John Fogarty: Abiding by the rules of the GAA hasn’t done Galway much favours

Galway manager Padraic Joyce. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

On Sunday, Pádraic Joyce submitted the latest piece of evidence that crime does pay in the GAA. He might have overegged it by saying Monaghan will be rewarded for “breaking a curfew” when they enjoy home advantage in the relegation play-off against his Galway team on June 13 but his frustration was understandable.

Because they were only due to play one game at home which was moved to Enniskillen as part of their punishment, Monaghan have the choice of venue as Galway had two round games on their own patch.

Such a decision must feel like a kick in the teeth for Joyce who the Irish Examiner understands was approached by at least one other county to play a challenge game before such matches were permitted. They refused the offer.

Abiding by the law of the State and the rules of the GAA hasn’t done Galway much favours nor other managers who publicly and privately query the sharpness of teams who have finished ahead of them this past month.

Galway could actually make another strong argument for home advantage given they finished third in Division 1 South compared to Monaghan finishing bottom of Division 1 North. Monaghan might not have been rewarded for their sins but Galway, who unlike their next opponents won a game, certainly haven’t. Granted, Division 1 North was more competitive and Monaghan were unlucky not to win one of their last two outings but there is no incentive for finishing third.

Armagh might ask the same question as the venue for their relegation game against winless Roscommon was subject to the toss of a coin.

In the Division 2 groups, Cork and Down finished third and having been due to play one game at home will face Westmeath and Laois in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and Páirc Esler respectively.

Jack Cooney and Mike Quirke might have similar gripes to Joyce but both their teams have lost all three outings thus far so if they were to take a stance it wouldn’t be as strong as the Galway manager’s. However, the presence of 500 supporters in Newry, likely to be significantly if not all from Down, will make Laois’s task all the trickier. Across the board, the presence of fans from June 7 certainly changes the dynamic for those knockout games.

In an exceptional league system, quirks were always going to manifest themselves. The Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) has to be commended for reconfiguring a league in such a short timeframe and getting the games played but in some cases applying normal time regulations almost seems wrong. 

For several years in the hurling league, the CCCC has been giving home advantage in semi-finals and relegation play-offs to teams who have had less round games at home. Yet on top of the geographical lopsidedness of the divisional splits and the training breaches, they have fuelled indignancy.

It’s widely agreed the penalties handed out to Cork, Down, Dublin, and Monaghan were not appropriate. The GAA hierarchy know it, the CCCC know it, almost everyone knows it. But the sub-committee charged by Management Committee with investigating the breaches could only go so far with them (as a result, expect changes to the rule around discrediting the association at Special Congress later this year or Annual Congress 2021). 

The punishment they proposed were largely personal when they should have been more penal on the teams. Withdrawing home comforts for the entire season would have been in keeping with the offences.

Fans or no fans, Joyce knows the importance of home advantage. Dublin may have beaten them in Tuam but they didn’t win their “home” match against Kerry in Semple Stadium.

Cork, Down, and Monaghan all failed to win the matches that they were forced to play in Thurles, Armagh, and Enniskillen.

With the exception of the All-Ireland champions, they are all in relegation play-offs. It will be said that getting an illegitimate headstart on others did them a fat lot of good but the attention brought by those breaches couldn’t but have upset their preparations. Those who trained away before the official start without getting caught avoided such notoriety.

As Joyce highlighted, the GAA’s formula for arranging fixtures has only compounded the misdeeds of counties but this year’s league was already a pale shadow of itself. Given the proximity of the Division 1 semi-finals to the provincial championships, those last-four matches are unlikely to be hotly-contested affairs. 

As the weekend’s results confirmed, there will be no Division 2 and 4 finals. That might not be the best way of enshrining the integrity of Gaelic football’s second biggest competition, never mind the best and possibly the format for the All-Ireland senior championship next season.

Along with the qualifiers, it has been deemed collateral damage, suffering more than any of the counties who were so desperate to perform well in it.

2022 hurling league will offer variety

Kilkenny's John Donnelly and James Bergin, left, in action against Liam Óg McGovern of Wexford at UPMC Nowlan Park. Wexford mightn’t have taken a fall against Kilkenny but they weren’t showing their hand ahead of what could be a Leinster semi-final date with the Cats. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile

The provincial hue attached to the Division 1 groups should become a thing of the past next year when the sextets are re-sorted based on finishing positions this season.

Other than Clare, all the Munster SHC participants are in Group A whereas the entire Leinster SHC line-up aside from Galway are in Group B. But for the pandemic which forced the GAA to revert to a qualifier system, its similarities with the round-robin provincial competitions would be all too obvious and unhealthy.

The familiarity between the competitions has already bred some contempt. Their preparations upset by Covid cases, Wexford mightn’t have taken a fall against Kilkenny but they weren’t showing their hand ahead of what could be a Leinster semi-final date with the Cats.

Likewise in the LIT Gaelic Grounds on this Saturday evening, while a first win of the season for Limerick wouldn’t go astray the only meeting against Cork that counts is July 3. Other than for individuals looking to impress managers, not much should be gleaned collectively from the fixture.

The new Division 1A will comprise those who finish first, fourth and fifth in Division 1A this year along with the second and third place finishers in Division 1B along with the promoted team from Division 2A. Division 1B will involve the 1B winners, fourth and fifth finishers in 1B, the second and third best in Division 1A as well as the relegation play-off victors.

As it stands, the 2022 Division 1 groups read like this — 1A: Cork, Waterford, Limerick, Dublin, Wexford and Offaly. 1B: Kilkenny, Antrim, Clare, Galway, Tipperary, and Laois/Westmeath. Combinations certainly more appetising than the present groups.

Some of surprise Cork bonus should go to O’Connor family

Today would have marked Kieran O’Connor’s 42nd birthday. Picture: INPHO/Donall Farmer

There will be plenty of ears bent towards Cork’s monthly board meeting this evening when the executive address the discovery of two bank accounts with sizeable balances not part of their audited accounts.

The €89,000 and €87,000 amounts discovered in the hurley and helmet scheme and team holiday accounts are ones Cork GAA can make use of right now, especially as they have agreed to pay more than €300,000 to improve lighting for pedestrians around Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

But might some of it be put to better use?

Today would have marked Kieran O’Connor’s 42nd birthday.

His passing last July will be remembered by most GAA followers but it continues to be felt by his wife Sinead and their three young children as well as their extended families, friends and former teammates.

Had it been known there was €87,000 in the holiday fund when 2010 All-Ireland winning captain Graham Canty led the fundraising drive for O’Connor’s care in 2019, it would likely have been transferred to such a worthy cause.

As the first anniversary of the Aghada man’s passing falls next month, Cork GAA could do worse than donate a sum of money that was meant to benefit players to the O’Connor family or to an initiative in his memory.

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