No easy calls in club semi-finals
Seán Rice
IS the old order changing? No Ballina. No Ballaghaderreen. No Crossmolina. No Charlestown. None of the four features in the final stages of the Mayo senior football championship. For the first time in thirteen years none of them will grace the winner’s podium.
Three of the four clubs in Sunday’s semi-finals hail from the other end of the county. Knockmore is the odd one out. And while they have been installed as favourites to win the title, a shift in the established power base of football within the county appears to be under way.
One thing is certain. One of the two sides in the semi-finals who have never won a senior championship will contest the final. A dogfight is on the cards between Ballintubber and Shrule/Glencorrib for that honour, and no one will want to miss it.
The other semi-final throws up a couple of traditionalists, one whose glory helped shape football in Mayo in the first half of the last century, the other who ruled for long periods in the second half.
Knockmore won their last title in 1997, Castlebar in 1993, the swan song of a faded football power. New life has been breathed into the two in recent times and those watching on Sunday will wonder what it might mean for Mayo football.
The north Mayo men are shored up by the experience gained from last year’s final, which they lost by three points to Charlestown. They have a reputation for no-nonsense football, tough and determined.
I don¹t know whether the inclusion of Kevin O’Neill is indicative of the real strength of football in the club. But the guile of the 36-years-old ace, surrounded by the likes of Aidan Kilcoyne, Damien Munnelly, Trevor Howley and Gerry Higgins, makes him still a central and decisive figure around the goalmouth.
Declan Sweeney is having one of his best years at centre-half back, John Brogan is the stalwart of the full-back line and Kevin McLoughlin’s forays from the half-back line will provide the acid test of Castlebar’s defensive qualities.
Nursing the Mitchels back to full health has been a slow systematic process. Their status and confidence had hit rock bottom, and the gradual rise of their football graph is due in no small measure to the painstaking work of Peter Ford and his selectors.
Their aspirations came to an end last year at the semi-final stage when they lost to Charlestown, the eventual champions, by three points. They would have wished for an easier draw on Sunday than meeting title favourites for the second year in a row.
Their performance in the quarter-final was not a recommendation for the Moclair Cup. But no more suitable preparation for Knockmore could they have endured than the rocky quality of Breaffy’s opposition.
The Feeney brothers, Alan and Richie, Eoin Reilly, Pat Kelly and Donal Newcombe were given a taste of what to expect and measured up pretty well, although they will find O’Neill and company much sharper around the goal.
Little enough will separate Shane Fitzmaurice and Danny Kirby from James Ruddy and Stephen Sweeney in the middle of the field. But up front questions will be asked. Tom Cunniffe, Neil Douglas, Aidan Walsh and Barry Moran have loads of talent but need to be more clinical around the goal, more decisive.
On their semi-final performance against Crossmolina whom they beat by six points, Knockmore must start favourites. But the Mitchels’ new-found belief demands respect, and no opposition will faze their jet of unflinching young players. A win is not out of the question.
Ballintubber’s confidence is on a high after dismissing Ballina from the competition, and they will not fear Shrule/Glencorrib who created the shock of the competition in overcoming Charlestown.
The border team will start favourites mainly because with the likes of Trevor and Conor Mortimer in their ranks, no opposition can feel secure. Both had a big bearing on their semi-final win, and if Brian Murphy and James Lohan rediscover similar heights of resolve, they will be difficult to dislodge.
But Ballintubber have the one quality without which no amount of skill can totally overshadow. They have heart. Of course, they have Dillon and the O¹Connor brothers and Gary Loftus and John Feeney and Danny Geraghty, and collectively that amounts to no insignificant dollop of flair and ability.
But if they are to win it is on traditional character they will call, the spirit that knows no limits, that will not submit to adversity . . . even when everyone watching thinks they are dead and buried.
It’s a toss of a coin between them. It is likely to be Shrule for the final, but those who know them will not be surprised if Ballintubber squeeze through.
Independent view not a realistic one
THE cosy relationship between Mick O’Dwyer and the ghost writer of his biography spilled over last week when the Dublin-based journalist berated Sunday Game analyst Kevin McStay for a radio interview in which he opposed moves to have the Kerryman installed as Mayo football manager.
His accusation that discrimination on the grounds of age foiled O’Dwyer’s appointment is as unworthy as is the notion that because of his association with the Kerryman, the journalist himself is not free from bias.
One can understand his fawning reverence for O’Dwyer, but to accuse Mayo of negativity for refusing to appoint the Kerryman is not the cogent argument of one in touch with reality.
Age, of course, was a factor in assessing Mick O’Dwyer’s attributes for the job. But that was a practical decision based on the belief that as a coach the Kerryman’s best days are over.
A round trip of 400 miles from Waterville three or four times a week at the age of almost 75 was a factor taken into account. His role would have amounted realistically to nothing greater than that of overseer . . . and that’s an experience most Mayo people would not want to see repeated.
Nor have his achievements outside Kerry been exceptional.
The failure of his star pupil, Jack O’Shea, winner of seven all-Ireland senior medals, to transform Mayo when appointed manager in the early nineties, and Galway’s most recent experience in appointing Joe Kernan, are further reasons for turning him down.
Micko’s biographer is convinced that all Mayo needs to win an All-Ireland is to have his idol at the helm. “It would have been an ambitious call” . . . with the sole aim of winning the all-Ireland.
“Talk of two or three-year plans in Mayo make no sense. The season to win the All-Ireland is 2011, and given the county’s resources that’s what Mayo should be vigorously targeting,” he wrote.
The kernal of his argument is that Mayo must win a senior All-Ireland before drawing up plans to develop underage players . . . the poppycock of muddled thinking.
Frankly, we prefer Kieran McGeeney’s philosophy on the urgency of developing underage structures if Kildare football is to continue competing at the top level. Long-term strategies have to be established, he said.
“It’s about bringing players through that want to play for their jersey. They’ve passion, they’ve pride, they want to work hard and they come through to the senior team with a different ethos than maybe players in the past have come through”.
Just a thought …
No one will have begrudged Nicholas Murphy an All-Ireland medal following the assault on him at the beginning of last year’s final… an attack about which the perpetrator boasted afterwards and was not even reprimanded by the GAA.
