State in safe hands with Michael in goal
Somebody remarked to me this week that Michael Noonan is now the goalie for the Government and is a safe pair of hands. And my friend stayed with GAA parlance to add that Noonan is playing far better now than when he was leading the outfield team as captain.
That is a matter of opinion of course but it struck me later that it might be an intriguing exercise to apply football parlance to the performance of the entire Government.
When you think of it that way it is a fact that the Taoiseach is the captain of a team with exactly as many members as the rugged Islandeady outfit he played for in his youth in Mayo.
It is also a fact that his late father Henry Kenny won a rare All-Ireland medal for Mayo away back in the 1930s and that one of his present political team, the tough Jimmy Deenihan, has a raft of All-Ireland football medals back home in Kerry.
There’s more than that. The harsh economic times have hit the GAA hard through emigration. In many counties teams have had to amalgamate to survive.
Is that not the way it is with the Government too? You could argue in football terms that our Cabinet is an amalgam of the largely country team of Fine Gael with a Labour element who are largely “townies”.
The gut comes from the land, maybe, and the strut from the streets.
So we have the durable Michael Noonan in the goals and his captain Enda Kenny in front of him, guarding the square as full back and Eamon Gilmore at centre-half back in front of them, with the dual role of repelling attacks and plotting moves from midfield.
My (Fianna Fáil) friend who started us off on this path suggested that the Tánaiste is under fierce pressure altogether in the game, attacks coming from all sides, especially since the Meath result, and no chance at all of plotting strategies of his own.
In my own view of the course of the game to-date, it would seem that Jimmy Deenihan is playing as well as ever in the defence, in the right corner back position but Howlin, over in the left corner, is suffering largely because Jimmy (Doc) Reilly in the half-back slot ahead of him is being constantly caught out of position since the game began and is seen as being a bit cumbersome in responding to threats.
Meanwhile, fellow backs Alan Shatter and Leo Varadkar, though playing with a strut at all times, and occasionally promising much, are betraying their lack of experience at this championship level and too many points are being scored against them, especially against Shatter who will do well not to be substituted at half-time.
Out at midfield, the pairing of big Phil Hogan and Ruairi Quinn began the game well and fed their forwards with a constant stream of scoring opportunities in the first quarter. However, as the game has progressed, both seem to be displaying a shortage of real match fitness and to be tiring.
Quinn came under severe pressure this week in particular and, though strong, durable and wily, is now suffering. He is not being assisted to any significant extent by any of his forwards bar Simon Coveney who is always willing to run into space for the telling pass.
The Meath attacker Bruton is taking the occasional neat point as the game progresses but he still has his weakness for over-carrying the ball and embarking on solo runs when colleagues like Fitzgerald and Burton are screaming out for the passes which might yield a higher return.
It is in the attack that the inherent weakness of amalgamated teams is most clearly apparent.
Sometimes it appears that the country team members are loath enough to pass a scoring chance to one of their allegedly townie colleagues. Old rivalries die hard in both football and politics. Ask Pat Rabbitte says my football friend.
There are two teams involved in every worthwhile game. The Opposition to Enda Kenny’s team is, I suppose, an amalgamated side as well. Captain Micheál Martin seems often uneasy with the experience of wearing the same jersey as Gerry Adams and such individualistic players as Ming Flanagan.
The veteran Dev Óg Ó Cuiv, the hardy ML McDonald , and the opportunistic Michael McGrath at full forward in particular are taking their scores as the battle continues but it is fair to suggest that at this stage the game is still there to be won or lost. And we are well down through the second half.
I won’t venture into the area of red cards or yellow cards or the current relevance of Croke Park to both football and hurling and politics. But there is a kind of sin bin in Leinster House, is there not, through suspensions for unruly behaviour?
I’m left with the image of Michael Noonan crouched behind his safe pair of hands in the Croke Park goalmouth. And Enda Kenny prowling through the Hell’s Kitchen of the political parallelogram in front of him.
