Sunday’s AFL Division Three match between Leitrim and Fermanagh has been called off with the points awarded to the Ulster county. A shortage of players because of injury and imminent under-20 commitments was stated to be the reason by Leitrim GAA.
The season has been a huge disappointment for the county, which was promoted from Division Four last year. They currently sit bottom of the table, relegation assured, with no points and a scoring difference of minus 77. Ironically the most recent match, a narrow defeat two weeks ago by promotion contenders Offaly, was Leitrim’s best performance.
The county released a statement on Saturday, announcing that it would forfeit the fixture with Fermanagh, due to be played in Ballinamore.
“Leitrim GAA regrets that it has to concede the Allianz Football League Round six game to Fermanagh. The reasons for this are genuine and revolve simply around the availability of enough fit to play players to fulfil this fixture.
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“This weekend the team management has a total of 13 outfield players who are fit to play tomorrow, including two players who are just coming back from serious injury one of whom has been out for 14 months and has played only 12 minutes in the last game versus Offaly.
“This does not include our two goalkeepers who are recovering from head injuries and are not fit to play. In addition to this, six members of the panel are not available tomorrow due to the fact that they are in preparation for a Connacht under-20 championship match versus Galway on Wednesday evening next.
“We must stress that the Leitrim players were very keen to play this game if it was at all possible but due to overall player welfare considerations and a duty of care towards the group for the greater good, we have had to take this unprecedented and unfortunate decision. In reality, we could find ourselves with only 12 players on the field tomorrow.
“The complete background to this decision includes the fact that in the preparation for this year’s campaign, an inordinate number of last year’s panel had declared themselves unavailable for the 2025 season and the current team management appointed at the end of October has had to deal with forming a panel in a much-delayed timeframe in which preparation only commenced in December.
“Due to the unavailability of former players, they found themselves reliant on a large number of inexperienced players and younger players from the under-20 age group.
“The workload in preparation for this season has cumulatively taken its toll and a multiplicity of simultaneous injuries has brought us to this unfortunate situation, which has resulted as outlined.”
Speaking later to Des Cahill on RTE radio, Leitrim manager, Steven Poacher further explained.
“We have a new panel, a young panel, with 20 players coming in who have never played county football before so they have been exposed towards a heavier load of training, S&C and games. We have played five weeks in a row after our first game against Laois was postponed because of the storm.
“So, five weeks in a row coupled with a young panel; the U20 championship on Wednesday night; 12 soft-tissue injuries and the uncanny set of circumstances this week where both our first-choice goalkeepers collided and got concussion, well you couldn’t write the script.”
Leitrim are scheduled to play Sligo in the final match of the campaign next weekend.
