Striving to avoid the badlands of relegation
The game was live on Setanta Sports but it certainly didn’t feel box-office. We struggled. Offaly had a right cut and nearly caught us. From then on, I remember feeling pressure to get the hell out of the division back up to 1A.
Back then, the top two qualified for the final to decide who went up. You knew you could afford to lose one game but I remember being really low the night Limerick beat us in Croke Park.
We had to get a result down in Wexford Park the following week to guarantee our place in the decider. We did, but one of the most pressurised days I ever felt as Dublin manager was going into that Division 1B final against Limerick.
People often commented about how elated we were afterwards. There was no Bob O’Keeffe or Liam MacCarthy handed out but it was like the air had just been released from a pressure valve that was almost suffocating us.
In Dublin, the importance of top tier hurling was always a dominant theme coursing through my six years in the job. It was always said about how crucial Division One hurling is for the development of Dublin hurling.
With the way the league has changed now, the same pressure no longer exists, but counties like Dublin still want to cling onto the top table with a desperation other counties may not understand.
Part of that mindset is the memory of the badlands and the bad days and the dread of going back there. Division 1B was always hanging over us like a pall of dead air. What I remember most about that league campaign was our last match against Carlow at home. Carlow had nothing to play for.
We were more or less guaranteed a final spot but we still had to win to nail it down. The match captured nobody’s imagination. About 300 people turned up. We were walking into the dressingroom at half-time and you could hear people calling out the results from the Division 1A games. Our match was hardly even registering with our own supporters. I remember saying to myself, ‘This is doing is no good at all’.
When I shook hands with John Allen after we defeated Limerick in that relegation final, there was genuine deflation on his face. Little did we think we’d both be provincial champions three months later. When I reflected on that league campaign afterwards, it wasn’t the disadvantage we and everyone else thought it was.
It allowed us try a few things, to blood a few new players. More importantly, we were out of the glare and could come into the summer totally under the radar. The spotlight that Clare and Dublin are under now this week wouldn’t exist in Division 1B.
Nobody wants to get relegated but I’m sure the experience of going down is far worse when you don’t come straight back up. That’s why it must be a bit head-wrecking for Limerick to have been in the second tier for so long. Division 1B is not a bad place to be, especially since they changed the system and the top four are guaranteed a quarter-final, but Limerick just needed to escape for a change of scenery and the glow that would have come with the thoughts of big atmospheres in the Gaelic Grounds next spring.
With Limerick now gone out of the equation, the one team that fit a similar profile and could do with getting promoted are Wexford. After last year’s progress, a win tomorrow against Waterford would be another statement of intent, another forward step on such a positive journey over the last two years. It would galvanise their supporters even more.
Waterford have been one of the most impressive teams this spring but I don’t think there is any real pressure on them. Derek McGrath has done a brilliant job in rebuilding this side and I really admire the way management have gone about their business. There has been no whingeing from Derek about the big names they lost from the pitch and the coaching staff.
I haven’t heard one whinge from him since he got the job. He has just been putting block on block in his reconstruction of this team, getting on with his task and I’d say the genuine Waterford supporter wouldn’t be too despondent with another year in Division 1B to blood more of their young players from the 2013 minor side.
Wexford’s need is probably greater and they have more to lose. If they can hit the same level of performance they managed against Limerick — provided they can cut out the silly mistakes which coughed up goals and cost them the match — I’d fancy them to be back in 1A by tomorrow.
Clare need to win to have any chance of staying out of a relegation final but just why they felt the need to issue a statement of unity during the week I don’t understand. My opinion was that statement was made loud and clear in Cusack Park last Saturday — down six points and down to 14 men. I wrote here Monday I felt they all needed to sit down and iron it out whatever issues remained. They obviously did meet but I’d prefer to keep the outside out and let the hurling do the talking from now on.
I still fancy Clare to win, but it’s a difficult game for them. If they are well ahead, do they drive it down Kilkenny’s throat and run the risk of massive retribution the following week if the sides meet in a relegation final? It’s definitely a more awkward fixture for Clare.
Clare will still be going gung-ho for the result because the one team that is under real pressure tomorrow is Dublin. After such a brilliant start to the campaign, it would be a massive disappointment now if they find themselves in a relegation final. Most of these Dublin players know what the badlands are like. Division 1B doesn’t hold the gloom it once held but Dublin still don’t want to go back there.
That motivation should be enough to get them the result everyone in Dublin hurling craves.
