We're just a few weeks shy of the 20th anniversary of one of the more memorable Croke Park pitch invasions. Memorable both for the euphoria and for the novel fact that it came after an Allianz League Division 2 final.
Meath led Monaghan by two points after a thrilling 70-plus minutes with Farney great Paul Finlay standing over a free at the death that had to drop in around the house for a potential title-rescuing goal.
In something of a collector’s item, the player put a metre too much on his floated effort leaving Mark Ward, standing on the goal-line, with the simple task of diverting the ball over the bar, only he got his calculations wrong and punched into his own net.
That sparked an unbelievable outpouring of joy from then success-starved Monaghan fans as they packed on to the turf after what could have been classed as a Division 3 final really, seeing as the top 16 played in 1A and 1B that season.
The whole game was helpfully uploaded to Youtube by former Monaghan midfielder Dick Clerkin, who looked more like a free-scoring inside forward that day, and it really is worth checking out with Farney boss Séamus McEnaney walking around in an almost trance-like state afterwards.
If Monaghan beat Roscommon in this week’s Division 2 final, there will be no pitch invasion. There will be no call for 'Plan B’. Likewise in Division 3 and Division 4. Let’s not even start on Division 1, where teams have essentially described the league final as a pig with lipstick.
Yes, there can be absolutely no denying that this glorious competition which provides seven rounds of thrills and spills between evenly-matched teams, has the finishing power of Stephen King – Maine, not Cavan.
It seems, for now anyway, the Division 1 final is beyond saving. When a county like Donegal, with one Division 1 title to their name, seem content with missing out then it’s hard to know where to go from there.
In defence of the Tir Chonaill County, that position is understandable too. The eight teams in the top flight all have genuine Sam Maguire aspirations, especially so in 2025, and you can maybe extend that out to the top two in Division 2 too if you're feeling particularly generous.
The apathy for the other two divisions when it comes to finals, however, is hard to square up.
Promotion is, and always will be the key aim in the lower leagues, but the extra game that comes with it should be treated with the fanfare of a provincial final. And the buy-in from the players and management involved should match that.
Over the last 10 seasons, the quartet involved this weekend – Offaly, Kildare, Wexford and Limerick – have amassed between them two cups and both of those went to the Treaty County courtesy of a league triumph in 2020 a few months after winning the McGrath Cup, although the Faithful County did claim a Division 4 crown in 2015.
Put simply, this weekend should be a genuine potential career highlight for many of these players. And treating it as such doesn’t diminish any aims of progressing in time to bigger achievements.
The bigger likelihood though is the two full-time whistles in Saturday and Sunday’s curtain-raisers will be met with satisfied applause rather than any attempts to sneak past stewards.
The venue plays a part in that too. This reporter remembers being at Pearse Park in 2009, and the crowd rocking as Tipperary, managed by the illeism practicing John Evans, defeated Down in a Division 3 thriller after Sligo had bettered Antrim – the same day that Man United famously overturned a 2-0 half-time deficit to beat Spurs 5-2 to effectively end Liverpool’s Premier League challenge (the crowd noise drowned out my sobs).
The next year, all four finals were moved to Croke Park with the Division 1 and Division 2 deciders having been played there the previous year.
There they have remained, Covid 2021 season aside, and some of the attendances would have made the GAA whistle through their teeth – 7,514 in 2012 for the double-header, 8,654 two years later.
The players want them there though, they have made that very clear, but the pay-off is atmospheres that aren't conducive to the occasion unless you have the rarity of Leitrim reaching the Division 4 final in 2019 and taking everyone in the county with them, or that aforementioned Monaghan-Meath mania.
True, the four teams in the lower-league finals are probably ear-marking different pathways over the coming years.
Kildare will be looking to follow the example of Armagh, who transferred a couple of Division 3 titles in the last couple of years into regular Division 1 football and that famous Sam Maguire success last July.
Maybe for Limerick and Wexford those aims are more tuned into a Tailteann Cup victory in the near future.
Whatever the aims of the counties may be, league finals weekend should be a showpiece not a distraction.
Follow the Allianz Football League finals on Saturday and Sunday on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Watch Allianz League Sunday from 9.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Listen to updates on RTÉ Radio 1
