The good, the bad and downright ugly of pre-season
Counties’ attitudes to prep different WEEKEND GAA SCOREBOARD
“It was very
difficult not to come back”
DOCTORS differ, patients die. Imagine the preseason competitions as the equivalent of a patient lying in surgery, waiting for life-saving intervention. Mickey Harte is there with a scalpel, ably assisted by Jim McGuinness, both willing to roll up their sleeves and do whatever is needed to restore the patient to full health.
Outside in the corridor, there is a waiting list of other doctors ready to pull the plug and call it.
At Castleblayney yesterday, those who paid in through the turnstile for the McKenna Cup semi-final between Monaghan and Donegal saw the very different approaches to a tournament that is either the perfect type of National League preparation or an awkward hindrance to a necessary training block, particularly sandwiched in between Sigerson Cup and third-level competition.
Monaghan’s heart clearly wasn’t in it. Especially when losing Seán Jones and Conor McCarthy. That was in sharp contrast to visitors Donegal who quickly warmed to the turkey shoot that unfolded.
With less than 20 minutes gone, it was 2-4 to 0-1, with Odhran Doherty crashing in a second goal. By half-time, the match had degenerated further as any type of contest with the gap out to a full 15 points, 3-9 to 0-3.
Turning with a wind spared Monaghan from too much more embarrassment but it was all too easy still in the end, Donegal romping home to a 4-14 to 0-11 win.
Coming after the controversy of the eight-week suspension that was imposed on Jim McGuinness for fielding an ineligible player in the opening round — a suspension lifted on Thursday evening — this helped put a smile back on Donegal faces.
‘We should’ve known but it was an administrative error,’ explained McGuinness afterwards.
Just to prove the theory that the McKenna Cup final deserves a place in the calendar, it’s thrown up the perfect box-office finale of McGuinness versus Harte — the two men who scripted the two biggest stories of the off-season by returning to inter-county management roles, the former with his native county that he led to All-Ireland success in 2012, the latter to his native Tyrone’s fierce rivals Derry.
So I guess you get out of those pre-season tournaments what you put into them.
Harte was unapologetic on Saturday evening for trying to win silverware.
‘I believe it is seriously valuable. Some of our players will have four games under their belt before they get to Kerry and that can’t be bad.’
Others have been far less enthused.
Imagine being a Monaghan supporter and paying money in to yesterday’s one-sided fare, or an Armagh supporter for that infamous opening round fixture against Donegal. Kieran McGeeney put out the equivalent of an under-20 selection, and they went like lambs to the slaughter. It’s hard to see the value of a bunch of promising young players being hammered by 3-16 to 1-6 but again, doctors differ, patients die.
Armagh were much more competitive in losing to Derry on Saturday night by 0-17 to 2-7 and McGeeney was up front in talking about it was just one element of a pre-season jigsaw. ‘We’ve been hard on them, we tried to push them hard and you could see that extra tiredness coming into it. There were a lot of positives from it but it’s just disappointing we didn’t finish as strong as we’d like.’
Already, he made it clear that it was all about hitting the ground running when Armagh start their Division Two Allianz Football League campaign the weekend after next. Especially so when eligibility for the roundrobin All-Ireland series that is the Sam Maguire Cup is dependent on finishing position in the league.
This weekend threw up another series of pre-season games that mixed the good, the bad and the downright ugly, at least in terms of competitiveness. An experimental Dublin team still managed to trounce Wexford in the O’Byrne Cup by 5-17 to 1-11 at Wexford Park, while Cork thumped Waterford by 1-20 to 0-6 in the McGrath Cup yesterday.
With squads often highly experimental due to players’ involvement with third-level college competitions, it’s little wonder that the GPA saw its members vote 90 per cent in favour of the removal of the same pre-season competitions at last October’s AGM.
Five-time Mayo All-Star Lee Keegan was another to join that chorus: ‘I’d banish them,’ he said, echoing GPA calls for an extended block of pre-season training.
‘I feel the integrity has been lost a little bit. We mentioned the O’Byrne Cup last year with teams not fulfilling fixtures. It’s not a good look for the competition. Ulster always seems to be able to make a huge effort.
‘There’s enough revenue made through the league, the provincial championships, so I don’t really see the point of it for the players.’
Try telling that to Harte or McGuinness though when their teams meet next weekend in a match that will garner plenty of attention.
‘I couldn’t be any more happy with the lads in terms of their application,’ said McGuinness after yesterday’s result, admitting that he was tempted back into managing Donegal after the traumatic season the county endured last year, on and off the field. ‘When the players started coming knocking on the door, and the conversations started, it was very difficult not to come back.
‘That’s why I came back, to try and put Donegal in a better place.’
And he’s already done much the same for the status of the McKenna Cup. Roll on next weekend’s decider.