John Fogarty: In challenging times, was this the greatest All-Ireland Championship ever?

Was this Championship worth it? You can be most certain it was. There was shape put to these past nine weeks. Weekends became weekends again. Games were conversation topics that didn’t depress and worry, the holidays we couldn’t go on but could at least look forward to, the opium when there were no masses

Mon, 21 Dec, 2020 - 21:10

John Fogarty

If anyone knows how long this year has been, it’s GAA president John Horan. In May, he was stating Gaelic games could not take place so long as social distancing was in place. Less than four weeks later and he was confirming a split season, county club championships taking place from the end of July to September followed by a three-month inter-county period from October to December.

Six months after that and on Saturday he was handing over the Sam Maguire Cup to his fellow St Vincent’s Secondary School teacher Stephen Cluxton for a third time in as many years. This wretched pandemic has been so changeable that he could be forgiven for thinking the sands were shifting below his feet. We have all felt that sense of discombobulation.

Taking credit for the success of the split season when it was a reaction propogated by Covid is not something anybody should be keen to do. Besides, it will be county that goes first in 2021 as it likely will the following year when Congress in February is expected to formally adopt the split season.

Running with club first was not the safest option but in hindsight it was what made GAA people realise ne’er the twain shall meet was the approach to adopt for the club and county seasons. For at least identifying that it had support, Horan as well as the GPA and the Club Players Association should be commended.

Safe to say nobody did more for the GAA this year than their director of club, player, and games administration Feargal McGill. To formulate the organisation’s successful safe return to play plan on top of devising a Covid Championship where just one team felt they had to bow out as well as make up the fixtures plan for what will be a Covid-affected 2021 was utterly commendable.

Bear in mind, McGill like every other central GAA official had taken a 30% pay cut. The efforts of employees to get the show back on the road this winter deserves high praise.

They offered normality and the Government, to be fair to them, knew as much. Boy did they get bang for their buck in bankrolling the Championship to the tune of €15m. “In taking the decisions we did on the crowds, we saved the championships and the leagues,” Taoiseach Micheál Martin said in September, before adding, “I want an All-Ireland this year. Because I think it would be a symbol that the country is fighting this virus.”

Dublin players celebrate as referee David Coldrick blows the full-time whistle at Croke Park. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Although that subvention was considered a once-off, the country will still be battling it into the spring and further financial assistance will be needed again as the GAA looks to commence the Championship from late April when capacities of stadia are expected to remain significantly capped. With an expected third lockdown next month, hope will be in high demand.

Of those who were selling it at the lowest times this year, those who led the charge for Gaelic games to return, John Kiely benefitted the most. “I just think it would be a huge loss to society and Ireland as a whole were we not to have a Championship this year,” he told this newspaper back in May.

But Kiely saw the bigger picture. Davy Fitzgerald and Liam Sheedy did too. Ask them if putting their head above the parapet to encourage pitches to open and games to take place when so much of the country was either stricken by fear or angry that sport was even being considered in a time of crisis and their reply would be the same as Kiely’s. Ask Peter Keane, Ronan McCarthy, or Declan Bonner if the hassle was justified and their answer would be in the affirmative.

Maybe not as much as Dessie Farrell, David Power, or Mickey Graham but it was better to have played and lost than not play at all. Completing the four senior championships will go down as one of the most commendable achievements by the GAA and its sister associations. Their value was hardly diminished by abbreviated and restructured formats, certainly not when the cream again rose to the top.

And so it was that Cluxton, Horan, and Maguire met yet again on the Hogan Stand rostrum. The familiarity of the trio is not the most healthy sight for Gaelic football as a whole but the presentation, the bookend it marked, was a triumph more than just Dubs could get behind. Best Championship ever? It takes some beating.

Hurling must tackle cynical play but double punishment too much

We brought you news last week that the GAA’s standing playing rules committee have brought forward a proposal to award a penalty as well as a sin bin in next year’s championships for cynical play that denies a goal-scoring opportunity.

In a memo explaining why they have recommended it, the body write: “Unquestionably, there is now an accepted view amongst our members of a need to introduce some proportionate sanction to address the escalation of cynical fouling in our games, specifically in hurling.

“This motion seeks support for a limited trial period (the All-Ireland senior inter-county championships in hurling and football in 2021) for the introduction of a rule that addresses aggressive fouling in a situation where a goal scoring opportunity is obvious.

“Delegates will be acutely aware of how, during the abridged 2020 Inter-county championships, the outcome of several games, both in hurling and football, were adversely impacted by actions that were designed to prevent a goalscoring opportunity through unsporting means.”

The motion explains that the yellow card would suffice as a signal that a player has been sin-binned in hurling therefore a black card would not be required (not that it exists anyway).

That old chestnut has tripped up the GAA before and may do so again. The committee are so wary of the reaction to introducing a black card in hurling that their recommendation to do it by stealth is likely to incur the ire of the hurling fraternity.

A sin bin as well as a penalty is excessive. Aside from putting pressure on the ref to determine what is a goal chance, doubling the punishment won’t go down well. It’s either one or the other but the body’s hearts are in the right place.

Provincial draws will decide league attitudes

So the 2021 provincial draws are to take place next month. With the calendar in place for the new year, it makes sense to fill the drums, especially in a month where there is expected to be little in the way of action.

Often criticised for taking place too early, the draws being done four months in advance as opposed to the usual eight would also offer something positivity for what will hopefully be a better year than this annus horribilis.

Besides that, teams will want to know how to approach the Allianz Leagues. With the start of the provincial hurling championships just two weeks after the league finals, knowing when they are out in Championship will define how some teams approach the secondary competition.

Back in 2003, Tipperary lost a humdinger of an extra-time Division 1 final to Kilkenny and in doing so lost Philip Maher for the Munster opener against Clare a fortnight later, where they were heavily beaten.

In football, Division 2 doesn’t now seem as bad for Mayo as they lick their wounds, although they appear unhappy about being placed in the same group as Meath, who were also relegated from Division 1 in October.

At least as Connacht champions they have now been given full Sam Maguire Cup and avoid the Tailteann Cup should they be relegated from Division 2 and not reach next year’s provincial final. But promotion aspirations may be affected if Galway or Roscommon are on their radar in the middle of April.