‘It’s only the league’ doesn’t cut it anymore

In a way, it seems trite and even a little inappropriate to consider writing anything original on the weekend after sportswriting behemoth Hugh McIlvanney passed, but even he and his gilded quill would have struggled to find the beauty in the abyss of Castlebar on a night that would’ve made Shackleton cower.

Morrissey could not have written a song more miserable than the conditions that greeted Mayo versus Roscommon — the fixture that launched the GAA’s most entertaining football competition.