John Fogarty: Football has a super six
INSTANT IMPACT: New manager Kevin McStay has Mayo flying on all cylinders so far this season. Pic: Piaras Ă MĂdheach/Sportsfile
A combination of recent events not least three defeats in five games for the All-Ireland champions has prompted claims that this could be the most open championship in years.
It didnât appear 2010 would be so competitive but it transformed on an enthralling All-Ireland quarter-final Saturday when Kerry and Tyrone, winners of the seven previous championships were knocked out.
You have to go back to 2013 for the last time the previous yearâs winners started as unimpressively as Kerry have this year.Â
Donegal were then relegated having won just two of their seven rounds although the list of potential champions didnât stretch beyond five â Jim McGuinnessâ side, Dublin, Kerry, Mayo, and Tyrone.
While the number of Sam Maguireâs suitors is slightly longer â Derry, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Mayo, and Tyrone â to exclaim a level-playing field is premature bearing in mind some countiesâ resource advantages that will be even more pronounced in a longer championship.
If Mickey Harteâs Law of Division 1 football stands up for a 21 st straight season, then Derry and Dublin can be dismissed. And should any of the others find themselves relegated from Division 1 (Mayo are safe), they too will be hoping to belie an even more time-honoured rule â Dublin in 1995 were the last team to be relegated and win the Sam Maguire Cup in the same year.
Claim a provincial title along the way to an All-Ireland title and in Kerryâs case they will probably have to win at least seven fixtures and for the five other genuine contenders eight. Itâs a considerable task but any of these six, featuring here in order of their current league position, can do it:
With little in the way of injury concerns and positional shifts working a treat, Mayo are most surely enjoying the new manager bounce brought by Kevin McStay. That his coaching ticket is a familiar and proven one obviously helps but, with a third seed spot secured, how he considers the rest of the league when Connacht starts a week later with the top prize being silverware and a first seeding will be watched closely. Right now, the squad is thriving.
They would have the strongest panel in the country were it not for Liam Silke staying in New Zealand and Kieran Molloyâs cruciate injury. While their league form has been patchy, to beat Monaghan as comprehensively as they did with 14 men on Sunday was the latest feather in their caps. Another one or two more natural defenders and their marquee forwards steering clear of injury and they can challenge as strongly as 2022.
Away day blues are so very real for Kerry but itâs probable their first three championship games will be in Fitzgerald Stadium where they have been unbeaten in the SFC going back to 1995. A Munster semi-final v Tipperary followed by a final v Cork and then a first Sam Maguire Cup group game as provincial winners/runners-up is an appetising start to the competition, especially when you consider Dublin are guaranteed to play at least twice outside Croke Park in the championship. Then there is the carrot of a Sam Maguire Cup group featuring a Division 4 side or New York.
They demonstrated their resilience against Kerry at the weekend but history has shown that when Tyrone struggle in the league they rarely survive, unlike the likes of Kerry and Monaghan. To win Ulster, they will have to beat Monaghan and then most likely Derry and Armagh. That is not beyond them but is it too much going before an All-Ireland series, especially as their panel has been depleted since 2021? Ten-game SFC odysseys are nothing new to Tyrone but this current group canât be compared to the class of 2005.
Rory Gallagher rightly pointed out on Saturday that Derry had been hockeying every team around them in the league these last few seasons except for Dublin, Galway, and Roscommon. Brendan Rogersâ move to midfield is a progressive move for a team who have more room for improvement in the opponentsâ half of the field. Can a small panel survive the gauntlet of this new championship though and what happens when Shane McGuigan is tied up?
They no longer have the strength in depth to replace like for like and go into every game with the confidence that they will win the game. All that said, they retain too many great players for them not to be in the reckoning and Jack McCaffrey and Paul Mannion will at least add something from the bench. Their inclusion means 13 of the 2019 All-Ireland-winning team are available. Con OâCallaghan seems to be playing games to get back to fitness and when he does he will be lethal.
We werenât going to suggest to Brendan Rogers that he is a better hurler than a footballer â not when he was so obliging with his time after Saturdayâs win over Dublin â but we would maintain there is a kernel of truth in it. Still, the Slaughtneil man was a totemic force for the leading Division 2 team as he overcame early struggles with Brian Fenton to excel in the second half before scoring the winning point.
Speaking to a few journalists afterwards, the 28-year-oldâs openness about his relationship with Rory Gallagher and his move from full-back to midfield was quite refreshing. âMe and Rory donât pick up the phone too often to tell you the truth, nor do we sit and have too many conversations at training.
âHe just said, âLook, Iâd like to try you at midfieldâ. I said, âWhat about full-back?â and he said, âIâll worry about that.â I took confidence in that he knows what heâs doing, heâs the manager, thatâs his job and if he thinks Iâll add value there, then so be it. Heâs generally been decent at it so far.â
If only everything were that simple but not being the most bosom of buddies hasnât stood in the way of them claiming Ulster and Division 3 titles. Nor has the pairâs honesty when it comes to the aspirations of reaching Division 1, which were tempered last year despite winning five of their seven games.
âWe made no bones about it last year that is where we want to be and ultimately we were disappointed to not be there,â said Rogers.
âWe set our stall out to get promoted and thatâs our ambition. The only way youâll become the best is playing the best and playing in that environment all the time. Thatâs where we want to be week-in, week-out. Thereâs just no other way to put it.â
No way indeed.
Perhaps GAA president Larry McCarthy set the tone in his Congress speech when he spoke about referees having to show respect too but there doesnât seem any let-up from inter-county football managers criticising referees.
âWe continue to highlight the need for respect for officials,â McCarthy said. âBut respect is a two-way street and ultimately earned, not given. In my discussions with inter-county football referees in the last few weeks, I asked how respect might be maintained and elevated. I suggested they might ask themselves if they could be fitter, could they be sharper, could their reporting be better.â
After condemning a decision to award Donegal a point in their opening day loss, Kerry manager Jack OâConnor on Sunday claimed Kerry couldnât buy a free in the second half of defeat to Tyrone. Dessie Farrell intimated some of the frees given against Dublin in Derry on Saturday were âsoftâ, an adjective he used to describe Lee Gannonâs dismissal in the win over Cork two rounds previous. John Cleary was even more vocal in questioning Ian Maguireâs double yellow card. The week before last, Armagh coach and selector Ciaran McKeever took aim at James Molloyâs decision to book manager Kieran McGeeney. âThe ref could have booked anybody,â he said. âThatâs just the inconsistency that you have to deal with.â
Any hopes that the awful acts against club referees last year may have reduced the brickbats aimed at top-level officials now appear fanciful.
