The A-Z of the All-Ireland senior football championship
READY FOR THE OFF: Cian Sheehan of Limerick, Eoin Cleary of Clare, Dermot Ryan of Waterford, Tadhg Morley of Kerry, Brian Hurley of Cork, and Steven O’Brien of Tipperary at the launch of the Munster Championship at Pairc Ui Chaoimh. Pic: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
The A-Z of the All-Ireland senior football championship.
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Aidan O’Shea has arguably been the player of the Allianz Football League. Mayo finally seem to be using him at full forward in a way that suits his skillset. But we’ve seen plenty false dawns with O’Shea before - remember the 3-4 against Sligo in 2015? Time will tell whether he can do it when the chips are down in the white heat of battle in Croke Park. Mayo will need him to.
The unsavoury scenes that greeted the end of normal time between Armagh and Galway last year were not a good look for football. While far from the only culprits, it was the third time Armagh were involved in a brawl of one form or another last year. They have been relegated back down to Division 2 this season. Kieran McGeeney was appointed back in 2014 and will need a big season if things aren’t going to end in a whimper. Maintaining discipline will be key.
Arguably the most dramatic storyline of the Allianz Football League came in the final round. Stephen Cluxton’s reappearance for Dublin’s warm-up against Louth wearing the number 28 jersey yielded many the column inch that week. As John Fogarty of this parish pointed out, there’s only one reason Cluxton is back – and it isn’t to sit on the bench. It will be fascinating to see who wears Dublin’s number one jersey for their opener.
Rarely can there have been a more disruptive start to a season. For one of the perennial contenders to be relegated to Division 2 and for it to barely create a murmur would have been unimaginable before this year. The departure of a talisman like Michael Murphy was an occasion for the county to pull together. Instead, acrimony has resulted in the departure of head of the academy Karl Lacey and manager Paddy Carr. Can they come together in time to make a run at the Championship?
This is the second year that the All-Ireland final will be held in July. If we want to continue with the split season, and for what it’s worth I think we should, then there has to be wriggle room to push the final back at least until early August. Let the anticipation build after the semis and give the narratives a chance to develop.
After last year’s All-Ireland defence ended in a meek capitulation, and more than one pundit labelled them the worst champions in living memory, Tyrone will have a cause this season. And as anyone with a passing interest in recent GAA history will know, a Tyrone team with a cause is a dangerous beast. Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher are now in their third season in charge, anything less than a serious charge at the Ulster title and beyond will be a major disappointment.
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Last year’s runners-up will be disappointed in their league final display. They had a three-week gap before their Championship opener so had the opportunity to lay down a marker. Instead, Galway have now lost three finals in a row in Croke Park. They have added some strength in depth, but the absences of Liam Silke and Kieran Molloy look to be significant.
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Ask and you shall receive. After years of kicking the Sunday Game highlights programme for what it didn’t cover or the lack of detailed analysis undertaken, it may finally have the chance to breathe with Jacqui Hurley taking over from Des Cahill. The long-sought after Saturday Game, with the capable Damian Lawlor at the helm, will take care of a large tranche of the games and should allow both programmes to innovate and add value.
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It was an off-season of unprecedented coverage of attacks on match officials. At one stage pre-Christmas it seemed there were weekly reports of games being abandoned or officials being assaulted. The abuse is not just physical, abusive or threatening language has also led to games being abandoned. Most of these incidents happen in club games but repeated calls for more respect at all levels of the game have come from Croke Park. If the boos that rang out for the referee after the Division 2 final are anything to go by, those pleas are falling on deaf ears. Righteous indignation is one thing, but we must all check ourselves before things get too far.
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As in how in Jesus is the Championship starting already. To start things off before the Easter eggs are even opened seems like indecent haste. The league finals weren’t even a week ago and the hurling league finals haven’t finished yet. The build-up has been low key and how could it have been otherwise. Competitions need room to breathe, anticipation needs to be allowed to build, and teams to prepare properly.
The great enigma of the Gaelic football world. The Lilywhites have all the ingredients you’d want for a successful county team. A thriving population, underage success, forwards able to win their own ball, a high profile management team, and footballing pedigree. But for one reason or another, they keep coming up short. They were expected to compete with Dublin and Derry for one of the two promotion slots for an immediate return to Division 1 but instead they were comfortably beaten by the likes of Cork and Louth. They eventually finished fifth and at least defeated Leinster rivals Meath to finish on somewhat of a positive note.
After such a positive season last year, gaining promotion to Division 2 and reaching a Munster final before giving Cork a rattle in the qualifiers, this year has not started well. Ray Dempsey’s term as manager was brought to a premature end before the league campaign had finished. Just one point from their seven games meant a swift return to Division 3. Mark Fitzgerald has been handed the reigns until the end of the season. The glory days under Billy Lee seem a long time ago.
When David Moran announced his inter-county retirement in January the feeling was that he still had plenty left to offer Kerry at the top level and the Allianz Football League has shown that Kerry have no like for like replacement. Jack Barry and Barry Dan O’Sullivan are good grafters but are too similar to provide a good balance in midfield. Joe O’Connor is injured but is still unproven at this level anyway. Adrian Spillane and Stefan Okunbor are options, but both feel more like third midfielders/half forwards than the main man in the middle. Moran’s obvious successor is down in Australia. That leaves an awful lot of pressure on Diarmuid O’Connor. Moran’s name could be on a lot of supporters’ lips before the end of this championship.
How long more are we going to persist with the aptly named offensive mark? The idea that catching a 20-yard kick that comes in at chest height warrants a free shot at goal is, well, nonsense. The idea was well-intentioned but in practical terms it only serves to slow the game and unfairly disadvantage defenders. Do we really want the game to turn into Aussie Rules? The sooner it is removed the better.
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One of the most intriguing stories of the Championship will be how Colm O’Rourke gets on in his first Championship campaign with Meath. People of my generation only know O’Rourke as a no-nonsense television pundit and his approach to the Meath job so far seems to be admirably in keeping with how he called the game as a pundit. Despite a fine start to their Division 2 campaign, however, Meath struggled badly toward the end. Heavy losses to Leinster rivals Kildare and Dublin won’t have done confidence levels any good. Perhaps O’Rourke may have to compromise his values somewhat and take a more pragmatic approach.
As John Fogarty so elegantly put it in these pages a couple of weeks back, the death of the provincial championships looks like it will be by a thousand cuts rather than any dramatic axing. The GAA are slowly taking away the prestige of the competitions and were it not for the power and influence of the Ulster championship, they would be long gone. It will be interesting to see how teams approach them this year. Another year of Dublin, Kerry and one of Mayo/Roscommon/Galway winning seems inevitable.
We’re all for modernisation but the cashless ticketing system issue will not go away. Many older members don’t have bank cards or access to internet banking, and many will not want to burden family members or loved ones. In the end they will stay home and listen on the radio or watch on television. But what if the game is on GAAGO or not being broadcast? The GAA must be careful not to disenfranchise their members.
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The feel-good factor has certainly returned on Leeside. John Cleary’s first full season in charge has seen Cork capture the McGrath Cup and a solid fourth place finish in Division 2 has set them up nicely for a run at the Munster championship. The addition of Kevin Walsh to the coaching setup seems a shrewd move. Their one regret will be the opening day loss to Meath which put them behind the 8-ball from the start. The manner in which they pushed Dublin will have pleased the coaching staff, however.
This will be the first year of the GAA’s latest attempt to fix the structure of the football championship. Under the new proposals there will be a group stage post the provincial championships which will involve 16 teams, four teams per group. The issue is that after the completion of that group stage only four teams will have been eliminated. Expect to hear plenty about a lack of jeopardy before the final round of group games. A change to eight teams being eliminated could be in play next year.
Now that Sky Sports are out of the picture, we will all have to become a lot more familiar with GAAGO. Production values have left a lot to be desired in the past but, with 29 football games to be screened exclusively on the service this season, that will not be accepted any longer. Nabbing Gráinne McElwain from Sky’s coverage is a shrewd move, and the pundits will be fine. One can’t help but feel, however, that a Virgin Media or TG4 entering the market would have been more beneficial to the viewer.
The one provincial championship worth watching, even if its importance is being diminished by stealth. It will be fascinating to see how defending Ulster champions Derry rebound from their league final defeat to Dublin. It is the second successive visit to Croke Park in which they have been opened up at will by serious opposition. It will be interesting to see whether Rory Gallagher changes his approach in response.
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This is Vinny Corey’s first year in charge of Monaghan. They pulled off another last day miracle to retain their Division 1 status again. It is the fifth time in nine years that Monaghan have performed a last day Houdini act. Veteran talisman Conor McManus is 35 now but his 1-7 against Mayo in the final round of the league showed he still has plenty to offer. Monaghan have defied their small population for years to be a big player in Ulster and beyond. Time will tell whether they can maintain those levels.
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This will be a crucial year for the Tailteann Cup. We all remember the scenes when Westmeath beat Cavan in the final last year and the welcome that awaited them for the homecoming. They are now guaranteed a place in the last 16 of the Sam Maguire Cup – a fitting reward. A difficult second season, however, with teams not putting their all into winning the Tailteann, could do irreparable harm to the nascent competition. It’s vital that fans and the media also continue to highlight and support the competition.
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Hawk-Eye and Croke Park will hope there is no repeat of last year’s errors. The expensive system was stood down for the All-Ireland semi-final between Dublin and Kerry in the wake of Shane Walsh’s ’45 being erroneously declared wide in the other semi between Galway and Derry. More ‘isolated incidents’ this season could fatally undermine confidence in the system.
New Roscommon boss Davy Burke is only 34 yet is now in his third year of inter-county management having previously managed Wicklow. Burke has stated that he regards his age as a plus point. "One of my biggest strengths is that I can think like the lads because I'm a similar age group to them," Burke told RTÉ’s Sunday Sport. Having led Roscommon to a third-place finish in Division 1 and unearthed promising young players such as corner forward Ben O’Carroll, the Rossies will hope their youthful exuberance can put a stop to Mayo first time out.
If the Allianz Football League is anything to go by, we could be in for a summer of dour defensive football. Counter-attacking football, leading to long bouts of over-and-back possession play were all too common. The hope is that once the ground hardens up and with the big guns hitting their straps, teams will once again be willing to take risks in possession. Dublin’s twin threat of Con O’Callaghan and Killian O’Gara showed what they are capable of in the league final against Derry. David Clifford won’t be happy if Kerry don’t let the ball in quick to him. Here’s hoping a few more risks are taken.
While it may be back with more of a whimper than a bang, this Championship season will see new stars born and legends made. Only one side will win it all. But at least for now every player and supporter can dream that this might be their year. One thing is for sure, it’s good to have it back.
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