This weekend's GAA fixtures offered plenty, and have more or less delivered. Wexford shocked Kilkenny in Wexford Park, Cork eeked past Tipperary, while Cavan/Monaghan belied the weather and the example of their truly terrible league clash to be actually quite watchable.
Further down the watchability scale was the game which received the smallest billing: Offaly and Westmeath in the Leinster football championship.
It ended a draw, at 0-10 apiece, and was extremely tight throughout, with no side leading by anything more than a point. The game will be replayed next Saturday afternoon.
While it was good for the paying spectators not to turn up at a one-sided landslide, there wasn't much by way of entertainment bar the occasional tension of the scoreboard, and the great fear that fans may be forced to sit through the game all over again next week.
That has since transpired, and it is an opportunity lost for Westmeath: Offaly ended the game with 13 players: Michael Brazil and Ruairi Allen picked up four yellow cards between them.
They had chances to win it, too: taking two late frees short rather than tapping them over the bar. They lost the ball on both occasions.
The Westmeath twitter account summing up just how bad the game was.
Garbage from both sides. Horrible to watch
— Westmeath GAA (@westmeath_gaa) June 11, 2017
This followed an earlier effort:
Game of handball on in Tullamore!
— Westmeath GAA (@westmeath_gaa) June 11, 2017
This image from Will O'Callaghan summed up one of the reasons the game was so poor to watch:
Everyone bar Heslin and Dempsey and their markers in the Westmeath half pic.twitter.com/9bvA8io1N2
— Will O'Callaghan (@willocallaghan) June 11, 2017
A couple of supporters agreed:
Such a poor match between Offally and Westmeath. No idea who to blame but we are blessed to get a replay. Has to be a better game.
— Kieran O Connor (@kieran_oconnor2) June 11, 2017
The winner of the replay earns the dubious honour of getting a crack at the Dubs in the semi-final.
