Life's a pitch, then you get knocked out: Nine talking points from the weekend's GAA

The one-strike Football Championsip, Kenny's Dubs, Sligo woe, Gavin White, and Maugbhan momentum

WEXFORD GLEE, WICKLOW GUTTED: Liam O'Connor, Anthony Masterson, Darragh Brooks, Paraic Hughes, Seán Nolan, Niall Hughes and Martin O'Connor celebrate surviving the first round cull.

The seriously unlucky seven

Perhaps it's the final time we get to list out the counties unlucky enough to be victims of the one-strike-and-you’re-out Football Championship. Ask any of the seven - Waterford, Clare, Sligo, Down, Wicklow, Louth and Carlow - for their sentiments on the end of summer for them and you could issue a uniform statement on their behalf - not all of it printable in a family newspaper. Yes, of course, everyone knew the terms and conditions but it can't have made preparations anywhere as robust as they should be for Championship. For instance, Wicklow’s interest ended Sunday yesterday with a narrow loss to Wexford in Aughrim and manager Davy Byrne admitted it was a bad way to end a year that had seen them retain their hard-won Division Three status after a relegation play-off defeat of Cavan.