When An Moltóir picked up his copy of 'De Payper' last Monday morning and saw the stark banner headline proclaiming “WAR”, the first thing that ran through his mind was that it must have been one hell of a county final somewhere...

As it transpired, De Payper was following in the tradition of its erstwhile neighbour from Skibbereen and keeping an eye on political events in the East. Indeed, there was further evidence inside of De Payper’s pretensions to being more than just a parochial rag, in that pride of place in its coverage of county finals was given to the game in Ennis. Presumably An Moltóir was reading the “country” edition: they probably got a special supplement on their own final down by De Banks.

Seeing as Cork were knocked out of the Munster championship way back in May, one wonders why it took them so long to complete their club championship. Given that, even in the height of summer, the Park is a bit of a bog, delaying the final until October was asking for trouble. However, the boys from the Rockies won’t give a hoot, as they restored some semblance of traditional order to hurling affairs in the county, and put some manners on one of those pesky upstart outfits from the east of the county in the process. It will be interesting to see if they can now do something about rectifying Cork’s woeful recent record in the Munster club championship.

St. Joseph’s etc. will clearly start as favourites to win that competition, even if they were a bit fortunate to survive the Bridge’s late rally in the Clare final. At least this game was played in reasonable conditions, and An Moltóir settled in to his seat with great expectations to watch TG4’s live coverage. In the event, it was a dreadfully disappointing game, with at least some consolation being provided by the exciting closing stages. St. Joseph’s clearly have regained their appetite, and Sixmilebridge were simply unable to compete around the middle of the field.

An Moltóir was a little surprised that the Bridge didn’t try placing John Reddan at centre back, from which position he led the Banner to an All-Ireland minor title in 1997. Pat Hayes like most of his colleagues was a pale shadow of the player of last year, and Reddan, who looked a bit ringrusty, might have been able to hurl himself in the game from the pivotal position. While St. Josephs looked very impressive for most of the game (apart from their shooting) it is impossible to say to what extent this was due to the Bridge’s ineptitude. Certainly, when the defending champions turned up the heat in the closing stages, St. Josephs looked a lot more ordinary.

Still, any club that can afford to bring on the likes of David Hoey, Andrew Whelan and Greg Baker as substitutes clearly has a very strong panel although it was the fourth substitute, Damian Kennedy, who really caught the eye with two super second half points. They won’t relish the prospect of travelling to Walsh Park to take on Ballygunner in the first round of the Munster championship, but neither will they fear the Déise men. The Gunners have made a number of improvements this year, with Alan Kirwan beginning to make a fist of the fullback position, Tipp man Andy Moloney adding some heft around the middle of the park and another hefty individual, Paul Foley, showing glimpses of his under-age promise. However, they are increasingly looking like a team that has passed its sell-by date, and an overweight Paul Flynn may find it that bit harder to deliver the goods in the November mud.

Finally, and a little belatedly, An Moltóir wishes to congratulate the women footballers from Laois on finally getting their hands on the holy grail. It was a terrible pity that Mary Casey had to miss out due to injury, having endured the disappointment of all those previous defeats. It was a truly enthralling game, featuring some of the best point scoring seen anywhere this year, and a really thrilling finale. It struck An Moltóir that the referee, so eagle-eyed in spotting the infringement which produced Laois’s last-gasp free, should, in fact, have disallowed the winning point, in that Mary Kirwan was well inside the 20-metre line by the time she kicked the ball over the bar. However, fair dues to the women from the midlands, whose win will add further to the growing impetus of this very attractive game.

However, the game’s organisers could perhaps have a look at the lop-sided nature of their championship. While Mayo had just a single game against newcomers Clare before the final, Laois had to come through a tough Leinster championship. The women’s football association has shown a capacity for innovation in introducing the timeclock to their main competition. They should now take a leaf out of their camogie sisters’ book and opt for an open draw, perhaps involving round-robin preliminary pools prior to a knockout stage. At least Mayo will get a game in Connacht next year, following Roscommon's impressive win in the junior final.

It has struck An Moltóir that the last three counties to capture the women’s football All-Ireland Laois, Mayo and Waterford are counties whose menfolk apparently have a congenital tendency to go to pieces on big sporting occasions. Perhaps it is time to introduce a selective breeding programme in these counties to try to counteract this tendency(although, on second thoughts, presumably it could work the other way also!).

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‘Laois Ladies Never Say Die!’