Spillane: Tailteann Cup is going to be a 'huge success'

Amid all the hand-wringing about one-sided provincial finals - on Saturday at least - Pat Spillane pointed to what he regarded as one of the bright spots of the weekend - the Tailteann Cup.

The months preceding the inaugural competition witnessed doom-laden prophecies about player apathy and large-scale opt-outs - as well as a great deal of grumbling about an alleged paucity of pre-publicity.

But, according to Spillane, the early signs are that the Tailteann Cup is beginning to gather some momentum.

After the preliminary rounds, the tournament shot into a higher gear at the weekend, with Carlow, utterly abject throughout 2022, shocking Tipp in Netwatch Cullen Park, and Andy Moran's Leitrim overcoming Antrim in Carrick.

"The Tailteann Cup is starting to be a huge success. It's going to be a huge success," Spillane told the RTÉ GAA podcast.

"When I saw the Carlow players celebrating after that victory, I said 'that's it! That's brilliant.'

"Take Leitrim and Sligo, one of them is going to get into a Tailteann Cup semi-final. For one of them, it will be their fifth championship game of the year.

"Go back through the records, when did Leitrim or Sligo ever play five championship games in the one year? Probably never, maybe once? (Sligo played six en route to All-Ireland quarter-final in 2002)

"Not alone that but they'll be playing that fifth game of the championship in Croke Park and it will be live on RTÉ television.

"I've looked at the teams still in it. No one has dropped out. They're committing, they're training hard, they've full-strength teams.

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