In the opening round of last year’s Allianz League, Leitrim went to play Derry in a Division Three tie at Celtic Park, with the home side relieved to earn a draw after kicking the last two points.
By the time the League was wound up in March as Covid-19 struck, Leitrim had just scored an eight-point win over Louth and, while another promotion was out of reach, their fate was very much in their own hands with regard to maintaining their Division Three status.
But a Covid outbreak saw them forfeit their tie against Down on the resumption last October and while they could still have saved themselves by beating Tipperary in their last game, they lost by two points to the eventual Munster champions.
A week later, they were competitive against Mayo for the majority of their Connacht quarter-final and even led by four points early on before James Horan’s side eventually pulled away to win by 2-15 to 0-10.
On Sunday, that margin increased to 24 points as Mayo routed them in Castlebar. Up the road in Ballybofey, Derry, who Leitrim had subdued less than 18 months ago on their own turf, pushed All-Ireland contenders Donegal to the brink and, in truth, should have beaten them.
Having finally found some momentum under Terry Hyland, it’s long gone now. Though the pandemic clearly hasn’t done anyone any favours, it’s probably the single-biggest reason for that.
Its arrival at a time when they were holding their own against reasonable opposition was one thing, but their compliance with the training restrictions that were in place until April 19 when other counties were clearly flouting them did them no favours either.
Leitrim would have entertained thoughts of another promotion from Division Four this year but, having been level against Sligo in their opening game when suffering a red card before half-time, they eventually lost by seven.
Mickey Harte’s Louth beat them in the next outing and, like that, their most tangible goal for 2021 was no longer attainable and a knockout Championship tie, away to last year’s All-Ireland finalists, was still another seven weeks in the distance. Four players pulled out after the League, one for personal and work reasons, another because he wasn’t seeing game time.
Player turnover is part of the natural evolution of any county team but while it’s been endemic in Leitrim at times, Hyland has certainly brought more stability across the board with 10 players starting against Mayo both this year and last.
Yet, there are just four, Conor Reynolds, Paddy Maguire, Mark Plunkett and Shane Quinn, who have started all of their three Connacht Championship games under the Cavan man.
As Hyland alluded to, whatever hope Leitrim have entering fixtures like Sunday’s, they have no chance of even being competitive from a standing start.
"Anybody from Division Three or Four, are they better off playing against their own teams and improving on the back of that and building a bit of confidence?” he wondered.
"Then if they come up against one of the bigger guys with a little bit of something built into them they have an opportunity to see have they improved.”
Striking that balance between providing counties with competitive games, without completely cordoning them off and perpetuating gaps that already exist, while setting out an accessible pathway to more formidable opposition with momentum and confidence behind them is key.
Whether the Championship proposals coming before Special Congress later this year are fit to achieve that is debatable.
