What’s rare is wonderful

CONNACHT SFC QUARTER-FINAL:

On his knees in the middle of Dr Hyde Park with a horde of Roscommon players closing in, it would have been easy for Seamus Quinn to lay off a pass. Move the responsibility on to someone else. He scrambled though, got to his feet, rode another tackle. It pushed him on to his left foot 40 metres from goal. Another defender was closing in. He fired a shot off the outside of his right boot. Over the bar. Roscommon vanquished by that point. Leitrim were in just their third Connacht SFC final for the past 50 years.

The year? No, not that heady 1994 Connacht conquering summer under John O’Mahony, but the lesser known, lesser recalled 2000. There was no backdoor back then and they were beaten in the final, 1-13 to 0-8, by the best Connacht side since the ’60s. This was a Galway, two seasons after claiming Sam, that took Kerry to a replay in that year’s All-Ireland final and won it outright the following year.