An All-Ireland cracker awaits, but how close is club GAA to inter-county?

The main area where the club game still lags is in sheer athleticism

Ben O'Carroll is one of ten Roscommon players on the St Brigid's panel. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

The chasm didn’t look so wide until he was asked to jump it. After St Brigid’s first won an All-Ireland, county star Karl Mannion went straight back into Division 3 football for a league clash with Cavan. The worlds were suddenly very different.

“I was caught in possession two or three times,” he told The Sunday Times a number of years ago.