ALL-IRELAND SFC QUALIFIERS:ATTITUDES TOWARDS the All-Ireland football qualifiers appear to be softening. Since introduced in 2001, the qualifiers have usually been approached with fear and loathing, particularly by the so-called weaker counties – but now there is a greater realisation that if the attitude is right, and the spirit, then anything is possible.
“The most important game to this group of players now is the first round of the qualifiers,” declared Clare football manager Michael McDermott after his side’s four-point defeat to Waterford in Sunday’s Munster quarter-final.
“You haven’t heard the last of us this summer,” warned Antrim manager Liam Bradley after his team went down to Tyrone in the Ulster quarter-final.
This certainly marks a change from recent years. Typically, managers spoke of the “impossibility” of lifting players after an early championship defeat, or the “hazards” of entering the qualifiers.
But with the back-door route now 10 years in existence in the football championship, there is ample evidence to suggest the qualifiers can benefit teams of all abilities, even those that at the first stage of their provincial championships.
Wicklow provided the latest example of this last summer, when after losing to Westmeath in the Leinster quarter-final, they beat Fermanagh, Cavan and Down in the qualifiers, before falling to Kildare in the final round.
The year before, Monaghan went on a similar journey, losing to Kerry in the last round of the qualifiers, while in 2007 Louth went to the final round, have also exited the Leinster championship at the quarter-final stage.
Round one of this year’s qualifiers is set for June 26th – still five weeks away – and will consist of the 16 teams that fail to qualify for their provincial semi-finals. At this stage, that includes Clare, Tipperary, Antrim, Derry, Carlow, Longford and Offaly – and for McDermott, the most important thing for a team like Clare is to realise the qualifiers can be the start of a journey, rather than the end.
“It is always difficult to turn this around,” said McDermott, who is in his first season in charge of Clare, and earlier this year took Kilmurry-Ibrickane to the All-Ireland club final.
“But for too many years, when Clare went out of the Munster championship, they sort of threw in the towel, and gave a half-hearted attempt at the qualifiers. And yet with that half-hearted attempt they’ve done quite well. They’ve been there or thereabouts. Last year they could have beaten Donegal. A few years before they could have beaten Fermanagh.”
Clare’s record in the qualifiers hasn’t been good – they weren’t even eligible in 2008 and 2007 when the qualifiers somewhat unfairly excluded teams in Division Four of the League.
In 2006, they beat Antrim in the first round (by a point) before losing to Fermanagh in the second round, 0-15 to 0-10.
“I’ve just asked for honesty from the players this time,” added McDermott, “to give it a go for the five or six weeks, and see where the journey takes them. Because the most important game to this group of players now is the first round of the qualifiers.
“When we got together in January the most important game for the group of players was the first round of the National League against Wicklow. That got us on a bit of a journey that I feel we made progress on.”
Antrim had only one game in the qualifiers last summer, when they faced Kerry in the final round, just one week after losing to Tyrone in the Ulster final.
Although they had Kerry in trouble for long periods, they eventually exited 2-12 to 1-10 – and Bradley clearly believes there is no reason why they can’t challenge the stronger counties again in the coming weeks.
“I still think we’ll be very hard to beat,” he said, adding that Sunday’s defeat to Tyrone was very much due to Antrim’s own shortcomings. “We showed Tyrone too much respect. We did the same in the first half of the Ulster final last year. We though we had that problem sorted out.
“But in the second half we were very good, completely cleaned Tyrone out in the middle of the field. A draw in the end probably would have been a fair result.
“Hopefully the qualifier draw will be favourable for us, and we’ll get a handy enough draw, if there is such a thing as a handy draw. And maybe we’ll be able to push on through the qualifiers.”
A favourable draw does clearly help, but then Fermanagh would have thought that last year when they drew Wicklow, and Louth too when they drew Tipperary.
For now what is certain is the qualifiers will soon include either London or Roscommon, Sligo or Mayo, Westmeath or Wicklow, Kildare or Louth, Laois or Meath, Dublin or Wexford, Donegal or Down, Monaghan or Armagh, and Cavan or Fermanagh.
Great Qualifier Journeys Where the Weak Prevail
2001– Westmeath beat Wexford, Limerick, Louth and Mayo before losing to Meath in All-Ireland quarter-final, replay.
2002– Limerick beat Cavan and Offaly, but lose to Mayo.
2003– Roscommon beat Cork, Leitrim, Offaly, Kildare, before losing to Kerry in All-Ireland quarter-final.
2004– Fermanagh beat Tipperary (walkover), Meath, Cork, Donegal and Armagh, but lose to Mayo in All-Ireland semi-final replay.
2005– Sligo beat Longford, Kildare and Clare, but lose to Cork.
2006– Westmeath beat London, Limerick, Sligo, Galway, before losing to Dublin in All-Ireland quarter-final.
2007– Louth beat Limerick and Kildare, but lose to Cork.
2008– Monaghan beat Derry and Donegal, but lose to Kerry.
2009– Wicklow beat Fermanagh, Cavan and Down, but lose to Kildare.
