It was a weekend dominated by sporting finals and I got to see six of them - but only two in the flesh. It was enough! I think the eventual 2022 All-Ireland senior football champions will be contained within the group of the four provincial champions. Kerry and Dublin are in a clearing. There is a pack then of about five or six, in which Galway and Derry are moving up the pecking order. I am not sure where Donegal reside right now.
What makes it interesting is that Dublin-Kerry will meet in an All-Ireland semi-final, which means there is a final place available for one of that chasing group.
I got to see a lot of Ireland this weekend. My travelling companion - a Munster final regular - insisted that we got to Tralee on Friday to take in the scene. It didn’t take much persuasion. We met a local that evening who was adamant that Kerry-Limerick would be a complete mismatch.
Take away the natural splendour of Fitzgerald Stadium and watching that match was difficult. Kerry utterly destroyed Limerick without having to try very hard. So the afternoon was devoid of any atmosphere and it was reduced to ripples of polite applause. It was yet another provincial final that failed to deliver.
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Kerry, sans David Clifford, looked decent. Their pace and conditioning is excellent and their defence has a solid look about it. They have the Kerry hallmark of natural movement and understanding. It is all underscored by a complete mastery of the basic skills - both hands, both feet. Our friends in Tralee assured us that there are no local fears over the Clifford absence. It was a grade one hamstring, he could have played. But why chance him?
So they are happy with their team but well aware that when they turn the next corner, they are into much more hostile terrain. Are they ready for that? They are completely untested. But that has been their experience for most of the past century. Still, they are league and Munster champions and are in good shape.
Killarney is a superb town for a big football game. We stuck around for the rugby and Champions League final and there was just a brilliant buzz about all evening. As Seán Moran told me during a phone call, my itinerary looked like a showband tour from the 1970s: Killarney on Saturday night and on to Clones for the Sunday. I drove through the town just after dawn. It was me and six or eight council workers all alone in downtown Killarney. And the litter was shocking. I couldn’t get over it. We are a filthy nation at times!
So, a gorgeous morning, clear road ahead. And just after 10am I was going through a toll and approaching me on the far side of the motorway, I see the Roscommon bus heading for Salthill. I felt a pang. Your memory jumps back to what it is like to sit on that bus. And I was thinking about the players inside, many of whom I know well. The anticipation and the nervousness that must be there, yes. But with that you must bring confidence and courage with you to a dressing room.
It’s a thought that stuck with me over the day and I will return to it. The golden rule, for any team in any sport, is not to die wondering about the result. Yes, respect that fear you may have. But there comes a moment where if you are in a game, you must have the nerve to take it.
When I arrived in Clones, around noon, you could almost smell that nervous energy in the air. The stadium was full. And the town itself seemed to be taken over by Derry people. Early in the RTÉ broadcast, we were outside the Creighton Arms doing a little bit of colour for the television. A Derry man pointed out that these are not everyday occasions for his county, that Derry had only won seven Ulster titles ever. They were playing against a team who have had five in the last decade. But the Derry crowd was making the argument that their hunger and appetite to break this long absence would see them through. My rationale was that Donegal just had better footballers.
I anticipated it would be highly tactical. But nothing prepared me for the next 90 plus minutes of football we witnessed. It’s a final I find very hard to categorise. It was hugely competitive, I accept that. But to me, it resembled rugby league in pattern. Three passes, contact, recycle and then behind the gain line again - maybe for a few yards advantage. There were long passages of play where nothing happened, just players hand-passing the ball around the perimeter of the opposition defence. It reminded me of the old Blackadder scene where General Melchett, surveying the terrain claimed in his office, peers over a model, complete with tufts of grass, to denote the amount of land recaptured overnight.
- What is the actual scale of this map, Darling?
- Umhh . . . one to one, Sir.
- Come again?
- The map is life size, sir. It’s superbly detailed. Look, there’s a little worm!
The point is, there was ample opportunity to drift off into reveries during the game - for the players as well as those of us watching. Should I be surprised? I predicted here it would be a very tactical affair. It it was, complete with tactical and cynical fouling.
So it was likely to be an arm wrestle. However, what was a surprise was how a team as experienced as Donegal became completely suffocated in the stress of trying to win the day. Their effort in that last few minutes of normal time was shocking. 1-12 apiece and possession and a chance to win the day; they didn’t have the conviction to take it on.
Now, people can argue that this was an epic contest. It wasn’t, really. Only the margins made it appear that way. Derry made the running, yes. When Donegal went 1-12 to 1-10 up, they never tried to stretch that lead. They didn’t bolt for home. They tried to manage their way to victory.
For a little while, in extra-time, penalties loomed. I was joking to Marty that they would kick the penalties over the bar because they were so cautious. Again, the RTÉ statistics tell a story.
Derry scored 0-1 from a Donegal turnover. Donegal scored nothing from the Derry turnovers. There won’t be turnovers if there is no risk, sure. But nothing else will happen either. So Derry had 19 attacks. Donegal had 21. In other words, half the normal average.
Donegal did go after the Derry kick-out - to a degree. But Derry got every single short kick-out away. That gives me the impression that Donegal had half an eye on their defence. Odhran Lynch, the Derry goalkeeper, is untested at this level – and there were signs that he was under big pressure and yet Donegal didn’t really attack that area. Derry scored 1-7 from their own kick-out; Donegal paid for not going after Derry’s possession. Derry won 100 per cent short but just 50 per cent going long. Donegal have a smart management and stats people, they had to know this was a critical area. Yet, they didn’t respond. I think they were caught between two minds. You can’t kind of press up. You either commit or don’t.
Donegal, post Jim McGuinness, have been a massive disappointment. They have such skill. But they seem strait-jacketed now and they cannot escape the formula that they work on in training. What they are doing with Michael Murphy is officially a conundrum. He stood perfectly still for long periods yesterday, in the company of Brendan Rogers, watching Donegal building ponderous attacks. I wonder was it demoralising for Michael during that game. He is Donegal’s greatest ever player. To be reduced to an observer in the critical moments – it doesn’t make sense. Then he hit that glorious point on the run to remind us that there are things that he and he alone can do with a Gaelic football. I cannot understand the refusal to play him for, say, 20 inside, 15 out and see what happens.
Instead, when the game was on the line, Rogers and Conor Glass put their hands up and claimed it for their team. That makes Derry the deserving winners.
Is there more to come from Derry? Is this the culmination of their season? Can this type of game plan be repeated in Croke Park? I don’t believe so but in deference to Rory Gallagher I would at least wait and see. He has brought not just formidable tactical nous. He clearly has fostered great camaraderie. A good team needs passion and hunger, an excellent team needs something besides. They will be celebrating now but the next task is a plan to win an All-Ireland quarter final. They will believe they can win it.
Leaving aside Derry delight, the game was so, so forgettable. Ulster football people are proud of their championship. But there is a worry. The sport of Gaelic football itself is becoming quite boring. Munster and Leinster were both absolute washouts. The Connacht final was competitive. Ulster was competitive but not at all easy on the eye. The regional disparities are pronounced. I think Ulster stands alone in style and in tension. Yet too often, their victorious teams have not been able to make their success translate to the national stage
The season so far leaves us with the impression of a sport at the crossroads. The number of hand-passes in Clones was extraordinary - I haven’t seen a statistic because I imagine the tally men are still counting.
Driving away from Clones on Sunday evening, the town was quiet. After all of that noise and anticipation, I was left with the slightly hollow feeling that the spectacle just didn’t measure up to the anticipation. The game happened, and then it was over. I left feeling there was so much more in those players than we were permitted to see.
