John Fogarty: The rights and wrongs of not finishing the League
Perhaps it’s the 10-year anniversary of their great injustice that is getting Louth worked up but they sense they could be on the receiving end once more.
Peter Fitzpatrick, manager of the team that were so cruelly denied a victory in the Leinster final against Meath, is now county chairman.
As Louth sit at the bottom of Division 3 with zero points, he is fearing the coronavirus pandemic could see them demoted without not yet being officially relegated.
“If the National League doesn’t go ahead, Louth are going to stay in Division 3,” he told The Dundalk Democrat.
“If you go back to the foot-and-mouth, when Louth got promoted, the leagues were declared null and void and we didn’t get promotion that time.
“Mathematically, Louth aren’t relegated and I’m fed up of the GAA using us — you saw what was done in 2010. One thing I can guarantee as chairman of the county board is that the interests of Louth will be looked after.”
Before the cessation, the chances of Louth surviving were remote to say the least.
For one, they had to beat top-of-the-table Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and promotion-chasing Down in Drogheda.
If that wasn’t enough of a stretch, Leitrim and Tipperary would have to lose their Round 6 matches and draw their final round game against each other and then Louth would hope they have done enough to surpass their superior score differences.
You can forgive Louth for their wishful thinking but, as Fitzpatrick suggests, they have been perennial fall guys.
Technically, Louth were not denied promotion but were relegated from Division 1 to the new Division 2A in 2001 as a result of the foot and mouth case on the Cooley Peninsula.
Having picked up three points in the first two games, they were ordered to give walkovers for the next five games and then had to wait until October to face Donegal in a relegation final.
That came after they had earned promotion the previous season.
But that’s just one hardship story for Louth in the league.
They have regularly lost out as a result of restructures. When the competition returned to the four divisions of eight in 2008, Louth were consigned to Division 3 despite finishing seventh in Division 1B — four teams below them leaped them into Division 2. In the 1996-97 staging, they finished top of Division 2 only for the competition to be then reshaped into evenly-matched groups, an experiment which only lasted a year.
Yes, Louth have had it rough. Dare it be said, if Meath weren’t also set to earn a similar reprieve by the abandonment of the league, you could argue there was something almost fitting about the Wee County’s Division 3 existence being saved 10 years on from that ill-fated Leinster final.
However, Newton’s third law would then come into play. Cork, a hair’s breadth from a swift return to Division 2 and avoiding any chance of a Tailteann Cup appearance having been a Super 8 team last season, would face another season in Division 3.
Not that there would be much sympathy for them more so as a county than the team.
When their hurlers were relegated from Division 1A in 2013, their political power played a major role in the competition being reshaped so as to include four teams from Division 1B in the knock-out stages. The philosophical approach adopted by Cork manager Ronan McCarthy and veteran Paul Kerrigan to their flawless 2020 Division 3 campaign being all in vain reflects the place of sport in Irish life at this moment in time.
If they have to remain in Division 3 for a second successive season in 2021 as a result of the greatest crisis in our lifetimes, then that’s just the way it has to be.
As McCarthy acknowledges in Tuesday’s Irish Examiner, the GAA are hopeful that they could stage the remaining round matches of the football league so as to uphold the integrity of the competition’s divisions in 2021.
They could also replace the challenge games, which inter-county teams will be so badly in need of ahead of the Championship when it is eventually commences. To ready themselves for Kerry, Cork, it is believed, had three games against Division 1 teams organised for April before the suspension of activity.
The difficulty is time. The GAA have spoken of a two-week run-in for counties when action resumes. McCarthy argues teams will need four weeks to be any way right for football but he is talking about Championship.
The outstanding league games could provide the warm-up but only if they are worthwhile and not impacting on counties’ championship existences.
Asking the likes of Clare to come back after at least seven weeks without collective training and almost straight away fight to avoid a secondary Championship would be wholly unfair.
Not that fairness has anything to do with many things right now or, as Louth might counter, ever.
A message straight to the heart
“Men in general in Ireland neglect major issues with their health.”
Those are the words of the late Eamonn Burns that feature in Donal O’Neill’s “Extra-Time” movie documentary set to be released online this week.
Down’s two-time All-Ireland winner’s claim doesn’t haunt nor is it ironic - he had been looking after himself before he passed away from a heart attack last October. The history of cardiac-associated deaths on his father’s side had alerted him to the fact he had to be vigilant.
Even at a time in the world where the slightest cough is a cause for concern, Burns’ statement rings true. The machismo of Irish men, that toxic cocktail of ignorance and fear, does them no favours. You will still have those believing right now that they are untouchable.
That O’Neill with, the assistance of Gerry McEntee was able to convince that Meath team, regarded as one of, if not the hardest group to ever play the game, to put themselves in such vulnerable positions on camera was an achievement in itself. If anyone can convince men in their 50s and 60s that it’s worth checking out the health of their hearts it’s Mick Lyons. Eamonn Burns’ difficulty may not have been flagged by the battery of tests done in the documentary but he felt it worthwhile to take part in the process. Getting yourself checked out in his memory is as good a reason as any to do so.
GAA’s ability to sustain shouldn’t be taken for granted
Not even three weeks into the GAA’s shutdown and there are several commentators believing that the season never mind the Allianz Leagues is a write-off. Idleness sure is catching but it appears horoscoping is too.
Some are insisting we should prepare ourselves for the worst and no Championship taking place in 2020, while others speak of the club championships replacing the inter-county fare this summer. As if somehow the GAA could financially afford to take such a hit. Coaching and development, for one, would be obliterated and that area is already under enough pressure as it is.
At the other extreme are the GAA’s hopes that they can commence the Championship in earnest as scheduled on May 10 and the majority of the outstanding league games can still be played prior to it. The idea of achieving those goals is most certainly a pipe-dream although the Central Competitions Control Committee have been busy making contingency plans.
The likely outcome lies somewhere in the middle. Games, if not the timespan of the inter-county championships will have to be sacrificed and there could yet be a knock-on effect on the provincial and All-Ireland club competitions later in the year. We may have another five weeks of non-activity at least in which people’s patience will be tested further but the GAA’s resilience shouldn’t be underestimated. Just as its members provides help and assistance to the vulnerable and elderly now, its game will offer wonder when it is safe to do so.
There are also non-sport commentators who question the need to talk about games right now, who openly ask why there is sports news when there is nothing to report. They don’t get it and they never will. Opinion doesn’t sustain but sport does.
Email:
john.fogarty@examiner.ie
