The Fogarty Forum: Donegal merely went through the motions
Since Derry beat Kerry in 2008, Derry, on two occasions, and Tyrone have contested finals. Their subsequent performances in their provincial championship have belied their springs. In 2009, Derry beat Monaghan in their quarter-final four weeks after losing to Kerry but were then humbled by Tyrone. Two years ago, Tyrone were edged out by Dublin and four weeks later left Ballybofey on the back of a third consecutive Ulster defeat to Donegal in as many years. Last season, Dublin handed out a beating to Derry and Brian McIver’s men were again the losing side against Donegal a month later.
Had Donegal won on Sunday, they would have had just three weeks between a league final and a monster of a clash with Tyrone in Ballybofey. If anyone expected them to put up anything more than a fight against Cork they were daft. Anybody who knows the ruthless nature of Ulster football appreciates preparations for such games require military precision.
Covert operations too. Donegal were never to going to show anything to Tyrone on Sunday they didn’t want them to see. Any of the Tyrone management who were in Croke Park on reconnaissance may as well have left at half-time. Donegal defenders don’t get sucked up the field like they did for that first Cork goal.
If Donegal were going to qualify for the final, it would have been Donegal only in name. Whatever about a game three weeks out from facing Tyrone, a chance for Dublin to dish out a revenge thrashing was never going to be part of the plan. If Donegal really wanted it, would Paddy McBrearty have pointed near the end when a goal would have brought them within touching distance of Cork? Afterwards, Rory Gallagher all but admitted his team’s focus was off: “We weren’t geared to peak for a game today. We’re out in a must-win game in Ulster on May 17 - we have to gear for that.” He also said Neil Gallagher could have started but didn’t.
As long as there is clear and present danger on the horizon for Ulster’s best towards the end of the league, the secondary competition is susceptible to suffering. However, the removal of the top flight semi-finals and opting for an early to mid April final between the top two would go a long way to restoring the league’s integrity.
This writer has been a critic of the last four games since they were introduced in 2012 on the basis of several points such as teams being rewarded for winning just three of their seven round games. The very same return could as much relegate a team too. Dublin are the only county to finish outside the top two that has gone on to win the league final but then they are an exception.
We won’t delve into the poor attendances these last four years only to state they strengthen the case against the semi-finals not only being staged in Croke Park but their very existence. The 20,013 crowd on Sunday is a far cry from the 40,000 anticipated on record by the GAA for a Dublin-involved double-header three years ago.
The crowd numbers now wouldn’t exactly support the theory that the association’s insistence on sticking with the Croke Park double-header is a veritable money-maker. We could hazard a guess and say had Dublin not been involved this year the games would have been staged outside of Croke Park. Then again, there is a duty to provide premium seat holders and corporate box owners with as many games as possible.
The semi-finals were brought in as a means of countering the dead rubbers in the final round of matches. The problems are these two additional games haven’t captured people’s imaginations and there hasn’t been much of an improvement with dead rubbers. Division 1 permutations were just as perplexing now as they were before semi-finals. In 2009, Derry edged out Galway for a final spot on their head-to-head meeting. For two years running (2010, ‘11), that very criteria saw Cork into the final. In 2011, Armagh survived the drop on the basis of having beaten Monaghan.
Semi-finals or not, there will always be some form of excitement towards the end of the Division 1 proper. Semi-finals aren’t even the issue, really: it’s the GAA’s proclivity to wring out the league for all its worth. The more they prop it up with such arbitraries as semi-finals and three weeks between the last round and final, the more it will reflect the inequalities of the championship. Unless there is a tangible incentive applicable in the championship, it is a competition that must stand on its own, not merely some bridge to the summer.
Promote it, celebrate it but finish it earlier and don’t expect a team with four cut-throat games to win a province to take it as serious as another which effectively has one.
The photographs from the victorious Kerry hurling dressing room on Saturday said all there needed to be stated about just how much winning promotion to Division 1B meant to all involved. However, they will be aware of the fact it won’t count for much if they don’t now claim the Christy Ring Cup and then beat the second team in the Leinster qualifying group to take their place in the race for the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
Were it next year, they need only win the Ring Cup as the Hurling 2020’s successful Congress motion means the victors will be bumped up to the major competition.
But, for now, they may just have to beat Antrim again and by that stage Kevin Ryan’s side could be a different prospect entirely.
The promotion/relegation play-off system in both league and championship seems unfair, especially for Kerry as at least two of Antrim, Westmeath and Carlow, Division 2A teams next season, will be competing for the MacCarthy Cup. The prospect of Kerry in a Leinster competition, albeit a sub-group of the province, would be unusual but it would be foolish to consider it anything other than that. It’s not as if they could directly return to Munster for the first time since 2004 considering how intense it is. They would need blooding.
But they are making all the right noises presently. Starting against Down in Tralee on May 2, their job is to ensure they are not the only Division 1B county not competing in hurling’s highest grade next season.
Email: john.fogarty@examiner.ie
