IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT
Championship is still capable of producing magic, claims Darcy
DUBLIN’S dominance in Leinster is one of the most compelling arguments for amending the Championship structure, but Dubs selector Declan Darcy believes there is little wrong with the current system.
Darcy is in a unique position to provide a thoughtful contribution on the debate. His playing career took him to either end of the spectrum, playing for the county with the smallest population and the one with largest.
He was Leitrim’s star forward when they won an emotional Connacht title in 1994 (his father was a native of that county) and maintains the possibility of days like that are what make the Championship special.
‘For Leitrim, 1994 was as important as winning an All-Ireland for Kerry or Dublin. It meant as much,’ Darcy explains. ‘It was the same for Westmeath in 2004, Clare 1992, Sligo 2007. They might talk of winning All-Irelands but it’s the provincial championship that matters. It gives them the chance of a great day no other sport can give a group.
‘Personally, I’d like to see the Championship tightened up, the stretch of time between games. Other than that, it’s good. I like the provincial championships because it gives every team the chance of having a great day.’
And Darcy takes issue with the perception that the days of a minnow like Leitrim claiming silverware are gone.
‘No, I always fought [against] that when I played for Leitrim. You would be condescended with lads saying, “Ah, aren’t you doing well”, as if I was playing football on one leg.
‘Teams do develop. We got to two Connacht Under 21s finals, so we knew we had a good group.
‘Look at Roscommon, they’ve put a huge effort into their underage structure and have a team in a proper place now.
‘County boards need to be more diligent at paying attention to their underage structures. I know it’s difficult but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the work should not be put in. When it’s put in, it works. Waterford reaped the rewards in hurling this year because of their underage efforts.’
While top teams appear to have stretched further ahead of even the second tier in Gaelic football, Darcy takes a more nuanced view and explains that Dublin, Kerry and Mayo are at the peak of their current cycle, while counties like Armagh and Roscommon are only starting to find their feet at the elite level.
‘Our lads have gone through a serious regime of hard training, they are hardened and some of the teams we have faced aren’t at that point yet. Same with Kerry and Mayo. The likes of Galway and Armagh, Roscommon to a degree, they have potential but need to go through another two or three years of a tough cycle.’
Darcy’s first experience of playing Kerry in the Championship was the iconic 2001 All-Ireland quarter-final in Thurles and he admits there was something different about facing the green and gold.
‘Kerry really want to beat Dublin, always did, and vice versa. It had an edgy kind of feel that I didn’t notice in other games. Even though I played Meath in Leinster finals, the games with Kerry feel different. There’s the nostalgia and rivalry and there’s an edginess you didn’t get with other teams.
‘You remember moments l i ke Maurice Fitzgerald’s sideline. They are moments that seem to be created in Dublin-Kerry games. They are occasions that bring out the best in players.’
Darcy concedes that the Dublin management team had to digest s ome harsh lessons after getting ambushed by Donegal in last year’s AllIreland semi-final. ‘There’s too much made of management teams,’ Darcy says. ‘When you win, it’s about the substitutions we made and when you lose, they talk about what we didn’t do. We learn from every game. That was a harsh lesson
‘It was tough as a management group, and tough as a group in general. Things didn’t go the way we planned. Donegal did very well, and their hunger and desire outdone ours.
‘Okay, tactics played a part in it, but at the same time, you couldn’t deny the appetite of some of their players. Ryan McHugh was phenomenal and sometimes you can’t legislate for a player doing what he did that day,’ says Darcy before pointing out it is still the only Championship game that the management team have lost in three years — the same record as Éamonn Fitzmaurice with Kerry.
‘We’re three years here now and we’ve lost one game, one important game. Éamonn is the same — he’s lost once in three years, too,’ says the Dubs selector, another small illustration of just how much is at stake next Sunday.
For Leitrim, ’94 was as important as an All-Ireland