The Wicklow senior football championship reached its conclusion this afternoon, with St. Patrick's beating a highly-rated Rathnew side to claim their first county final success in six years.
A source for celebration you'd feel, the Wicklow champions will have little or no time to enjoy today's win - they are scheduled to play Rhode in the Leinster championship tomorrow.
The Wicklow County Final has yet to throw in and by this time tomorrow one of the teams will have already played in the opening round of the Leinster Championship against Rhode. These Fixtures are some joke!
— Robert Cribbin (@rob_cribbin) October 27, 2018
Exiting the All-Ireland championship in early June, Wicklow's inter-county commitments have been non-existent for more than four months now.
Although it may be argued that had the county final Rathnew and St. Patrick's not been forced to a replay this situation will not have occurred, it scarcely seems feasible that time could not be found to wrap up the county championship earlier than this.
Scheduled to take on Rhode tomorrow afternoon, the Offaly championship - despite the county's involvement in the qualifiers a round beyond Wicklow's first-round exit - ended two weeks ago.
Due to throw-in at 1.30pm, St. Patrick's will at least have the advantage of playing the match in Aughrim.
During a tightly-contested affair this afternoon, late points from Pat's Thomas Kelly gave them a 2-point buffer that would prove enough in the end.
Rathnew, who memorably overcame Dublin's St. Vincent's in last year's Leinster championship, had been leading 0-5 to 0-3 at the half-way mark; former county star Leighton Glynn coming up with two of the points for the reigning champions.
Rallying well in the second-half, St. Patrick's outscored their vaunted opponents by four-point to take a much welcomed 0-10 to 0-8 win in the end.
