There’s still life in provincial football

YOU don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.

It’s normally around this time of the year that we’d be grousing about the provincial championships. Dublin would have just rolled over some team or other with ease – hey some things never change – and an Ulster match would have produced such a dour spectacle that we’d be calling for the whole thing to be ripped up.

Then, this year, the most remarkable thing happened. The broadcasters took us at our word and opted to show little or none of this year’s provincial football championships and instead of feeling delight or relief we’re left bereft.

People down south are trying to figure out ways to access the BBC iPlayer to watch any games that are being streamed live on there – Armagh and Fermanagh played out an entertaining contest on the streaming service the weekend before last – and waiting with baited breath for deferred coverage of games – Monaghan and Tyrone for instance.

It turns out that football folk are fonder of the old-order than they might have led you to believe. The last couple of weekends have proven as much. The big story of the summer so far isn’t the new provincial hurling structures – grand and all as they are – it’s that there’s still a huge appetite for provincial football out there.

The whole country has been talking about Carlow since last Sunday afternoon. The previous weekend Monaghan were the men of the moment. For all the talk about waiting for the Super 8s for the real stuff, there hasn’t been much shadow boxing across any of the four provinces. There’s life in the old dog yet.