Galway can be forgiven a wry smile at Munster woes

There was a time, back in the late 1990s and throughout most of the 2000s, when every Galway defeat was followed by plaintive calls from the vanquished westerners to change the system.

Mon, 24 Aug, 2015 - 01:00

Conor Neville

Mattie Murphy or Noel Lane or whichever Galway manager had just lost would emerge from the defeated dressing room, confront the phalanx of dictaphones awaiting comment, and attempt to argue the benefits of an ‘open draw’, preferably without coming off a sore loser.

The ‘open draw’, now rebranded as the ‘Champions League-style format’, was the rallying cry of Galway hurling for years.

The answer would come back loud and clear — the Munster championship must not be disturbed.

Therefore, it must come as deeply satisfying, and not a little amusing, for Galway people to learn that winning the Munster championship has now become a significant handicap to those harbouring All-Ireland ambitions.

Kieran Shannon has detailed in this paper how the last four Munster champions have failed to reach the All-Ireland final, and how the problem stretches back before that — to the early 2000s.

The five-week break has proven a killer. Tipp’s defeat last week (which should have been more comprehensive than it was) has been cited as yet more evidence.

Munster winners are ‘going in cold’ against ‘battle-hardened’ outfits with a number of ‘games under their belt’.

The resurfacing of these complaints will prompt a wry smile in anyone who followed Galway in the 90s and 2000s. It must all sound very familiar. Except Galway typically didn’t have to wait a mere five weeks. Try closer to five months...

Indeed, the phrase ‘flying in training’ became something of a cliché of the Galway pre-match report — precisely because there was nothing else to go on.

Between 1997 and 2008, Galway were essentially asked to begin their championship programme as if they had just lost a match. Just pretend you’ve been beaten.

As late as 2008, Galway were the only serious hurling team in the championship who began their campaign on the implicit understanding that there would be no second chance should they lose.

The previous year, Cork, by contrast, had to lose three championship matches before they were politely asked to stop togging out.

Players like Kevin Broderick and Eugene Cloonan (under whose tutelage the Galway forwards are flourishing) had their inter-county careers blighted by this shambolic excuse of a format.

That this comically lopsided and deeply unfair system was allowed to continue for so long was primarily the fault of the Munster championship fetishists. The fact that they are suffering under the present system is an irony that should hardly go unappreciated in Galway.

Box clever: CCCC sending wrong message

While Tiernan McCann’s long quest for justice grabbed most of the headlines, the rescinding of Kevin Keane’s red card was the most head-scratching moment of the CCCC’s appeals hearing on Wednesday night.

The meeting went on longer than one of those Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meetings in the early 80s, when a conscientious and weary backbencher would attempt a motion of no confidence in Charlie Haughey.

If the CCCC couldn’t ban Tiernan McCann, they were at least going to make him wait.

Keane received a red card for striking Michael Murphy in the face towards the end of the All-Ireland quarter-final.

In handing out a red card, referee David Gough, pedant that he is, was no doubt reflecting on Chapter 7, Section 2 of the GAA rulebook which says that ‘striking or attempting to strike with arm, elbow, hand or knee’ shall be punishable by an automatic red card.

The CCCC have evidently managed to find fault with this interpretation of the rule. They decided to strike down the red card. Keane will be eligible to play in the All-Ireland semi-final.

Quite where the fault in Gough’s reasoning lay is hard to discern at this remove.

The press release from the Central Hearings Committee said that the “infraction as alleged was not proven”.

The members present were wholly unpersuaded by the television replays showing that Keane swung at Murphy and appeared to catch him. Most folk were inclined to regard the evidence of the television cameras as conclusive.

But television camera footage appears to be a primary source in which the members of the CCCC have no faith.

In light of this, it is difficult to know what level of proof would convince the members that Gough had not erred in showing a red card.

In the absence of more detailed elucidation from the deciding body, we can only offer the conjecture that as punches to the face go, Keane’s effort wasn’t quite in the George Foreman category. Perhaps, that’s the issue.

Maybe, in the future, referees will be asked to make a snap judgment as to whether a box was hard enough. Just what Gaelic football needs. More scope for interpretation. More grey areas. The holy grail of ‘consistency’ even less visible on the horizon.

Goal famine ultimately caught Tyrone

In their post-match analysis, the RTÉ panel, perhaps out of a spirit of reparation, were much preoccupied with decisions that had gone against Tyrone in yesterday’s final quarter. Inevitably, Brolly proffered the suggestion they were paying the price for previous antics.

Aside from Shane Enright remaining on the field, it’s hard to spot any definitive refereeing howlers. Tyrone had two penalty claims, both which could have gone either way. The more stonewall-ish of the penalty claims resulted in the free out. But it’s easy to sympathise with referees.

Assessing penalty claims at this stage is an almost wholly subjective business. You’ll get some and not get others. Rather than their alleged diving habits, it was Tyrone’s inability to score goals that caught them in the end. They frittered away numerous goal chances in both halves. In the past five games, there have been a mere two goals in matches involving Tyrone, both of them penalties from Peter Harte.

Tyrone embrace Millwall role to perfection

Tyrone’s siege mentality has hardened steadily all year.

A ‘Nobody likes us, we don’t care’ banner was visible on Hill 16 yesterday. The rallying cry of Millwall football fans for decades.

Few would quibble with the accuracy of the banner as applied to Tyrone. Their embrace of the sentiment speaks of defiance but also of a certain amount of glee. This is good. The sport requires it.

Mayo play the tragic Jimmy White role to perfection. Kerry are the aristocrats not used to being upstaged. Meath used to inhabit the heartless Nick Faldo-Steffi Graf figure well but have jettisoned that role.

Gaelic football needs a motorcycle riding, leather-jacketed, bad boy in the mould of James Dean. Tyrone appear ready to take on the role.