GAA must stop comparing codes – they’re a whole different ball game
He choose to extend that brief to Gaelic games on Twitter on Sunday evening when he vented his frustration about how Gaelic football and hurling are viewed. “I’ve a pain in my face with this GAA coverage. Dublin hammer Longford and system is in crisis. Kilkenny hammer Wexford and they’re wonderful.”
Or maybe it was that Ó Ríordáin, as a Dub, was of the mind that his county didn’t get their fair dues for taking a machete to Longford. If that’s the case, may we be so bold as to write in the demographic terms our right honourable friend would appreciate: Kilkenny is smaller in population to Wexford by a good 50,000; Dublin’s dwarves Longford’s by 1.23 million.
His tweet, though, was in the same vein as some commentators who took issue with how the football championship has been viewed in a dimmer light to the hurling competition. Mossy Quinn of this parish hails from a St Vincent’s club that has a proud hurling heritage but he commented: “A weekend of one-sided hurling championship games... I assume this means we’ll have calls for restructuring now!”
Quinn was obviously being flippant in his last remark but he was pointed nonetheless. Of course, there won’t be demands to revamp the championship, even in the wake of the weekend’s three games, when the average margin of victory/defeat was a staggering 20 points. Actually, the structure as per schedule is currently up for review and will be voted on at next February’s Congress.
But there are no alarm bells going off, nor should there be. Yes, it hasn’t been a great hurling championship so far. Even the one draw — Galway v Dublin — was best forgotten. In fact, most of the epic All-Ireland finals we’ve been privileged to witness these past six years have papered over some pretty dismal campaigns.
But it’s wholly appropriate to say the Munster championship, as disappointing as some of the fare has been, is currently enjoying a renaissance in popularity.
Sunday’s semi-final in the Gaelic Grounds attracted 31,488. They came expecting a contest similar to the three previous meetings, not a 16-point drubbing. Almost 20,000 turned up in Nowlan Park. Neither the Wexford faithful that travelled nor the home crowd anticipated Kilkenny would have it so easy.
With some justification, Limerick and Wexford supporters fancied their chances. Could the same be said of Longford when they arrived in Croke Park on May 30 or Kildare as they prepare to enter Dublin’s den next Sunday?
Those hurling fans’ expectations may appear folly now but they had something more than the vain hope held by so many of football’s minnows (yes, in the shadow of Dublin: that’s exactly what Kildare are).
Like Ó Ríordáin and Quinn, it may seem we’re comparing the sports when in fact we’re highlighting their differences. A beating in football is nothing like a beating in hurling. Scores come easier in hurling; blows quicker like a sequence of jabs.
Trimmings in football come courtesy of upper cuts accompanied with knuckle-dusters. For that reason, a double-digit difference means a hell of a lot more in football.
Recovery times are proportional. Wexford’s hurlers mightn’t beat Cork but they’ll have righted themselves. Laois’s footballers never got over the explosiveness of Kildare last Saturday week.
Other differences: a free in Gaelic football is not a free in hurling, which is probably one of the reasons why so few are awarded as cheaply as they might be in football. The advantage rule works differently for the same reasons, when a placed ball can be converted from virtually anywhere from a team’s own 45-metre line. Yet, there are so many football personalities with vested interests who believe their game should be officiated as liberally as hurling.
This is as sure as hell not hurling snobbery. We’ve railed against that insufferable superiority complex in this column before (it actually cuts both ways, if you can recall Martin McHugh’s remarks on The Sunday Game last month about the idea of a football game being the curtain-raiser to a hurling match). No, this is simply a call for distinguishing the codes as separate entities.
The GAA would do itself a favour by ending this incessant need to compare them as if they somehow have to be on an equal footing when in fact their inequalities aren’t even similar. But because they are regarded as sister sports and run concurrently, people are compelled to believe they should be viewed the same. By all means contrast but don’t compare.
We’ve seen Leinster Council citing democracy in defending their decision to keep Dublin in Croke Park and keep Galway’s minors and U21s out of the province.
But it would be hard to justify their call to provide one of their teams with just six or seven days to prepare for a qualifier.
That fate is likely to befall Kildare next week when they are expected to face such a short turnaround from their widely-expected defeat by Dublin.
For the second year running, the Leinster Council have staged their semi-final double-header just one week before the round 2A qualifiers, so the losers of the second semi-final in Croke Park next Sunday will face Offaly the following weekend.
Last year, Wexford were made to suffer after losing to Dublin and now it appears it will be Kildare. No other provincial council causes such discomfort for one of their own. The question that has to be asked is: are the Leinster Council doing everything in their power to help their counties sustain their championship seasons? Because it sure doesn’t look like it.
A Kilkenny friend recently reminded us of Waterford selector Dan Shanahan’s actions towards the end of his team’s league semi-final win over Tipperary. Tipp had been awarded a sideline when the ball came Shanahan’s way. Rather than make life difficult for the opposition and kick it away, he placed it close to the whitewash for the game to recommence. “It was like he was saying, ‘Come at us with all you’ve got - you won’t beat us’,” remarked our Cat pal.
It truly was an act that not only demonstrated faith in the players but typified the new-found confidence this Waterford group exude.
Now as Waterford and the Munster Council consider a final venue, Shanahan and manager Derek McGrath are right to fancy taking on Tipperary on their home patch in Semple Stadium. It sends out the message loud and clear that the playing surface is all they care about.
There is a little fear in the county board that Tipperary will bring a big crowd to Thurles on July 12 but Waterford supporters will have just as much opportunity to purchase tickets. The Gaelic Grounds, remember, is a four-hour round trip from Waterford city and that’s without traffic.
After the attention given to admittedly emphatic wins for Galway, Kilkenny and indeed Tipperary at the weekend and talk of the trio as the real All-Ireland contenders, the one unbeaten team this year hardly merited a mention. If it is to be Semple Stadium next month, Waterford won’t be short of motivation.
john.fogarty@examiner.ie
