It’s all to play for in concluding round on the club scene
A WEEK is a long time in politics’ was a quote attributed to a former UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson in the 1970s, but I’m sure he was misquoted and the last word should have been ‘sport’.
A perfect example of this occurred over the last week when Mayo manager Stephen Rochford was ridiculed, abused and written off as a clown by former players, pundits and journalists.
His positioning of Aidan O’Shea at full-back to mark Kieran Donaghy was described as one of the most ridiculous decisions in Gaelic football history; even more stupid than replacing goalkeeper David Clarke for the replayed All-Ireland final last year.
After the impressive win against Kerry last Saturday, the wheel has turned full circle as he is now being lauded as a tactical genius for persisting with the selection, and enhancing it by placing some players around O’Shea to add protection.
It just shows you how one call by a manager can make you a fool or a genius, depending on the outcome of the game. It seems the old adage is true that players win games and coaches lose them.
Nevertheless, it was an impressive performance by a group who have improved as they progressed in the championship. The aggression they now bring with them will be badly needed in the final if they are to stop the mighty Dubs from achieving a famous three-in-a-row.
Dublin were outstanding as they swatted aside a Tyrone team that everybody felt were in the perfect position to challenge and dethrone the reigning champions. How wrong they were as Dublin gave probably the best performance ever seen in Croke Park. It will take a special team to beat this current group of players.
On the local front it’s all to play for in the final round of the football championship. In Senior Group B St. James’ could be in relegation, the quarter-final or finished for the year depending on the result of their game versus Taghmon and Horeswood’s game versus Fethard.
In Group A, in theory five teams could end up on six points so the calculators could be out and, given the way results have gone, anything is possible.
Intermediate is in a similar situation where clubs would even settle for a draw before a ball is thrown in. The fact that so much depends on the last round of games shows how competitive the local championships are. There is a fine line between relegation and qualification.
Last weekend saw the passing of one of the greatest Wexford G.A.A. men of all time, Paddy Wickham. Any player who had the honour of wearing the purple and gold would have encountered Paddy on many occasions.
He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of Wexford G.A.A. and particularly any footballers around the county. Paddy attended matches in parts of the country that we didn’t know had teams or pitches. He served his club and county with distinction in many roles throughout an illustrious career.
I thought it was particularly fitting that Paddy was the county Chairman when Wexford won the All-Ireland in 1996, a great reward for a great man and a time he enjoyed enormously. He was kind, generous, witty and an absolute gentleman.
He was also a great judge of the ability of a player. I remember a group of us meeting him socially one night and asking him his favourites that played football for Wexford over the years.
We all knew the great Mick Carty was his favourite, but he mentioned Louis Rafter, John Harrington, John O’Gorman, Matty Forde, Red Barry, Seamie Fitzhenry, David Murphy and many more at the time.
I interrupted and asked him could he not think of any small corner-forwards from town he might have liked. He thought for a second, took a pull from his cigarette, and said: ‘Yes, Martin Hanrick, but he wasn’t from town’.
He smiled and winked as we all had a good laugh. May he rest in peace.