Kieran Shannon: The old league certainties no longer apply
CONTENDERS: Derry’s Conor McCluskey battles Dublin’s Tom Lahiff in their Allianz League Division Two clash at the weekend. Both counties will feel that they are genuine All-Ireland contenders. Pic: INPHO/Evan Treacy
The last time a side from Division Two won the All Ireland, their opponents in the final were from Division Two as well.
In truth, even back then in 2002, there was something freakish about that pairing; not that they each made it to September but that they had been playing outside the top tier. Armagh and Kerry were never really Division Two sides (or Division Three sides as they essentially were by operating outside the top-16 for that one spring only).
A large part of the reason why they had ended up there was because only weeks after playing in an epic 2000 All-Ireland semi-final series that was only decided after a replay that went to extra time, they had to turn around and put out teams in the national league. Between players being exhausted or rested or simply disinterested, they both understandably struggled in the last league played before Christmas – and invariably won instant promotion in the first league all played in the same calendar year.
It wasn’t just though that back then players could winter well, a couple of Armagh boys and a fair few more Kerry lads with Páidí opted to winter well. That 2000-2001 league and that 2002 All Ireland was before the advent of one Mickey Harte to the senior inter-county scene.
After that football in how it was approached would never be the same and the same could be said about its league.
Harte had inherited a side that in 2002 had won the county their first league but had spectacularly imploded and wilted against Sligo in the championship. A link was made between the two and the assumption was that the new management wouldn’t bother with the league. Harte though wasn’t into conventional thinking and went all out to win it and everything going in 2003.
That he pretty much did; the only bit of silverware to elude him was the McKenna Cup, a defeat that rankled with him and informed all the multiple times teams of his would subsequently claim it. Following his example, which Kerry and others would, a new equation was identified. A good league didn’t necessarily damage your championship health. In fact it usually enhanced it.
It’s a formula that others would assiduously follow well into the following decade. Conor Counihan’s Cork. Jim Gavin’s Dublin. Various Kerry teams of Jack’s. Others didn’t quite adhere to it quite as religiously but there was one commandment that they all lived and swore by: thou must stay in Division One if thou wants to challenge in championship.
Indeed Harte with his wisdom and insight would coin his own bit of football scripture: a Division Two side could and would not win an All-Ireland. At times he strongly tested that theory; in 2016 his Tyrone team were rampant throughout Ulster following their form in winning Division Two and only for being ambushed by a wily, wounded Mayo team would have likely made it to the last game of the year.
Others also tested its veracity. In 2011 Donegal shook the entire championship and then Dublin before falling just short in the All Ireland semi-final four months after winning a Division Two title.
It’s been all the more tested the last couple of years. In 2021 Mayo had a rare and brief stint in the second division and later made it to the last game of the year. Then last year Derry missed promotion from Division Two yet were ahead at halftime in an All Ireland semi-final.
Our point here is this: the old certainties don’t necessarily apply anymore. While it would do Mayo no harm at all to go on and win this league just as it did Kerry no harm last year, there is no longer a great team that can routinely win a league while still operating a gear short of the championship battle speed they’ll hit to lift Sam Maguire. There is not a Kilkenny 2002-2015; a Dublin 2013-2019; a Kiely’s Limerick a la 2019 on.
The near future as well as history may well show that football last year and this year and next may be somewhere like hurling was circa 2016-2018: in the wake of a great team and a great rivalry, there was something of an inter-regnum period. Micheál Donoghue’s Galway got in to win their All Ireland and reached another. Then Limerick won theirs in 2018 being merely very good but before they’d become great.
Right now there are multiple teams that believe they can get in and win an All Ireland. Mayo. Armagh. Galway. Tyrone. And tellingly, there’s almost as many contenders in Division Two. Dublin could still win an All Ireland in the post-Dublin era. Rory Gallagher will see parallels between Donegal 2011-2012 and Derry 2022-23. And while Cork may be short of winning an All Ireland in the next six months, they look a side that could contest a semi-final in the next 18 months.
There is no longer a big four like there was for most of the last decade in the guise of Dublin, Mayo, Kerry and whoever of Donegal or most often Tyrone were feeling more in the mood. It’s why any of five sides could still get relegated. Even Kerry.
We doubt they will. They may prove to be more like Kiely’s Limerick than Donoghue’s Galway and go on to not just win but dominate. But just like Dublin have lost their aura this spring so have Kerry a bit.
This year has shown there is one constant though: that Harte is a manager of the highest order. When he took over Louth in December 2020, they were mired in Division Four.
“Sport has always been about far more than All Ireland titles for me,” he’d say upon taking the job in his brilliant third book, Devotion. “My love of Gaelic football is what drives me. With Louth we have an opportunity to break new ground. Already I can see signs that the players have responded, how receptive they are. Ultimately I want Louth playing at the highest possible level which is why I took on a three-year term: to give the players belief in my vision.”
Three years on he not only has them in Division Two but after their three recent consecutive wins, the last over Kildare, they are almost assured of staying there, and in championship of “playing at the highest possible level”.
Because while you may not win an All-Ireland by being in Division Two it goes a long way to actually participating in it. To not just win two consecutive promotions but to win Louth a second straight year in the All Ireland championship when there’s been the trapdoor of the Tailteann Cup only adds to his legacy and legend.
