12 flags still flying in the quest for Sam

THIS columnist’s weekend centred around a trip to Manchester for the Northern Games youth tournament with hundreds of young footballers to play in competitions across two days hosted by Lancashire GAA.

All around the main pitch were hung all the flags of Ireland’s 32 counties, and as our coach departed at the end of Saturday’s play around 5pm, with volunteers already dismantling the site, as a Derry native I couldn’t help but notice that the flag of the Oak Leaf County was one of the very first to be lowered to the ground.

A prescient moment then, as a few hours later Meath prevailed in the Round 2B fixture at Celtic Park to make Derry one of the first to exit this year’s Senior Football Championship.

The Royal County seemed to be playing for talisman, Ruairi Kinsella, who is sadly out for the season and probably longer, with a cruciate injury, and they made light of the hosts’ status as slight favourites.

So Derry derailed, while Meath get their season further back on track.

Another much more fancied Northern host fell to an unexpected defeat in a Round 2A fixture hours earlier. Just two weeks previously, Donegal had beaten Kerry, thus becoming everyone’s number one pick for Sam in July.

Cork’s defeat of Jim McGuiness’ men has now recast that game as one where Micheál Burns’ uppercut to Ryan McHugh was more critical than any tactical nous by the Donegal manager.

No matter to the Rebels, who flew north on the day of the game and returned home full of confidence after a first win in Donegal since 1998.

The host’s profligacy in front of the posts kept the Leesiders in the hunt but it was Stephen Sherlock’s decision to bring a free outside of the 40-metre arc with ten minutes to go, that proved elementary.

Donegal now enter the last chance saloon with a tie against Dublin.

Elsewhere, in a Round 2B game against Roscommon, Monaghan ended the Connaught Champion’s season. Does winning the Nestor Cup constitute a successful season for the Rossies? Probably. Will it feel that way right now? Probably not.

Kerry’s demolition of Division 3-bound Kildare was the least surprising result of the day. If stars like Gavin White can return sooner rather than later, a two-in-a-row might just become feasible.

Keeping 14 players on the field from throw-in to hooter will be essential though. Micheál Burns’ two-game ban following that Donegal game might be the end of his season, though anyone looking at Ryan McHugh’s bloody forehead will have little sympathy. We want our shemozzles to be performative not injurious.

Sunday came and Westmeath’s five- game winning streak went in Galway. Martin McHugh’s newly crowned Leinster Champions have created quite the stir in the Lake County and 15,000 fans headed west for the clash of maroon on maroon—or white on green as it happened.

Ultimately, Galway weathered the challenge, and Westmeath are just the latest side to fail to properly cope with the windy conditions of the Salthill venue. But the Midlanders will still feel that a Round 3 game against Monaghan is an opportunity to progress.

As for Galway, Padraig Joyce is still hurting from the 2024 final loss to Armagh. He’ll be happy with the extra week of rest that this Round 2A victory brings, with his team quietly sliding into joint favourite status alongside Kerry.

Sunday was also the day that Dublin welcomed back Ger Brennan to the sideline for their do-or-die tie away to Cavan. Handed a 12-week ban for manhandling a member of Galway’s backroom team in the league, Brennan saw Mr Reliable, Con O’Callaghan, slot home a penalty in helping overcome a profligate home side. Donegal next for the Dubs.

Meanwhile, Mayo and Tyrone played out an epic Round 2A game in Omagh with Darren McCurry scoring 6 points from the bench. Mayo thought Sam Callinan’s late punched point was enough for another famous victory up north. However, Niall Morgan—long in the tooth but still long with the boot—drew on some recent sage advice from rugby’s Johnny Sexton, to secure victory with a two-point free. Mayo face Meath in Round 3.

Louth chose the 6000-capacity venue in Inniskeen as the venue for their high-powered Round 2A encounter with Armagh, so robbing the ‘visitors’ of their 16th man, their vociferous supporters.

Inniskeen is the birthplace of Patrick Kavanagh, and the poet could surely have conjured up a wise quote to describe Ethan Rafferty’s despair at fumbling Sam Mulroy’s buzzer-beating Hail Mary, conceding a goal and the match at the very death.

A disappointed Kieran McGeaney will have to prepare his troops for Kerry, while the Wee County have everyone dreaming of the ultimate GAA Hollywood ending.

So, 12 flags still flying in the 2026 Senior Championship. Soon it will be just eight.