes me appreciate it even more! #Gaa

Jarlath Burns @jburns834
London in Connacht semi, Warwickshire win Lory Meagher. This is the backstory of recession, emigration and GAA giving exiles a purpose.

ONE LAST THING

The last time neither Tipp nor Waterford appeared in the Munster senior hurling final was 1999, when Cork beat Clare!