Don’t be fooled to drawing conclusions from League’s phony war as teams test each other in early clashes
YOU can almost set your watch by it, year after year.
After a couple of rounds of the League, people start getting overly-excited by results, interpreting them as some sort of proof their county is on the cusp of something big.
But the reality is the League can give us all a completely false reading of what is really going on, especially in recent years.
I remember the Limerickclare League game last year. Great excitement around it on a beautiful Saturday night in Limerick, big crowd expected on the back of previous meetings.
But sometimes these derbies can be a major letdown and that was certainly the case in this instance. Limerick won at a canter and, in horse racing terms, Clare could have been pulled under the non-triers rule. They were at nothing.
Leaving that night, people were wondering where Clare were going but its relevance was exposed a couple of months later when
Clare returned to the Gaelic Grounds and beat Limerick in the Munster Championship – when it really mattered.
So it’s best to bear all that in mind when drawing conclusions over what we’ve seen and what we’ll see in the coming weeks.
The League format is being changed for 2025 which should make a difference but, even at
that, are we ever going to go back to the days when Kilkenny and Tipperary, at their peak, played a series of rip-roaring League finals, when it felt like the Liam Maccarthy Cup itself was up for grabs? I have my doubts.
Last year’s League final was a drab affair; Kilkenny looked like they had no interest.
A lot of the games attract big crowds but people aren’t stupid and if they continue to look more like glorified challenge matches, then they’ll vote with their feet.
Ultimately, the round robin format in the Championship has been very successful. And as long as that remains in place, it will always cast a very long shadow over the League.
Whatever the format, teams will operate in second gear in the League because of the gruelling schedule of Championship games coming soon after. You can’t ask players to
go to the well throughout the League and then maintain those levels when it matters most.
Back when Kilkenny and Tipp were going at it in the League, they had a nice gap to the provincial championship and, even if that didn’t work out, they had another break until the qualifiers kicked in. Now you have a series of season-defining games in a short period kicking in two weeks later.
So while I believe changing the format of the League won’t bring about seismic change, perhaps there are other ways that really going after the competition could be incentivised. I believe even an extra week between the end of the League and start of the Championship would make a big difference.
It would allow the winners time to celebrate the achievement but also give enough space for players to come down and get back up again for the Championship, so that they’re not going flat out for months on end.
For now, though, all we can do is take in the action, but it’s best not to trust it too much – we could be laughing at our conclusions in no time.