Martin Breheny takes a look back at disastrous barren spell for eastern province

IN his annual report to the Leinster Council Convention in February 2000, secretary Michael Delaney wrote of how the province could look forward with great confidence to the new decade.

Based on the available evidence, it was a fair assessment. The Sam Maguire Cup was resting contentedly in Meath for the second time in four seasons; Westmeath had won the All-Ireland U-21 football title for the first time; Kilkenny were U-21 hurling champions, while their seniors had come within a point of Cork in the 1999 All-Ireland final and were clearly taking shape.

When Delaney sits down next month to compile his report at the start of a new decade, he will do so against a background of unprecedented riches in hurling, albeit with all of them having been mined by Kilkenny.

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However, the Leinster football landscape is much different, having yielded no All-Ireland senior title and only one each at minor (Laois 2003) and U-21 (Dublin 2003) this decade.

That’s two titles from a possible 30, compared with 13 in Ulster, nine in Munster and six in Connacht. Leinster have gone ten years since their last visit from Sam Maguire and were represented only once in the final this decade. Even then, Meath were hammered by Galway in 2001, losing by nine points.

The National League (Division 1) scene has been barren too. Offaly were the last Leinster county to win the Division 1 title in 1998. Dublin will be the only eastern representatives in Division 1 next year, having avoided relegation with a win over Westmeath in the final round of games last April.

The underage scene has been disappointing too. The law of averages guarantees nothing, but it would be reasonable to expect that since Leinster have a larger number of counties than the other provinces, they would produce more All-Ireland contenders at minor and U-21 level. That has not been the case this decade.

Ultimately though, the value of every province’s market is set by the senior teams and that’s where Leinster have really struggled. The provincial title has gone to five different counties, (Dublin 6, Meath, Kildare, Laois, Westmeath 1 each) which is the widest spread since six counties shared the ten titles in the 1940s. At one level that’s good, but the evidence points to it being as a result of a drop in standards across Leinster, a theory supported by performances on the All-Ireland stage.

Dublin won the last five Leinster titles, but lost their way after that. They failed to survive All-Ireland quarter-finals in 2005-2008-2009, eventually losing heavily in all three, even if they did take Tyrone to a replay in 2005. They stayed within the provincial ambience in 2006, beating Westmeath easily in the quarter-final which means that Derry (2007) were the only non-Leinster team they beat in the All-Ireland series over the past five seasons.

The manner of some of the defeats was dismally disappointing for Dublin, especially the last two against Tyrone in 2008 and Kerry last August. Dublin were blitzed in both games, raising doubts about their mental fortitude when it comes to squaring up to the big boys.

Bizarrely, it has led to claims in some Dublin quarters that the team would be better off losing in Leinster and taking to the qualifier highway, a route which Kerry and Tyrone have used very effectively.

The difference is that the latter pair — who between them have won the last six All-Ireland titles — have also deployed the provincial path to good effect.

It’s most unlikely that Dublin would have made any more progress through the qualifier gate.

They have come in for criticism among their own and from outside, but the simple reality is that they haven’t been good enough to win All-Irelands over the past decade.

Instead, they have seized command of a province where the standard has, for some unexplained reason, dropped. The big Leinster occasions in Croke Park still crackle with atmosphere when Dublin are playing but, as in the case of this year’s Leinster final against Kildare which was totally over-valued in terms of quality, they very often aren’t as good as the other provinces.

Dublin have conceded, on average, over 22 points per game when losing at the All-Ireland quarter-final and semi-final stage in each of the last five championships. It’s a giveaway rate which is unsustainable for any team with ambitions of making the breakthrough and suggests a lack of defensive steel under sustained pressure.

It’s most unlikely that Dublin would have been so dominant in Leinster if the standard elsewhere in the province was higher.

As for Meath, their demise after hammering Kerry in the 2001 All-Ireland semi-final and going into the final as hot favourites to beat Galway has been quite remarkable.

They haven’t reached a Leinster final since and while they made two All-Ireland semi-finals via the qualifiers, there’s no great sense that they’re poised to re-visit the glorious peaks of the 1980s-90’s.

Kildare started the decade as serious All-Ireland contenders before dipping for quite a few seasons and while there are now signs of a revival, it’s difficult to know how much enduring substance underpins the latest surge.

Laois blossomed for a while under Mick O’Dwyer but didn’t seem to recognise that winning a Leinster title for the first time in 57 years was a beginning rather than an end in itself. They have totally under-sold themselves over the past few years and badly need a re-launch based on reality rather than the perception of themselves as something they clearly aren’t at present.

This was the first decade since the 1950s that Offaly failed to win a Leinster title, while it was a case of one step forward-one step back and vice versa for Louth and Longford.

Despite a dreadful 2009, the decade will be remembered fondly in Westmeath, who finally broke their Leinster hoodoo, while Wexford reached heights they hadn’t witnessed for a very long time in 2008. Unfortunately for them, the descent was alarmingly rapid this year.

Carlow trundled along in Division 4 and had a thin time in the championship, unlike Wicklow, whose summer scene has been transformed under Mick O’Dwyer.

Ironically, while Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow will recall this decade as their best for a very long time, the top end of Leinster view it differently. But then they would expect a few All-Ireland senior titles to come their way in a decade.

Instead, for the first time since the 1930s, Leinster have completed a decade without an All-Ireland title? Now who would have thought that in the early months of 2000?

Martin Breheny, Irish Independent

Filed under: Laois Football