LEITRIM IN NEED OF HELP, NOT SYMPATHY, INSISTS MULLIGAN

INSTEAD of soft talk, what Leitrim could really do with is some hard cash. Tomorrow, Roscommon come calling into their backyard in Carrick-on-Shannon to play in the FBD League final and it grates a little with Emlyn Mulligan, the Leitrim captain, that the outside world confuses this for being their summit. Last year, when they took down Sligo to win the Connacht preseason competition, he was amazed by the media storm it generated. While it was all positive, it felt like they were being head-patted to death. ‘I do think that, to a degree, people made a far bigger deal about it than we did. Look, obviously we thought it was great because of the belief it would give us but we didn’t over-celebrate it or go on the rip for a few days. We are a small county and I suppose people wish us well and they don’t expect us to win much, if anything. It could be disheartening if you looked at it like that, but it is what it is. We don’t feel sorry for ourselves,’ says Mulligan. Instead of well- intentioned sympathy, what they really need is real support. They have a population of just over 30,000 and draw their players from 24 clubs, half outside the senior grade. Yet they are asked to live and breathe on the same field as Dublin, a county who can draw on cash support from a multinational giant, while they are partly sustained by a family-run hotel. This week, Páraic Duffy, the GAA’s director general, called for a change in the how central funds are allocated to address the chasm that exists between the haves and the have-nots. Mulligan (left) is adamant that it is what needs to happen. ‘There should be no difference between rural and urban and they should all be getting the same benefit from the GAA. ‘Every club has got that facility of a full-time coach and you look here in Leitrim and we have [only] one for the whole county. If there was extra money pumped in, and we are not a big county, all you would need is to employ a few mores coaches, particularly focusing on the primary schools and linking them to the clubs. ‘There is a lack of coaching simply because we don’t have the money to do it and instead of people praising us for the odd time we do win something, it would be far better if the GAA actually ensured that we can get the best out of what we have and help us compete in the long-term,’ says Mulligan. Tight on funds, every cent spent has to be watched. Only Longford and Louth spent less on team preparations in 2012 than Leitrim. ‘We just have to keep it very tight,’ explains county secretary Diarmuid Sweeney. ‘We would never be in a position to take anyone extra on our playing panel so the manager is told that he has to stick strictly to a 30-man panel. ‘In terms of the backroom team, it would be kept tight — we have seven and out of that, only four would be in a position to get some reimbursement.’ Leitrim will keep on doing what they do best, keep on, keeping on. ‘We train as hard as any other county team; we treat it as professionally as any other team,’ says Mulligan. ‘People around the country might feel a bit sorry for us but I can assure you that the lads on this team never do. We keep pushing it on.’