GAA talking points: Derry's delay, Cork's Mark of class, Cavan's hard landing, too many football landslides
DERRY DISAPPOINTMENT: Dejcted Chrissy McKaigue, left, and Gareth McKinless of Derry after their one point Ulster SFC defeat to Donegal. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
A question. At what point does a crowd make a ‘break-even’ figure for the GAA?
Is it 1,700, as has been in some games up north?
Or is it, say 500, which was the estimated attendance in Ballybofey?
Either way, the days of the referee guaranteeing himself some big appointments down the line and being looked upon favourably for securing a draw – thereby guaranteeing what some journalists are addicted to calling a ‘replay bonanza’ are pretty redundant due to A) Extra time being a factor, and B) Covid restrictions.
Still, many might have felt that David Coldrick would allow Derry to get a final shot off in their titanic struggle with Donegal.
In the end, a few different players had a half sight of a shot, but only a half sight as the Donegal defence kept huge discipline to shut down potential runners while not conceding frees. Time just ran out and David Coldrick blew his whistle.
The Derry player in possession was Padraig Cassidy and he booted it away in frustration, but that hurt was not shared by his manager, Rory Gallagher when he was asked – provoked – whatever way you see it, if Coldrick might have played on until the shot was taken.
“I certainly hoped for it but we just could not get Shane or a couple of more players (on it).”
A brilliant Allianz League campaign that yielded landmark results against Clare and Wexford, and saw them finish above Leinster finalists Dublin, may ultimately count for little for Antrim.
Back to back Championship defeats spells an immediate return to Joe McDonagh Cup hurling for the Saffrons in 2022 and it's difficult to see exactly what purpose that serves.
Accommodating counties like Laois, Westmeath, Carlow and Antrim, who operate just below the top tier, has always been a headache for the GAA but relegating Antrim seems to make no sense.
They will have Division 1 hurling again next year but a second, third or even fourth season in the MacCarthy Cup is what's really required to expose their ambitious and improving team to the summer standards Gleeson aspires to.
"You need so much practice against the top teams," said Antrim boss Gleeson. "You think you can go down and play a challenge match against these teams, or do little things like that, but you're playing against their second or third string.
"The only way that teams like Antrim, Laois, Kerry, Offaly, Westmeath, Carlow are going to improve is by playing against the top teams consistently.
"How can we do that? In what structure? I don't know. And it's easy for me to say 'It's the wrong system' now but if we'd beaten Laois, would it be the right system? I still don't think it would be."
Laois manager Seamas 'Cheddar' Plunkett agreed with Gleeson. "I've been that soldier a number of times," said Plunkett of Antrim's plight. "I think it's shocking. Here's a team that's worked really hard, got all of their players playing, Darren has a good system going, he's got people behind them and suddenly now we're putting them back in the queue again. Sure that can't make sense in my view."
Since making a sparkling championship debut as a teenager with four points off the bench against Roscommon in an All-Ireland qualifier in 2012, there have been high hopes for Darren McCurry. But he has since earned a reputation as a streaky player, someone who blows hot and cold, usually hot when the stakes are not quite so high and cold on crucial championship days. Put simply, he has not delivered against the big teams on the big days.
Known in the county as ‘the Dazzler’ the Edendork corner forward certainly lived up to his nickname in Healy Park on Saturday night. His 0-10 was sensational, displaying his full repertoire of spins, looping runs and shooting under pressure from difficult angles in his five points from play. He also nailed four frees and a mark. Cavan tried three different markers on him in the first half to no avail. Is it a sign he is now ready to unleash his potential on a championship summer? With Cathal McShane looking mean and hungry with 0-3 off the bench on his first appearance since February 2020 after a serious ankle injury, McCurry could be the perfect foil for McShane once he establishes himself back on the edge of the square. Tyrone have struggled for reliable free-takers and marquee forwards since the glory days petered out over a decade ago but this is a partnership that could go places.
There were 60 minutes on the clock when Mark Collins was introduced at LIT Gaelic Grounds.
Having missed the League opener because of injury, Saturday represented Cork’s fourth successive game of the 2021 season where the experienced Collins was used off the bench.
Manager Ronan McCarthy said afterwards that Collins “made sure we were sensible in that period where we needed to be sensible”.
There is no question that Collins offers Cork a great deal more than a wise pair of shoulders when a knockout championship fixture requires seeing out. The 1-1 he kicked when introduced after half an hour against Westmeath in last month’s Division 2 relegation semi-final shows the threat he still poses, not to mind the excellent on-field relationship he enjoys with Castlehaven teammate and fellow inside Cork forward Brian Hurley.
No doubt but Cork will set out to contain Kerry on July 25. But irrespective of how heroic their defensive effort proves to be at Fitzgerald Stadium, they’ll still need to post a match-winning tally at the other end.
On Saturday, four of Cork’s starting six forwards didn’t score. That simply won’t do in Killarney.
It appears time to end Collins' bench role and restore him to the starting team.
On the back of two risible attempts to talk down Kerry performances, Peter Keane spoke positively Saturday’s about his team’s patience against Tipperary. “You’ve no choice if there are bodies everywhere. If there’s a wall up there you just can’t get a bazooka and blow it in, you’ve just got to be patient and work your way towards it. You’d love to be scoring and scoring and scoring but no team is going to allow you that so you just go after it bit by bit and see how you get on.”
Asked about keeping the Tipp attack to one point from play, he responded: “That happens further up the field and the work-rate that comes from the forwards to give them a bit of shelter and a bit of protection so I was happy with the boys behind, but I was always happy with the guys further up the field. That was something when we were here against Dublin, we didn’t get any protection from further up and it was…”
Keane tailed off that point but he also explained Kerry’s logistics may also have impacted their sharpness. “Tipperary, a very good team, they haven’t had the greatest of leagues but they were still a team that were the defending Munster champions and we were playing them at home so it was no mean ask to come up here.”
It’s a long way down from the top of the tree. For Cavan, after their League relegation and exit from the Ulster SFC to Tyrone, “the only way is up” reckoned manager Mickey Graham.
Three successive league relegations means Cavan will start 2022 in Division Four – a startling state of affairs for a county who were crowned Kings of Ulster just over seven months ago.
“It’s an opportunity to go away and get a few bodies back,” said the Breffni boss. “Hopefully we will unearth a few players in the club championship and we will start building now, because we are in the bottom tier in the league. It’s not like we weren’t getting ball (in Omagh against Tyrone). We got lots of ball, but we just didn’t execute.
“We had a couple of half goal opportunities from Gerry Smith and Conor Moynagh and we didn’t get anything out of them.Their goal then came from one of our errors and that gave them the breathing space to control the game after that. If you don’t take your chances the big teams will punish you and Tyrone did that.”
It was only afterwards, out on the field, that it struck this viewer that there had been something odd about the All-Ireland U20 final.
Not the fact that Cork had won a first All-Ireland in the grade in over two decades, nor the slightly surreal pitch invasion by supporters at the final whistle.
It was the sight of a white sliotar. Let no-one say your correspondent is not an eagle-eyed observer of all that occurs in front of him, because I noticed we didn’t have a yellow ball, though I have to admit I didn’t notice we had a yellow ball until after the actual proceedings had concluded.
When the yellow version was introduced I had no objection, though I note that quite a few observers - and participants - have registered complaints about it. I was surprised, in fact, that I got used to watching it so quickly.
However, there’s something more pleasing about the original white ball being used in a big game.
The fact that I didn’t notice it during the game? To me that’s an endorsement of that view rather than a subversion of it. The presence of an old fashioned sliotar clearly had an unconsciously soothing effect, made all the more potent by registering at a deeper, less immediate level.
When word went around last week that 3,500 tickets were being made available for yesterday’s Connacht SFC semi-final between Mayo and Leitrim, most assumed the same thing.
That the match would be ‘sold out’ within minutes of the tickets going online, and that the annual ticket ‘scramble’ for big championship matches in Mayo was certain to start a few months earlier than usual.
However, it was apparent from shortly before the start yesterday at MacHale Park that the anticipated demand for match tickets hadn’t materialised at all. In fact, it seems that at least 1,000 tickets went unsold for the second of the provincial semi-finals in the west.
Throw in the fact that it was the game involving one of the best-supported GAA teams in the country, and you’d imagine it may be a cause for quite a bit of concern in some online meetings involving Croke Park chiefs and their provincial council mandarins this week.
One seasoned GAA official observed afterwards that the current rising numbers of Covid-19 cases may have been a deterrent to some people deciding to attend.
He also suggested that having to wear a mask for the entirety of the match-day experience is not to everybody’s liking.
Plus, he pointed out, Mayo’s predicted landslide victory wouldn’t have helped either.
All of these issues sound like very plausible factors, as does the fact that all tickets for yesterday’s ‘Cakewalk in Castlebar’ cost €30.
But whatever the reason, it’s bound to raise a few eyebrows in online boardrooms this week.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
