National Football League

Longford has participated in the National Football League in different divisions since the league started in the 1925-26 season. In that first season the league was run on a provincial basis with Leinster having three sections. Longford Laois and Dublin won their respective Leinster sections and all three progressed to a group stage where they played each other to determine a Leinster winner. Laois faced Longford in that decider but Longford decided not to play the game in protest at the context around their first game against Dublin (The first game was initially awarded to Longford as Dublin failed to finish owing to a disputed decision. Later, the Leinster Council declared the result void and ordered a replay which Dublin won). Longford progressed to the NFL Quarter Final while Dublin and Laois progressed to the Semi-Final stage. Sligo defeated Longford in the NFL Quarter Final by 3-1 to 0-5 on 14th February 1926.

Longford won the National League once (1966) beating Galway in the ‘home’ final and defeating New York (21–17 on aggregate) in an ill-tempered clash over two-legs in the “World” final. Over the years Longford won NFL Division 2 twice (1937 & 1972), NFL Division 3 once (2012), NFL Division 3N once (1990), NFL Division 3S once (1988) and NFL Division 4 twice (1984 & 2011). On two occasions, Longford topped the division but didn’t win the division final (2003 & 2015).

These stats focus on Longford in National Football League from 1980 to 2022. (Earlier records to follow in due course)

From 1980 to 2022, Longford played 312 National Football League games, Won 141 (45%), Drew 28 (9%) and Lost 143 (46%) and averaged 4th position in divisional standings over the years. During those years Longford was promoted 11 times (1982, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1990, 1993, 1995, 2002, 2011, 2012 and 2015) and relegated 10 times (1983, 1987, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2004, 2009, 2013 and 2014). Longford’s longest losing streak in that period was nine games, stretching from Round 1 of Division 2 in 2013 until the streak was broken in Round 3 of Division 3 against Fermanagh in 2014. The longest winning run in this period was eight games from Round 7 of Division 4 in 2011 until the run was broken by a draw with Tipperary in Round 6 of Division 3 in the unbeaten season of 2012. Longford forfeited just one game from 1980 to 2022, against Cork in 2021, driven by concerns over travel and transmission during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Longford’s victory over Laois in the final game of the 2022 league campaign was the first ever win by a Longford senior team over Laois in Portlaoise. It is worth noting that Longford moved from Division 2B North in 1980 to Division 4 in 1981, however this was not a relegation, and was due to restructuring of the League structure after the 1980 season. The 1980 NFL season (1979/80) was noticeably long, started in April 1979 and stopped after two games, then restarted after Championship was over in October 1979 and concluded in February 1980.

The National League format has changed a number of times over the years from four distinct divisions to having either A and B or North and South sections within all or certain divisions. In the 1993 season, in order to re-format the league from subgroups of two divisions back into four distinct divisions, the league consisted of four “mixed ability” groups of eight teams with Longford in Group B. This unique format led to some unusual pairings and was credited with increasing attendances quite significantly. The league was then back to four divisions from 1994 until the 1998 season when another “mixed ability” set of four groups was created in order to transition back to subgroups of two divisions from the 1999 season onward. By 2007 the league was once more back to four distinct divisions and with the exception of 2021 has remained in this format since. In 2021 the league format switched temporarily to North and South sections for each division to limit travel and games during the Covid-19 pandemic, but returned to the normal four division format thereafter.