Bohan pleads for final crowds reprieve
BACK in May, mindful of the strain on players’ increasingly Covid-complicated lives and the dwindling opportunities of the sporting year, Mick Bohan advocated for the 2020 championship to be cancelled.
Now, he’s preparing for an All-Ireland ladies final, his fourth with Dublin in consecutive years, on December 20.
“My major concern back when I spoke about it was I saw first hand the strain that they were under,” Bohan pointed out after Saturday’s five-point All-Ireland semi-final victory over Armagh in Kingspan Breffni Park.
“And that hasn’t changed. Here we are this evening, seven of our panel aren’t here, four of our management team aren’t here, none of their families who support them on a daily basis to allow them to play. And every time they come training into a group of 40 people, they do take a risk.
Reward
“And realistically, what’s the reward for that? That they don’t get to come to the game in a stadium where they don’t have to come into a changing room, they don’t have to come into an enclosed area.
“I really, really do appeal to the Minister for Health, Minister for Sport, to the LGFA and the GAA to really push the buttons.
“I’ve got more text messages this week from people wishing us luck, saying, ‘You’ve actually brought a bit of light into the house over the last couple of weeks’.”
Saturday night’s fare was thoroughly illuminating. Inspired by the exceptional Aimee Mackin, Armagh took Dublin square-on and were it not for a yellow card to Clodagh McCambridge early in the second half, could viably have toppled the All-Ireland champions of the past three seasons.
If the threat posed by Mackin, whose second goal ranks among the best scored in this unique year, indicated Dublin’s run of 19 straight championship victories would come under serious threat, the injury that forced Sinéad Aherne off in the first half suggested it would also be beset by bad luck.
“She probably got a nick in her calf during the week,” Bohan explained. “We had rested her, we thought she was okay but it just seemed to pull. She has a couple of weeks to recover now, hopefully she’ll get back. But other girls stepped up.”
None more than Carla Rowe. Thrust unexpectedly into the role of dead-ball kicker, Rowe finished with 2-4 (1-0 pen, 2f ). Her penalty, immediately after McCambridge began her 10 minutes’ penance, jump-started a decisive run of Dublin dominance in which they scored 1-4 to Armagh’s 0-1, the effective winning of the game.
And there were others.
In the first half, as Armagh turned a seven-point deficit into a single-point lead, Noelle Healy’s energy kept the Dublin attack alive.
In the second, Lyndsey Davey punched hole after hole, running incessantly at the Armagh defence.
And so for all Armagh’s ambition and vibrancy, you could almost feel the hands of Dublin’s experience moulding the result.
“Going in at half-time,” Bohan noted, “we just scored a point on the bell to come back into it, which probably was a bit tough on them because to be in the lead going into half-time psychologically would have been a lift for them.”
The last time Bohan was involved in a match so close to Christmas was 2001 when he was involved with Na Fianna.
They lost a Leinster club final replay to Rathnew on December 23 that year in a game still remembered bitterly by those from the St Mobhi Road club.
“I still remember walking stand side and the pitch was frozen,” Bohan recalled. “I mean frozen, concrete frozen. We turned to the groundsman, I was with Mick Galvin, and we said, ‘That pitch is hardly playable’.
“He turned and looked at us and he said, ‘Well, guys, The Curragh was off today but then again, horses are valuable’. That’s exactly what he said.
“I still remember thinking, ‘Isn’t that just amazing. It just shows how valued we are!’ This year’s a little bit different. It’s given a focus certainly for any people whose families or kids are directly involved, the next three weeks is a diversion.
“And,” Bohan concluded, “we all need diversions at the moment.”
SCORERS – Dublin: C Rowe 2-4 (1-0 pen, 2f); N Owens 1-0; N Healy 0-3; L Davey 0-2; S Aherne (f), S McCaffrey, K Sullivan, S Killeen 0-1 each. Armagh: A Mackin 2-4 (1-0 pen, 2f); A McCoy 1-0; K Mallon 0-2 (2f); B Mackin, A Marley 0-1 each.
DUBLIN – C Trant; M Byrne, N Collins, A Kane; L Caffrey, S McGrath, S Goldrick; L Magee, J Dunne; C Rowe, L Davey, S McCaffrey; S Aherne, N Owens, M Healy. Subs: S Killeen for Aherne (25, inj), N McEvoy for 12 (h-t), K Sullivan for Dunne (53), C O’Connor for Owens (53), O Nolan for Kane (56).
ARMAGH – A Carr; S Marley, C McCambridge, S Grey; T Grimes, B Mackin, G Ferguson; N Coleman, A Bellew; C Marley, A McCoy, A Mackin; C O’Hanlon, K Mallon, E Lavery. Subs: T McVeigh for Ferguson (46), N Reel for Lavery (55).
REF – G McMahon (Mayo)