Christy O'Connor: With no unbeaten team left, the football championship is wide open
Defeats for Armagh and Westmeath in Round 2A of the All-Ireland SFC means there are no unbeaten teams left in this year's championship. Pic: Ben McShane/Sportsfile
Conor Glass dropped his head in disbelief and grabbed the net in the Athletic Grounds goal with his right hand, almost like a crutch to keep himself upright. With his left hand on his hip, Glass lingered in that position for nearly 30 seconds, almost in a state of near concussion after Jack McCarron landed an audacious and outrageous two-point equalising score with the outside of his left boot 20 metres out from goal on the sideline with the last play.
As the Monaghan players sprinted to the dressing room for extra-time of the Ulster semi-final in May, the Derry players trekked there in a state of incredulity. Ten points up midway through the second half, Derry still thought they were in an Ulster final just minutes earlier when referee Noel Mooney had blown the full-time whistle, before reversing his decision to give McCarron and Monaghan that one last low-percentage chance to take it to extra-time.
Derry still thought they were in the final until Rory Beggan nailed them with a two-point free with the last kick to win by one. Derry will be forever haunted by those memories but Glass’s body language at the final whistle of normal time told a story of a team that looked like their season had gone up in flames. And it effectively had.
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Six weeks on and Derry’s season is over after losing three successive championship matches. Is losing three games in-a-row in the provincial championship and Sam Maguire unusual? No. Clare lost four games in succession in the 2023, 2024 and 2025 championships. Westmeath, Meath and Cavan lost four games in succession in the 2024 campaign. Despite reaching the 2023 Leinster final, Louth lost four games in-a-row that summer.
Cavan were the only team to lose three games in succession last year but the terrain is vastly different now. It’s only mid-June but three of the teams in the Sam Maguire – Cavan, Derry and Kildare – have already packed their bags and gone home after losing three games in succession. Meath, Monaghan and Dublin were also staring over that barrel before the weekend but they made sure not to fall in.
The difference between now and the round robin system in operation between 2023-’25 is that teams could afford to lose games back then because three teams qualified from a group of four. But there is far more jeopardy now.
There was also inferior match-ups in those groups, which increased the possibilities of teams at a lower scale going on a losing run. Yet the match-ups are far more perilous now. And more big teams with ambitions of lasting longer in the championship than mid-June have found themselves on a losing streak that they could not break.
It’s also a sign of how competitive, and even, the football championship has become. Even in the final season of the round robin format last year, no team had gone unbeaten before the All-Ireland quarter-finals took place – which was the first time that ever happened in Gaelic football. Twelve months on, there are no unbeaten teams left in the championship after Armagh and Westmeath lost yesterday.
“Fear nobody, fear nothing,” said Craig Lennon to Siobhán Madigan on RTÉ Radio One Sport after Louth overcame Armagh. “This championship is wide open.”
And that is an absolute fact.
With 40 seconds on the clock before half-time in Salthill yesterday, Sam McCartan took on a shot against the breeze but it dropped short into the hands of Conor Gleeson. As Galway raced off on the counter-attack, their priority was to get off a shot. Shane Walsh may have had a two-point attempt in mind, but his decision to float the ball with the outside of his right boot paid huge dividends as Mathew Tierney palmed the dropping ball to the net over the heads of Shane Allen and goalkeeper Jason Daly.
It was a sickener for Westmeath, especially in the circumstances, but even more so considering the pattern that has now developed for Westmeath in their last two matches. In Leinster, Westmeath conceded just one goal in four matches, but they have now shipped six goals in two games. In the same two games, Westmeath coughed up 16 goalscoring chances, with Galway engineering ten yesterday.
Walsh’s goal was sourced from a Daly short kickout that went wrong. Tierney’s goal was preventable, while Cian Hernon got in too easily to raise his green flag. Westmeath did have to go chasing the game in the second half – but they were still far too open at the back compared to how compact they had been.
Paul Conroy did eschew a goal opportunity by taking a point in the 61st minute but three more Galway points in the fourth quarter from Rob Finnerty, Shane McGrath and Daniel O’Flaherty were balls blasted over from close range. McGrath also fisted over the bar in the dying seconds with an irate Walsh screaming for the ball with an open goal in front of him.
Westmeath did have other issues yesterday, especially on their own kickout, winning just 11 of 26 restarts. Those numbers were inflated when compared to Galway securing 20 of Conor Gleeson’s 27 kickouts, as the kickout battle dramatically increased Galway’s possession, and decreased Westmeath’s.
That will be a huge area for Westmeath to go after now ahead of next weekend. But, aside from taking the quality of opposition into consideration, Westmeath also need to stop coughing up the goal chances - and the green flags - that they didn’t ship in Leinster.
In the aftermath of Cork’s sensational win against Donegal in Ballybofey on Saturday, Jim McGuinness was asked if the defeat was potentially fatal?
“Listen, it feels that way at the moment to be very honest with you,” he said. “It is a really tough blow for us.”
It was considering how few games Donegal traditionally lose at home. After having gone unbeaten in league and championship between 2010 and 2018, when Tyrone finally beat them there in the Super 8s, Donegal only lost six league and championship games at home prior to this year’s championship. And three of those defeats were in 2023 when Donegal were a complete shambles.
It was different in Ballybofey though. Prior to this year, and excluding 2023, Donegal had only lost one game in league and championship in Ballybofey since Down beat them in 2010. That aura though, has been gradually stripped away in the last two years.
Tyrone beat them at home in the league and championship last year (in Letterkenny and Ballybofey) while Donegal have now lost two games (in Letterkenny and Ballybofey) in the space of seven weeks. And both of those were against teams – Down and Cork – that Donegal would have expected to win. Home or away.
Cork deserve huge kudos for taking down Donegal when absolutely nobody outside of their own camp could see it happening. It may not be fatal for Donegal, but it does feel like it potentially could be. Because another home defeat has peeled away another layer of the McGuinness and Donegal aura.
