O’Rourke talk of beating Dubs is heartening
BUT IT’S STILL TOO EARLY FOR CHAMPIONSHIP
AFTER Storm Kathleen arrived on Saturday, a Gael force was forecast yesterday.
Except it didn’t arrive.
Yes, the matches were great — Cavan versus Monaghan being a typically tense and hard fought Ulster derby, while Meath were slick against Longford, and elsewhere Wicklow and Waterford had their best day in years.
But it didn’t feel like the start of the Championship. How could it?
It is April.
For all of us, Championship equates to hot summer days, weeks of chat leading into a big game, coaches being booked to transport fans to games.
It is part of us, a huge slice of our summer.
And we have just gone and given it away.
It’s not right. Yes, the club player needs to be looked after, but we have gone too far the other way, squeezing too many inter-county games into too tight a schedule.
And as a result we have diluted something great.
Clones yesterday was a mixture of a Dr McKenna Cup tie and one of those Championship matches that were held during Covid.
There was a chill in the air, for a start. The roads were clear getting into the ground, the access easy to get out of the town.
Normally, the opposite is true.
As kids we used to have this saying, that my auld lad was a better driver than Ayrton Senna, because he was able to get from our home in the Moy to Clones in half-an-hour on Ulster final day. Senna would never have been able to do that.
Packed
But Old Man Cavanagh could, because he knew every back road in Armagh, Tyrone and Monaghan. The town was always jammed, the colour and the pageantry adding to the occasion.You’d walk down the main street and you’d have to hold onto your parent’s hand because the place was packed.
And then when you got into the ground, it was magic. I still remember the roar when the teams came out of the tunnel. As a kid, watching Tyrone beat Derry in the 1995 Ulster final, was unforgettable. That game got me into football in a big way. That buzz. That hooked me for life.
And yesterday, none of that was there.
There was no roar; I could hear the players shout to one another on the field.
There weren’t packed streets; fans have been paying money going to League games across the last couple of months, this Championship arriving right on top of the League.
People need a bit of a gap before they go spending again.
Players need a degree of separation, too.
Like it was only last weekend that Westmeath beat Down in the Division 3 final. Then yesterday they had to go toe to toe with Wicklow. It was too soon. They paid the price.
And right across the country, the GAA is paying the price for squeezing so much of the season into such a condensed time period.
We are losing fans.
There were only about 3,000 people in Pearse Park in Longford. If that match was in May — in better weather — with more of a build-up, there would have been 10,000.
Clones was practically empty. Again, if the game was in May, there would have been 15,000 people there.
The question is why are we, as GAA people, making life hard for ourselves? Why have we sacrificed two months of our summer?
Reflect
For years we had it right. The summer was long and the summer was ours. The soccer season ended and everyone tuned into us.
In homes, in pubs, in GAA clubs, on the street, in cafes, everyone speculated about the big match coming up. They’d reflect on the previous game and worry about such and such a player’s injury, or discuss a match-up between our best player and theirs.
The excitement would build into a crescendo. That was what made the Championship so special. And now we’ve downgraded all that. And I can’t get my head around it.
We should be talking today about how good Cavan were yesterday, how good their match with Monaghan was, how the prospect of Meath going to Dublin is a potential upset. But the fact is that because the calendar has become so packed, we don’t have time to build things up the way we used to.
Games are coming thick and fast.
Meath have only a week to get ready for Dublin. Cavan have only a fortnight to prepare for Tyrone. Before they do so three other Ulster Championship matches will have taken place.
And by the end of April we will have played seven of the eight Ulster Championship games. Once upon a time those were spread out from May until the middle of July. Now it is over before summer has even started.
And it is so frustrating.
For what it is worth, from what I saw yesterday, I think there is ample evidence that Meath are on the way back.
Fear
Listening to Colm O’Rourke talk up his team, saying how they are going to go to Croke Park without any fear, was heartening.
We used to say the same thing in Tyrone.
But there is talking the talk and then there is walking the walk.
The first is easy; the second is not.
So, Colm knows, Meath’s season won’t be defined by a win over Longford.
A win over Dublin would be a different story. No one expects them to get it but after yesterday we can expect their forwards to produce a decent showing.
Then there is Cavan. Underrated, and under the radar, they were underdogs yesterday. But they produced the goods. Their goals were great. Their forward, Paddy Lynch, looks superb.
Focus
They can beat Tyrone, make no question about it, in a fortnight’s time. In fact, I’ll go further. They are dark horses now for an Ulster Championship.
That can sometimes happen in Ulster. You focus so much on the big hitters and a team comes from nowhere to lift the Anglo-Celt Cup.
Cavan did just that in Covid. Monaghan did it twice in the last decade. Down did it in 1991.
So yes, I still fancy Derry, Donegal, Armagh, Tyrone, but don’t write Cavan off.You’d be a fool to do so. In four weeks time we could have a shock Ulster finalist.