Galway are back..and other stuff we learned from the campaign
A LOOK BACK AT WHAT WORKED & WHAT DIDN’T
SWEEPING changes to the Allianz Football League structures meant it was always going to be an interesting campaign.
And when the Beast from the East met Storm Emma, the resulting fixture chaos proved an additional challenge.
But as Championship season now looms on the horizon, here are six things we learned from the campaign.
Galway are back
COMING from Division Two and reaching a League final in your first year back in the top flight isn’t exactly unprecedented. Cork actually won the title in 2010 while Derry reached the final in
2014 after promotion.
Galway took Dublin on and although defeat was their lot, they left Croke Park with a reputation that was further enhanced. While the Championship opener against Mayo on May 13 is obviously fraught with danger, Galway should still be good enough to reach the last eight and a first All-ireland semi-final appearance since
2001 is certainly achievable.
The new schedule hasn’t worked
ALTHOUGH the League officially finished on Sunday, there were three Division Four games left outstanding.
They were declared null and void while Leitrim gave London a walkover rather than rearrange their trip to Ruislip after it was snowed off. There was also the vista of two Division Two games being played the day before the final in order to resolve relegation issues. The fixture-makers were fortunate that Cavan’s late win over Tipperary meant that Saturday’s games didn’t affect issues at both ends of the table.
While it was well intentioned to try and run the
Leagues off in a tighter time frame, it clearly hasn’t worked. Granted, some of the weather this spring has been freakish but starting the Leagues in January was a risk they got away with and may not again. Expect a major rethink on how the 2019 League is scheduled.
Dublin’s resilience remains fully intact
BY Dublin’s standards, last year’s League was a developmental one with Jim Gavin recognising the need to remould certain areas of the team. He used 32 players as they failed to win the competition for the first time on his watch after a one-point final loss to Kerry.
This year they went two better with Gavin running the rule over 34 players and reclaiming the title for their fifth success in six years.
Just consider some of the names they were without for Sunday’s win over Galway - Cian O’sullivan, Jack Mccaffrey, Bernard Brogan, Diarmuid Connolly, Paddy Andrews, Eoghan O’gara and Paul Flynn.
Then they lost James Mccarthy to injury and
Niall Scully to a black card while Con O’callaghan was only introduced as a late sub. Still Dublin found a way, despite being down a man and against the breeze in the last 20 minutes. They are in fine fettle going into the Championship.
Mayo still rely on the old guard
FOR a team that competes in the latter stages of the Championship so well year after year, another white knuckle ride to avoid relegation raises questions.
Mayo were missing a host of frontline players and they will be stronger for their return but it would be a far healthier scenario if doubt surrounded their ability to break back into the side.
Of their younger players,
Stephen Coen and Conor
Loftus put their hands up further than they have before.
But they have been there for a number of seasons already and whether they’re quite ready to lead the side when the stakes are highest remains to be seen.
Corner-back Eoin O’donoghue was a newcomer in the strictest sense of the word and he impressed but, beyond that, Stephen Rochford will still be largely looking to the old guard.
Carlow are rising
THE most heart-warming story of this year’s League as Carlow surfed the momentum from last year’s Championship run and embraced the hype that went with it to emerge from Division Four for the first time since 1985. While the Championship is the next priority, looking at the bigger picture they must at least consolidate in Division Three and harvest as much as they can from this opportunity to grow.
Waterford won promotion from Division Four in 2010 but went straight back down and have hardly raised a gallop since – similarly with Wicklow a couple of years later. Carlow need to avoid the same pitfalls.
Derry are sinking
DIVISION ONE League finalists as a recently as 2014, Derry will start 2019 in Division Four after three relegations in four seasons.
It’s especially puzzling given that so much of the county’s footballing backdrop is positive – recent underage success, dominant school teams and their club teams continually make an impact in Ulster and beyond.
There’s a clear level of disconnect and apathy towards the county senior team, which is also difficult to reconcile given they’ve won an All-ireland in the not too distant past.
Their relegation also highlights the unfairness of the club championship schedule and the need to move to a calendar year – if Damien Mcerlain (above) could have called on his Slaughtneil players, Derry most likely wouldn’t have been relegated.