At the start of the year the then new Longford football manager Billy O'Loughlin said he would be ignoring the "defunct and lopsided" Leinster championship.
Whether or not mind games were at play, in advance of a derby clash with Westmeath, was open to debate. In any event, the Lake County went on to record a comfortable win at the quarter-final stage on 30 April.
O'Loughlin and Longford then took their place in the Tailteann Cup, where they lost narrowly to Fermanagh last weekend. An entertaining tussle it was at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park, where O'Loughlin and two of his players - captain Mickey Quinn and vice-captain, Darren Gallagher - were mic'd up for the duration of the game.
It's all part of AIB’s new series 'Tailteann Cup: Mic’d Up’, aimed at giving supporters added insights to what goes on on the sideline and on the pitch. Speaking to RTÉ Sport at the launch of the initiative, the O'Moore boss said it was "unusual initially to get a focus on the game but that wears off after a while".
As to whether it will catch on, he added: "It gives the supporters something different in how teams prepare and the inner workings of a game, the tactics and what positions the guys might take up. It gives a third eye on match-day situations and could also get the referee more involved in terms of why he made his decisions.
"There's a lot of talking on the pitch. We have two great players in Darren Gallagher and Mickey Quinn who are good at organising defences and getting guys around them motivated.
"You get a sense of what players go through in a championship match and from that the tactical battles on the sideline and battles that highlight a player's intuition."
For O'Loughlin it's time to reflect on his maiden season with Longford. On his side's league campaign, he said: "It was phenomenal to stay in Division 3. For a county like Longford, with such a small playing pool, that was huge."
As for the championship?
"We were disappointed with our showing in Leinster. We put a big effort into the Westmeath game; a few things didn't fall for us on the day. We were then very concentrated on our preparation for the Tailteann Cup and were disappointed when we lost to Fermanagh. Our season is now over. We played three games in ten weeks at a time of the year when you want to play more games."
The former Laois player is a strong advocate of the Allianz League and the Tailteann Cup. On the latter, he added: "I think that Tailteann Cup will take off. It is putting Division 3 and 4 teams in the shop window. The competition does need a bit more of a kick in terms of PR but playing games in Croke Park will help that."
O'Loughlin is not the first manager to come out in trumping the importance of the league and went on to reference a different code in highlighting its benefit.
"For us in terms of developing a panel and enticing players, the league is of utmost importance. More games, more competitive games in fine weather. Look at the League of Ireland, attendances are up, it's competitive, families are going to games. 2,900 people were at the Longford-Westmeath game, yet there was over 7,000 at Shamrock Rovers v Derry recently."
After last weekend's one-sided encounters to decide the Leinster and Munster championships, the relevance of provincial combat was again brought into sharp focus. O'Loughlin, while accepting that all is not broke, does point to history in highlighting that only a few are getting the spoils.
"The walls are closing in on the provincial championship, certainly in Leinster and Munster. Connacht, with five counties and London and New York, is somewhat competitive. Ulster is very strong. In terms of Leinster, Dublin have won 17 of the last 18 championships. And that's not very competitive in terms of the participation of Division 3 and 4 teams.
"Kildare and Meath haven't pushed as much as they would have liked. It doesn't take a huge amount of thought that a competition with so little competitive balance in it is serving little purpose for many of the teams in it. That argument resonates with a lot of footballers in smaller counties.
"Over the last 137 years there has not been a huge spread of winners in the provincial championship. Kerry have 83 Munster titles to their name."
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