GAA/ National Football League: After a busy day of surprise manoeuvres and a few close shaves the National Football League has thrown up its first group of winners and losers for 2004. Celebrating more than most were Galway and Limerick, who for different reasons had particularly memorable climaxes to the last round of matches.
Galway owe a little to Limerick and Laois but they came out of nowhere to claim one of the four semi-final positions in the top division after their narrow win over Cavan.
Limerick's brave victory over Armagh left them in the same position, and the county hasn't enjoyed that sort of football hype since 1887 when they became the first team to win the All-Ireland title.
"The key thing for me was that we did this with so many players missing," said manager Liam Kearns after the 0-15 to 0-12 win at the Gaelic Grounds. "Our two regular corner backs were missing and our free taker was missing. And Conor Fitzgerald hasn't played all through the campaign. I mean we've had a litany of injuries and we've reached a league semi-final. So a lot of credit has to go to the whole panel of players to achieve that."
Their determined second-half fightback against the wind was one of the finest ever by Limerick footballers and no matter what happens over the coming weeks they are clearly intent on challenging Kerry and Cork in the Munster Championship.
Kerry had already secured their semi-final berth before they took to the field against Tyrone in Omagh and only a 24-point defeat would have denied the home team in favour of Cork. As it happened Tyrone repeated their championship defeat of last summer over Kerry by 1-8 to 1-7.
As a result, Tyrone top Division One A and will now meet the Division One B runners-up, Galway, in the semi-final on Sunday week. Kerry are paired against Limerick and both of these games are expected to be played at Croke Park.
Galway know they are lucky to be there. Limerick's victory and Laois' win over Wexford meant that Galway, Meath and Sligo could all take that second place from Division One B. But it was Galway who sneaked it on scoring difference, edging out Sligo.
It got worse for Meath, whose 1-14 to 3-7 loss to Sligo meant that they were relegated to Division Two along with Cavan - who knew their fate going into yesterday's game.
There was another tale of the unexpected in Division One A when Páidi Ó Sé's Westmeath skipped past the relegated Longford (who lost to Dublin at Parnell Park) and Fermanagh (who lost to Cork at Páirc Uí Rinn on Saturday night) with a fine win over Mayo at Cusack Park, Mullingar.
"We never anticipated that we would find ourselves in such a position at the end of the league," said Ó Sé. "I'm delighted for the players and I think this could be the break to give our championship preparations the momentum it needs."
Donegal and Kildare had already won promotion before yesterday's games and they will be joined in Division One next season by Offaly and Down. That quartet now meet in the Division Two semi-finals on Sunday week with Offaly playing Kildare and Down meeting Donegal.
