Big guns missing the point this campaign

TODAY’S column was going to be about the structure of the Allianz Hurling League, about whether Wexford, who next year will almost certainly be plying their trade in Division Two for the third season in four, are entitled to feel hard done by and whether aspiring teams like Carlow, doing their best where they are but with no serious hope of reaching the top flight, have any real incentive for self-improvement.

But on the basis that there’s no subject quite so earnest and arid as the subject of competition structures, and because one or other of us would certainly die of boredom long before the end of such a column (either me writing it or you reading it), talking about events last weekend and their implications for this weekend’s round of games sounds like an altogether better idea. Agree? Thought so.

First off, a strange thread in Division One last Sunday: the low scoring. It was a perfect spring afternoon, the kind we get all too rarely in this country. The sun was shining. The sliotar was bouncing a mile high, or at any rate would have been bouncing a mile high on a decent pitch. If ever there was a day for high scoring, this was it. Yet what transpired? The dog in the afternoon failed to bark.

Not a single team in Division One managed to hit 20 points (as in white flags — goals not included). Not a single team in Division One managed to hit more than 16 points. Oddest of all, one of the two teams that did manage 16 points was none other than Wexford. Given the fact of so many counties simultaneously producing underwhelming performances, it would be sensible to refrain from drawing any hard and fast conclusions. This much we can say with some certainty. Financial considerations apart, the main reason the 2011 league has failed to engage the public is down to the surfeit of currently moderate teams hurling, well, moderately.

Tipperary? Punching below their weight right now. Kilkenny? Beginning to rebuild and missing their spiritual leader and main box-office attraction. Waterford “developing their panel”, which is another way of saying “not setting the world on fire”. Cork ditto and doing so without the acquisition of the kind of exciting new forward who’d put a few extra punters on the gate; think of the frisson a young Seanie McGrath engendered in his debut season. Offaly and Wexford locked, with horrible predictability, in their own little death match. Ho hum. Ho very hum.

THAT something is stirring in Galway is inarguable. But Galway do not attract sizeable crowds for league games, either in Salthill or away from home, and one can easily forgive their supporters for adopting a Doubting Thomas approach; after so many false dawns, they’ll buy into the concept of a successful Galway team only when they see it. All of which leaves us with Dublin, where something is also stirring — something less substantial than in Galway, admittedly — but who similarly are not noted crowd pullers. Granted, if they ever carry off the Liam MacCarthy Cup again, then doubtless Parnell Park will be abuzz with Antos and Deccos and Whackers, diehard new recruits to the cause one and all, on fine spring Sunday afternoons. In the short to medium term, though, Dublin will be required to win national or provincial silverware before any blue bandwagon can begin to get rolling.

It ought to be arriving at Croke Park today with the throttle open. Nineteen wides, Conal Keaney off song and a missed penalty last Sunday, and still they were holding a share of the spoils deep in injury time before Galway pounced for the winning goal. The feelings of all right-thinking hurling people at that moment were neatly articulated by Hugh Grant in his Four Weddings and a Funeral persona. “Bugger. Bugger. Bugger. Bugger.”

Does it really need to be said what a league final involving Dublin would do for the game? Hardly.

The jig isn’t up yet, but blowing it six days ago leaves no alternative but to beat Kilkenny. A good or brave display is no longer an optional extra; Dublin have come too far for that.

Worthy an achievement as it was, the more so given the length of the winners’ injury list, beating an understrength Kilkenny in the Walsh Cup final a few weeks back could be filed under One of Those Things.

A second win over Kilkenny in quick succession would represent genuine, undeniable progress.

For here’s how it works. As a result of the respect with which Kilkenny and Tipperary treated it in the Noughties, the league has come to be seen to matter at last for the leading counties. Yet it always did matter, or at least could matter, for counties in Dublin’s situation. Anthony Daly may need reminding that Wexford’s 1996 All-Ireland triumph was partly built on winning Division Two and beating Offaly in a league quarter-final at Semple Stadium. He categorically won’t need reminding Clare’s triumph the previous season was partly built on their run to that year’s league final. What we do in April and May can echo in September.

Galway themselves will do well to tread softly in Pearse Stadium tomorrow. If Tipperary will be cursing the loss of Brendan Maher, their most important player last summer, they’ll at least derive some consolation from the fact that he broke his ankle in March rather than in July.

It is about time the MacCarthy Cup holders made a statement of intent for 2011. This weekend may yield it.

Hell, they or someone else might even hit 20 points while they’re at it.

Picture: Offaly’s Derek Molloy (right) in a spectacular duel for possession with Wexford’s Keith Rossiter in last week’s NHL clash in Tullamore. The counties are locked, with horrible predictability, in their own little death match (Sportsfile)