We can upset the odds again, says Stack

LET’S get this in right at the top, because in all the excitement of weeks like this in a small parish, it’s something that’s far too easily overlooked.

Reaching an All-Ireland semi-final is an expensive business, a huge drain on precious reserves. There’s all that winter training to be done, expensive trips to clubs with all-weather facilities, who themselves are faced with the challenge of paying off the loans on those facilities.

So it is that Tommy Stack, full-back on the Dromcollogher-Broadford team to play Crossmaglen Rangers in Pearse Park, Longford, this afternoon, begs a little indulgence. In the midst of all the questions about facing the Rangers firepower, about the underdog status of Drom-Broadford, about how perceptions of the Limerick and Munster champions as agricultural footballers he makes a sobering point.