Plenty to ponder after unforgettable football feast
While Stradbally had Electric Picnic, the rest of the country were treated to Football Feast.
But what was the best act? Or should the two days be regarded in such a way? Sunday’s result didn’t trump Saturday’s game. Neither did Limerick’s blockbuster dwarf Donegal’s achievement.
After such a sensory overload, it’s simply worth putting some thoughts on paper. Here’s 10:
1. Jim McGuinness is no John the Baptist cult-like figure; he is appreciated in his own land where he has asked a lot but given back more. Outside of it, he may not have been as highly regarded after what happened against Mayo last year. He was cruelly deemed a charlatan in some quarters. How quickly 2012 had been forgotten. Whatever happens on September 21, his tactical genius is secured.
2. We’ve defended Cormac Reilly in these pages before when he was roundly condemned for awarding Bernard Brogan a game-winning free against Kildare in the 2011 Leinster final. There wasn’t much from his display on Saturday that could be supported. Kerry were the better team, but would they have been so good with just 14 men for over 50 minutes of football? Will Reilly ever officiate in a Mayo game again? If his difficulties highlighted anything it’s that referees need more help than they are currently receiving.
3. At least now all the dumb talk about splitting Dublin will simmer for awhile. That is until they win another All-Ireland title. Dublin have all the ingredients for prolonged success but it’s how you mixed them together that matters. Hunger remains the best sauce. Kerry’s status as the last county to win back-to-back Sams looks a more fortified bastion of history than had been anticipated.
4. Should Kieran Donaghy start against Donegal? On form, absolutely, but, to paraphrase Cyril Farrell, is putting him at the edge of the square where Éamon McGee will mark him like throwing nuts to a monkey? Might a spot for Donaghy on the wing be more advantageous?
5. Heading to Croke Park on Sunday, we lent an ear to the Marian Finucane Show where the admittedly unseemly scenes late on in the Gaelic Grounds were decried. When we grapple one other, such actions are frowned upon and yet this same popular programme has taken a lighthearted approach to more serious incidents in rugby games when Irish teams have scrapped with foreign ones. Double standards how are you!
6. What did that melee tell you about Kerry, by the way? Talk about taking the sting out of the game. After letting so many leads slip these last few years, they weren’t going to be fooled again.
7. It was a mixed weekend for Alan Brogan and Marc Ó Sé, college mates in NUI Maynooth and former Footballers of the Year. Brogan yesterday denied social media rumours he had retired although those emotive scenes with his son Jamie at the end of Sunday’s game point to an end. For the first time since 2004, Ó Sé was dropped only to come on as a first half substitute and give a commanding show. Eamonn Fitzmaurice sure does know how to motivate. Father Time may be closing in on the pair but they remain stars.
8. All Stars now? Paul Durcan; Paul Murphy, Neil McGee, Keith Higgins; James McCarthy, Frank McGlynn, Fionn Fitzgerald; David Moran, Odhran MacNiallais; Paul Flynn, Diarmuid Connolly, Ryan McHugh; Michael Murphy, Cillian O’Connor, James O’Donoghue. Certs? Durcan, McGee, Higgins, O’Connor and O’Donoghue.
9. On Sunday, GAA director general Páraic Duffy said the success of Limerick might set a precedent for more replays to be held outside Croke Park, providing Dublin aren’t involved? Why should Dublin be excused? GAA authorities’ attempts to equalise their funding system might hit the capital but when comments such as this are made and the GAA’s national centre of excellence is made all but free to them is it any wonder it’s perceived Dublin receive preferential treatment?
10. The GAA weren’t spared in the criticism stakes last week when they moved the replay out of Croke Park but the state of the pitch on Sunday couldn’t be faulted. That it looked so good after an American football game was a credit to the staff.
* Email: john.fogarty@examiner.ie
There are many things we are a nation. Junkies for an event. Suckers for an underdog. Hoors for a wisecrack.
Joe Brolly’s half-time comment on Saturday about the Mayo full-back line being as awkward as Father Ted character Fr Dougal saying mass would have been droll if it wasn’t completely inaccurate.
Ger Cafferkey may have struggled against Kieran Donaghy but Keith Higgins was no inferior to James O’Donoghue. Tom Cunniffe didn’t give much away to Paul Geaney, either.
There’s a lot of bull spoken about this Mayo team. Even with so many of their key players misfiring on Saturday, they managed to construct several leads.
The reason for it? Defiance. Character. Fury. All the things Mayo had been accused of being bereft of in previous years.
The culture James Horan created for his group was exceptional.
Horan cocooned them from the history and stereotypes that had weighed down previous sides. Replacing him is an onerous task. Mayo sure had a good thing going. They still can, but as the county board start the search, their first port of call should be the players. Only the players know the standards that have to be replicated and bettered and, when it comes down to it, only the players can achieve them.
If legend is the most abused word in GAA vernacular then rivalry isn’t too far behind. In the lead-up to the 2011 All-Ireland football final, Kerry and Dublin was hailed as football’s greatest rivalry.
Few thought twice about questioning it, despite Dublin failing to win any of their nine previous championship meetings, the poorer by an aggregate of 66 points.
By Sunday, Kilkenny and Tipperary will have contested four of the last six All-Ireland finals but just because they have regularly crossed swords at the ultimate stage doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a keen rivalry.
Kilkenny have won the last three championship meetings between the counties by a combined total of 25 points. Tipperary’s famous victory in the 2010 final was preceded followed by three SHC victories for the Cats.
Since that epic final four years ago, Tipperary have won just one of the neighbours’ nine games between National League and championship.
The wind has been blowing stronger in Tipperary’s sails the past couple of months but, viewed with context, don’t think for a second that this is a final between peers.
