It’s time for football’s slumbering giants to awaken and help themselves

We might have mentioned this one before somewhere, but after a decade of inter-county football concluded last Saturday with Croke Park housing both the crowning of Dublin’s five in a row and a meeting where Central Council gave its blessing for a two-tier championship to be motioned at Special Congress, it’s worth revisiting how different things were at the start of the decade.

On our way home from a gripping All-Ireland semi-final which had resulted in Stephen Cluxton once again being denied a place in the last game of the year, an indefatigable Cork team having condemned him and Alan Brogan to a fourth All-Ireland semi-final defeat by a kick of a ball, a curious text was read out on RTÉ’s post-match radio show.