Supporters will put up with the fights far more readily than players not caring
TWO All-Ireland final repeats took place last Sunday. At Nowlan Park, the Galway hurlers had motive and opportunity to have a right cut at champions Kilkenny.
The fallout from last September’s defeat saw the players stage a heave against manager Anthony Cunningham. After serving his head on a platter, the players had to be feeling the pressure to stand up and fight against Kilkenny and at least go some little way to showing that their stance was justified. Instead, Kilkenny coasted into a 0-13 to 0-5 lead, Galway bedevilled by a lack of cohesion, the lack of bite and intensity more in keeping with a challenge match.
It all left former Clare and Dublin manager Anthony Daly considering leaving the ground before the half-time whistle. ‘With 30 minutes gone, and Kilkenny ahead by 0-13 to 0-4, the thought came into my head: “Will I make a run for it and shorten the road home?”’
That same afternoon, nobody in Austin Stack Park was looking for the exit signs. In a repeat of the 2014 AllIreland football final, both Kerry and Donegal came spoiling for a fight, clearly intent on laying down a marker for the rest of the season.
This one quickly got ugly. Neil McGee had his nose split when he bent the fingers back of Kerry full-forward Alan Fitzgerald who was redcarded for raining a quick series of blows to try and extricate himself.
Marc Ó Sé was blind-sided by a punch from Leo McLoone in one of the ugly melees that developed, and the Donegal player would have been brought to book by the CCCC on video evidence if he hadn’t already been suspended for a red-card offence that wasn’t half as bad as the one missed.
Mike Quirke, former Kerry midfielder and games development officer in the county, condemned the ‘testosterone-induced machismo’ but made a telling admission in his own column: ‘In today’s overly sensitive climate of political correctness, it would be unpopular of me to suggest it was enjoyable to watch, but I certainly found the contest far more captivating that anything else I’ve seen this year. Then again, I didn’t have my kids with me.’
Don’t worry Mike: the kids who would have already watched Conor McGregor’s UFC defeat wouldn’t have been traumatised.
The McGee and Ó Sé incidents were bad but for all the outrage over the carry-on for the rest of game which involved a festival of pulling and dragging, the truth is that supporters can live with the spoiling, posturing and machismo a lot more than players not caring.
The Galway hurlers’ failure to lay a glove on Kilkenny for long periods was just as unpalatable for supporters, who have seen it all before.
Similarly, those Cork hurling supporters who travelled to Croke Park on Saturday night would have given anything for their team to show that they cared against Dublin. The manner in which they rolled over was embarrassing.
Afterwards, manager Kieran Kingston said to all intents and purposes that ‘this is where we’re at’. For a team who came within seconds of winning the 2013 All-Ireland, were crowned Munster champions the following year, and include three of most potent forwards in the country in Patrick Horgan, Conor Lehane and Seamus Harnedy, that is a poor reflection. At Tralee last Sunday, referee Eddie Kinsella issued 10 cards – two red, two black and six yellow. Yet afterwards, Kerry manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice downplayed the fractious nature of the contest, trying to give a bit of context to what unfolded. ‘Conditions certainly didn’t make it easy. Situations like this will always happen when two teams go at it as hard as it as both teams did.
‘I always feel that anytime you play Donegal, it is a battle because they test you physically as well as mentally.’
Could the same be said last weekend about the hurlers of Galway or Cork?
Kerry travel to Castlebar this afternoon to renew rivalries with Mayo. Given the history between the pair, there will be few supporters looking to make an early exit.