GET RID OF DUBLIN AND IT’D BE GREAT!
Longford boss Davis knows Leinster’s woes
IT might be just pre-season but the past six weeks have given Longford boss Pádraic Davis an eyeful of what the Leinster football landscape would look like if Dublin’s skyscraper of a shadow was not cast upon it.
No one is pretending there is any profound significance attached to his Longford team meeting Offaly in today’s O’Byrne Cup final in Tullamore, but neither is this the equivalent of two bald men scrapping over a comb.
The currency of the pre-season competitions may be worthless in the eyes of Gaelic football’s well-heeled — Tyrone the notable exception — but for counties like Offaly and Longford this may well be their only shot at winning something.
That is not meant as a damning measure of where they are at but, more to the point, of the futility of being housed under the same provincial roof as Dublin.
By any other measure, these two counties have made progress over the past couple of seasons. Davis’s Longford team took down Meath two years ago in the Leinster championship and drew with Kildare last summer, while Offaly coughed up a match-winning lead against the Royals.
‘I believe the Leinster championship would be the best championship of all if Dublin were not in it, but they are so it is hypothetical and they will remain in it until there is a major overhaul of structures,’ said Davis.
‘I don’t know when that will happen. It is probably a long way down the road but eventually they will get there.
‘There is no doubt that Leinster would be hugely competitive if they were not there but, I think a lot of the teams, including ourselves, have closed the gap on Meath and Kildare which is very encouraging.’
But the chances of either of today’s O’Byrne Cup finalists seeing action in the All-Ireland series this summer are, at best, long shots.
They have two pathways for making it; either reach the Leinster final or book a pass into the fast lane by securing promotion out of Division 3 this spring, but only a single berth is realistically available on each route.
The only miserly intrigue the Leinster championship offers is who gets to play Dublin in the final, and while Division 3 is usually a fertile meadow for the well-intentioned, this time it feels more like a killing field.
Cork are a Super 8s team paying cheap rent for a couple of months and are assured of promotion, while the likes of Down, Derry and
Tipperary would see themselves as genuine top-16 teams.
Davis, who is down eight players from last season, including such key figures as Robbie Smyth and the McGivney brothers, James and David, knows how the land lies, even though he preaches defiance.
Davis (right) remarks: ‘The likes of Cork, Down and Derry are traditionally strong counties in recent times and they feel they have a right to be in Tier One.
‘But feeling you have a right to be in Tier One won’t get you there and I think the rest of us will make them earn their corn on that one.
‘Everything is a bonus for us and retaining our position in Division 3 is hugely important for us and if you do that, you never know where it may take you.’
The odds, though, are heavily stacked in favour of his team heading straight down the Tier Two route, which would hardly be an indignity given that they were one of those counties who backed the concept. Davis remains supportive of it, but since it has been passed into GAA law he fears his county may have been sold a pup. ‘First and foremost, it would be a fantastic year if we were to get promoted and entered Tier One of the Championship, but if that is not the case we will certainly embrace the Tier Two competition. ‘It a real opportunity for Division 3 and 4 teams to get their hands on silverware but you would really hope that those who have put this in place would push it on a bit better than they have been doing. ‘They have come to the table with it but they have not indicated, in any shape or form, what they intend to do with it and its deserved place in the calendar,’ he argues. The truth is that the GAA has actually declared its intention, but it is not to the Longford manager’s liking. The Tier Two final will be played in Croke Park – as will the semi-finals – on the weekend of July 18/19, almost certainly as part of a double-header with a second Super 8s game.
It falls well shy of the respect and status the new competition deserves, argues Davis, who wants a more prominent slot.
‘It comes down to the GAA convincing us that it is worthwhile.
‘I felt that they needed to come straight out and say this is the second most important competition in the GAA, ahead of the National Leagues, Under-20 and minor championships.
‘They needed to say this is No2 and as a result the final will be played on All-Ireland final day. If you can fit in the minor as well, all and good but, if not, this is the one that goes on the undercard.
‘They needed to say it is that important and we are going to treat it as such, but they have not done that and that is hugely disappointing.
‘They would have got a buy-in from everyone, players, supporters and managers, had they done that but they haven’t done that.
‘They may yet do it, but as each week goes by, unless I see some huge expression of commitment, I am looking at another Tommy Murphy Cup coming down the line.’
Of all the insults that can be levelled at the new second tier that is the one which Croke Park will dread the most, with any comparisons to the last short-lived attempt at a second tier competition which withered away in the face of total apathy the ultimate damnation of what was sold as a new way.
Against the backdrop of a player exodus, particularly from those counties in the lower tiers, this is a championship that the GAA hope will engage players in counties like Longford, but there is little evidence of that happening so far.
However, Davis does not believe that it is in the gift of a championship structure to keep players at home.
‘It is a country-wide issue but again we appear to be getting the thick end of the stick,’ he admits.
‘We are down eight and 85% of it is travel. There is nothing we can do about that. It is an unfortunate situation when so many go at the one time. It is what it is. Can we put structures in place to try and prevent it from happening? I am not so sure.
‘You have guys coming out of college now, or finishing their apprenticeships, and that travel bug is eating away at them all the time and they are just going to go,’ accepts Davis, who is philosophical about what has become a ‘revolving doors’ culture.
‘We had five who went away last year — Darren Gallagher, Rian Brady, Dessie Reynolds, Peter Lynn and Kevin Diffley — but they are back now and they are the ones who are really driving it. They are really hungry, really enjoying their football,’ says Davis.
‘They are huge players for us, but we have a net loss of about four when you add in a couple of long-term injuries including one to our captain Donal Ledwith, and it is not simple.
And the boss isn’t afraid to give youth its fling. ‘We are lucky in that we have brought lads up from last year’s Under-20 squad and you have to give them great credit.
‘Hopefully they will go on to become quality players for us and when that happens we also will have to hope that the travel bug will not kick in.
‘It is going to be revolving doors for now, but that is the way of the world. It is a big issue now in comparison to 20 years ago, but I would not use the term “opting out”. We have just one player who has opted out and all the rest are gone because they wanted to travel.’