DARA Ó CINNEIDE: One long search for the X Factor
There was a time not so long ago when the Allianz Football League would begin with games that could only disappoint, like a Cecil B de Mille film — full of pomp and circumstance but ultimately unsatisfactory. These were games that were big on fanfare and raked enough at the gate that nobody noticed or cared about the lack of a genuine competitive edge on the field.
Now that us league fetishists have accepted that the floodlit excitement of February will end in low wattage mediocrity in May, we can appreciate the competition on its own terms.
And having come to this understanding, we can seek out what little meaning we can find in our annual national always-the bridesmaid-never the-bride football extravaganza.
Damn it, we might even allow ourselves to enjoy Croke Park’s selected interval act, Republic of Loose, as evidence that the mandarins have become more discerning in their musical taste.
I’m not sure who said it a few years ago, but it is a truism that the league is one long search for the X Factor. As a means of divining real talent the league will always be small time, but there is plenty to be learned from the backstage auditions. As Woody Allen (by disposition more of a league than a championship man) put it, “if you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative”.
Standing on the terrace in Killarney last March for Kerry’s 11-point trimming of Donegal, you couldn’t help but sense that Jim McGuinness was slumming it off-Broadway, refining some aspects of his team’s game in preparation for the biggest stage. “Every day is a school day,” he said in response to questions as to why his team were so comprehensively beaten. Jimmy was learning lessons.
If we had chosen to look more closely into the Petri dish we might have noticed that during that game’s garbage time Paul Durcan had perfected the slice on his kickout to the extent that it became too much of a coincidence that his ‘miskick’ always found his man. Durcan’s innovation on restarts became a hallmark of last year’s championship.
A week after being demolished in Killarney, Donegal went back to Fr Tierney Park in Ballyshannon and took Mayo, their eventual All Ireland final opponents, apart, 0-17 to 1-7. That may well have been the day when James Horan decided that Ger Cafferkey, so effective at full back for much of last season, wasn’t suited to Michael Murphy. Fast forward to 3.30pm on the fourth Sunday in September and Kevin Keane lines up alongside Murphy after throw-in. The positioning of Keane would become one of the sticks used to beat the Mayo management with in the aftermath of defeat, but it was also a decision that proved that one bad league performance can colour sideline thinking for the rest of the year.
To be labelled ‘a good league player’ is in some counties the ultimate damnation, but how many of the wannabes starting out this weekend would do anything to be regarded as such by the end of April?
Dublin, they tell us, have the best pool of latent talent in a long time and they are the only team of the four in Croke Park this evening with a bunch of young fellas trying to grab the attention of a new manager. Jim Gavin will surely be using that eagerness to build a sense of competition within the panel again. If he manages to eradicate the bad habits that dogged last year’s league campaign, he will have done a good day’s work and the bonus of a first league title in 20 years would do his youngsters no harm at all.
By the time the campaign is over, I expect Jack McCaffrey to emerge as a player of real substance and Declan O’Mahony to re-emerge from the shadows.
Despite giving Damien Cahalane his league debut, Cork’s team selection for this evening’s opener has a seriously experienced look about it. After three league titles in a row, it remains to be seen what Cork can get out of this year’s competition, but Cahalane’s tussle this evening with the excellent Paul Flynn will in itself be instructive.
When they retrace the trajectory of a season, managers and players like to highlight certain league games as being significant and a hard-fought win in Castlebar in February or a narrow defeat in windswept Omagh in April can become an important milestone in a footballing year.
I have no doubt that Mayo would point to last year’s drawn game in Tralee and their subsequent league semi-final comeback against Kerry as early evidence that they were about to become a proper championship team. Twice in that semi-final, in both normal and extra time, they trailed Kerry by four points with just a couple of minutes left. But the likes of Colm Boyle, Lee Keegan and Keith Higgins refused to bend the knee, and a new Mayo emerged.
The teams renew hostilities in Castlebar tomorrow with Mayo once again trying to rope the wind. Kerry, for their part, will be sniffing out those green shoots that might blossom in September.
Like the rest, both teams will be slightly giddy with hope.
Sure it’s only the league.
