Jack Anderson: Modern GAA could learn a lot from Heffo's 1974 Dubs
AERIAL BATTLE: Dublin and Galway players challenge for a dropping ball during the 1974 All-Ireland decider at Croke Park. Pic: Connolly Collection / SPORTSFILE
Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the Dublin v Galway All-Ireland senior football final. Looking back at the match, there is a lot that differentiates it from football today but it has some great, nostalgic moments. Dublin’s Jimmy Keaveney – the “man who came back” as O’Hehir puts it, as if narrating a cowboy movie of the time – kicking a free from the sideline under the Hogan Stand and into the Hill. And then jogging back to full forward with the nonchalance of a man who has just put out the bins.
At one point in the game, Keaveney floats a free kick soccer style into the large parallelogram where the players are gathered like wedding guests awaiting the bride’s bouquet toss. Charging through the middle to meet the ball though is Brian Mullins who inflicts what can only be described as grievous ball harm on the O’Neill’s, punching a point. Mullins does so with such ferocity that he must go down as the first footballer to frighten a ball over the bar.
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