Blues are taking on history and ghosts of Kingdom’s past
IN one of those little quirks that history occasionally throws up, Dublin visit Tralee next week, a day before the 84th anniversary of the end of the longest unbeaten record in Gaelic Games – the one that Jim Gavin and his players are assuring everyone they are not chasing.
On March 19, 1933 Kerry, who won their fourth successive All-Ireland title the previous September, travelled to Navan to play Meath in the National League. The winners would go forward to the semi-final – but nobody was expecting anything other than a routine win for the visitors. After all, that is what Kerry did.
Since a shock defeat to Tipperary in the 1928 Munster Championship, they hadn’t lost a game. And there was only one draw – a 0-2 apiece stalemate in 1930 with rivals of the day Kildare – in a streak that lasted almost five years. Thirty-four games. Thirtythree wins. Kerry enjoyed a dominance even Dublin can’t exert over their opponents.
Few that went to the Navan Showgrounds expected to see what was described as ‘one of the most sensational results in the annals of Gaelic Games.’ But that’s what they did see.
With the game played in a downpour, Meath surprised their visitors, racing into a 1-3 to 0-0 lead. Kerry’s Miko Doyle scored a point just before half-time and it was thought they would control the second half, given they had the advantage of the wind. But Meath held them out, winning 1-4 to 0-2.
If Donegal’s ambush of Dublin in the 2014 All-Ireland semi-final was the root of their current dominance over Gaelic football, the Kerry side of John Joe Sheehy and Con Brosnan also had a shock defeat to thank for their greatness. On July 8, 1928 they lost to Tipperary in a provincial semifinal. As Paddy Foley pointed out in his book, The Kerry Football
story: ‘The unexpected defeat
acted as a tonic to the players and the following year, they came back stronger than ever.’
It’s not the only parallel with this present Dublin team. Kerry’s dominance in Munster was felt to be having a detrimental effect on all the other sides in the provinces, similar to what is being said about Leinster today.
One national newspaper, editorialising on the future of Gaelic games at the turn of the 1920s, suggested Kerry’s dominance in Munster showed that the provincial system ought to be dismantled and replaced with an open draw All-Ireland Championship.
As Richard McElligott writes in Forging a Kingdom: The GAA in
Kerry 1884-1934: ‘The remarkable period of success for the Kingdom footballers finally came to an end in August 1933 when they succumbed to Cavan in the All-Ireland semi-final in Tralee... such dominance by one team was unparalleled in the previous history of the sport.’
While Cavan inflicted the first Championship defeat, it was a Meath team in Navan a few months earlier that proved that Kerry side were mortal. The record has stood, untouched, for almost 84 years. Dublin won’t just be facing the present Kerry team next Saturday, but also the ghosts of the first great footballing force from the Kingdom.