THIS YEAR’S CHAMPIONS WON’T BE FORGOTTEN
‘I’ll just settle for this year’s Championship taking place’
IT’S a sign of the times that Aidan O’Mahony is talking about the possibility of a winter All-Ireland final being decided by penalties.
He watched the footage of an Antrim senior football championship quarter-final being settled in semi-darkness via the same process in mid-week and tells a story of his own experience in a Kerry club game, when his native Rathmore went through the wringer with Austin Stacks and his old Kerry team-mate Kieran Donaghy had the final word.
‘We played the Stacks last year in the league final in December. Myself and Donaghy had about 50 minutes of getting to know each other and then we were doing a penalty shootout at the finish.
‘The manager said to me, “Will you go up and kick one?” I said,
“No, sure let the young lads kick them”. Next thing I see my man, 6ft 5ins...
‘For years I remember him going on about Chelsea and Didier Drogba and all these guys. I said, “Surely to God now, is this going to go in the top corner?”
‘Lo and behold, it did. There was a massive shield for the Division 1 League final — typical finish in a year when we carry Donaghy out on his shield. I was like, “If he jumped out a window he’d go up!”
A one-time primetime poster boy for Dancing with the Stars, the versatile Garda is now on hand to launch Ireland Active’s fifth annual National Fitness Day, which takes place on September 24.
He is ‘hopeful’ of the Championship actually taking place, given the disruption to date due to Covid-19, and thinks it will be memorable considering the uniqueness of the year — no matter what way it finishes.
‘In the year that’s in it, there are so many uncertainties. I’ll just take the Championship being back. If it comes down to a penalty shootout you’d be saying, “Isn’t he a brave boy taking a penalty, All-Ireland final day”. Obviously they’re well able now, a different generation.
‘It makes the game exciting. The last day up in Antrim, the game was decided by penalties. Look, you’d take a guy’s hand off just to be playing football. If it has to finish on penalties, then so be it.
‘It will be something we’ll be talking about in years to come, if the Championship goes ahead. An All-Ireland final, imagine kicking into an empty Hill 16 — sure there’d be no pressure.
‘It’s always going to be a year that’s spoken about and to win an All-Ireland in 2020 might be remembered more than winning three or four in a row for the year that’s in it.’
O’Mahony isn’t getting exercised about the possibility of crowds being restricted ahead of the county return. It’s other practical concerns about changing and testing that he feels need to be addressed.
‘The biggest thing about winter football is the dilemma of players, will we let them go into dressing rooms, or travelling to games? You can’t have 20 or 25 players travelling up to, say, Páirc Uí Chaoimh, togging out on the side of the pitch on a cold day in November, expect them to play a game and then get back into their cars and drive down again.’
O’Mahony sees what is happening in professional sport, with the Irish soccer team being tested before travelling to Sofia, and points out that there’s a very different dynamic at the heart of Gaelic games.
‘You’ve a base in professional sport but for inter-county, Kerry might be [training] in Killarney or Tralee and all those lads are going home to work. There’s a lot of dilemmas there.
‘I was thinking yesterday, if players have kids and stuff and something happens in school and they’re sent home to isolate... These things are definitely going to happen down the line. What if a player can’t play because a kid picked up something in school? Or something happened at work?
‘The cost of testing will be a factor. County boards are strapped at the moment with no funds coming in from gates, so there’s a lot of dilemmas to be ironed out before any ball is kicked.
‘The big thing is, if someone tests positive in a county team and they’re playing on Saturday or Sunday, is that player taken out or is the whole team gone?’