Qualifiers look beyond repair

A mixture of desperation and inevitability casts a shadow over this weekend’s All-Ireland football qualifiers

Ah, the football qualifiers. The boulevard of broken dreams and losing teams. The second chance saloon where everybody knows your name: desperation.

Once the off-Broadway novelty act that drew in thousands by the bucket load, it’s nothing more than an off-Manhattan Island show now where once-great teams rehabilitate and the less-so great wallow.