Patrick Kelly: It’s football, but not as we knew it!
Colm O'Callaghan of Cork in action against Niall Sharkey of Louth during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 1 match between Cork and Louth at Páirc Ui Chaoimh in Cork. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
As I took my seat at the Blackrock end of the South Stand on Saturday an ominous sight greeted me. Louth were mid warm up with numbers one to fifteen defending inside the 45 metre line while the nine or ten subs worked the ball over and back struggling to make any inroads. Mickey Harte directed operations with the look of a man who liked what he saw.
It took just ten seconds of the match for this scene to be repeated as Cork gathered possession from the throw-in and the Louth cavalry duly retreated into their well drilled defensive structure. This pattern was repeated ad nauseam in what was up there as one of the most unenjoyable matches I have ever watched. To consolidate matters Louth not only conceded Cork’s kickouts but also to a man dropped inside their own 45 before Chris Kelly could even get the ball down on the tee. The sight of Sam Mulroy lining up a free with the rest of his teammates already stationed inside their own 45m line was new to me. It was more akin to Ronan O’Gara slotting a penalty for Munster before joining his teammates for the opposition half way line restart. It’s football, but not as we knew it!
