Declan Bogue

EAMONN CALLAGHAN HAS a great yarn about life on the road as a Kildare footballer.

It involved room sharing, something that became too familiar to him throughout his long career and wintry nights prior to national league games.

“I used to have James Kavanagh as my room-mate for a while,” he begins.

“I have a thing, or at least back then, when I had to fall asleep with the TV on. I had to have it on going to sleep. And then he had to wait until I fell asleep to turn off the TV, and then he could get to sleep.”

Poor James. Other people really are Hell. But just discovering and experiencing these little foibles and eccentricities of room mates is another example of how your preparation for a game can be thrown out.

With the group stages game between Kildare and Dublin being set for a 5pm throw-in on Saturday in Nowlan Park, we doubt there would ever be an example of, say, Con O’Callaghan being fit to fling a shoe at Brian Fenton’s head as he contentedly drifts off to the hum and flicker of ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians.’

But all the same, it is an evening when Dublin are on the road. Out of their safe haven of Croke Park. Ready to be devoured by the starving natives.

Not quite.

First things first. Taking Dublin out of Croke Park does not significantly harm their chances in championship football.

Back in 2016, they were slated to play Laois in Nowlan Park and came away with an 11-point win. But it was their first time out of Croke Park in a decade.

James McCarthy in action during Dublin's victory over Laois in Nowlan Park. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

From the decade of 1996 to 2006, they played ten times away from home. They lost just once, and drew once, both of those coming against Kerry in the 2001 All-Ireland quarter-final in Thurles.

They won the rest. But bald statistics don’t tell the full story.

The Leinster quarter-final in 2006 played in Pearse Park saw a late Longford rally that had them sweating, with Dublin eventually winning by two points.

Go back four years previous and they had Wexford in Dr Cullen Park. Again, the margin was just two points in the end.

Even in the 1996 Leinster semi-final, moved to Pairc Tailteann, they were blessed against Louth. With just six minutes on the clock they were behind and it took a late goal from Joe McNally to eventually finish four points to the good.

In every season since 2016, they have played a Leinster championship game outside Croke Park. But by then they had rejigged themselves to become the most ruthless team in history.

In six games, the average winning margin was just over 17 points. The largest was the 26-point scutching Louth were on the end of in 2019.

It was felt that the introduction of the Super 8s would give the Dublin footballers and supporters a chance to get out and see the world. Breathe the country air. Bathe in the waters. Take in the sights of the provincial venues.

We were soon disabused of that notion when it was announced that Croke Park was named as a ‘neutral’ venue in a decision that can only be described as a piece of performance art.

In any event, Dublin squeezed through Tyrone in Omagh – tight sidelines and all – by three points in 2018, and six points in 2019 before the experiment was shelved because of the Covid alarm.

All the same, there is a growing resentment at the perception that Dublin are made feel so at home in Croke Park.

By routinely fixing the Leinster semi-finals in Croke Park, the Central Competition Controls Committee leave themselves wide open every year.

The complaints are few and far between, managers instead not wanting to be accused of being a sore loser.

But after losing to Dublin by two points in the semi-final, Kildare manager Glenn Ryan got a few things off his chest.

“The Yankees when they play a supposedly neutral venue, they get to play in a neutral venue,” said Ryan.

“It’s frustrating. All these calls seem to come at the big moments when it’s going into the deciding stages of the game.

“(Referee) Fergal Kelly I thought did a great job – but in general from the sideline, from officials, you just always feel that you’re getting treated second-rate.”

He continued: “But then there’s the familiarity that Dublin have with here, that no other team gets a chance, and it does benefit them.

“And I’m probably echoing the thoughts of most other counties. On the sideline, it’s always our players that get told to put the gumshield in by a fourth official or a fifth official.

“It’s always the fourth official telling our sideline to maybe step back a bit, when a mentor from the Dublin team is actually standing in ours – and then you see a sideline ball that’s nowhere near a sideline ball given against you.”

Ryan received backing by former Mayo manager James Horan who said on The Irish Examiner Podcast: “In my experience he is 100% right. I think the familiarity that Dublin have with Croke Park. I think there is a bias there that favours Dublin.

“Some of the officials, some of the mentors around Croke Park don’t even realise. We’ve had many the battle up there with them. When Dublin are there, it is per se their home ground.”

He later added: “Glenn referenced the sideline; I have experienced it myself. Some teams can have more than others, nothing said. It is small in isolation stuff but when you add it all up there is definitely something there favourable to Dublin.”

On this issue, Ryan is merely echoing other managers who have raised similar concerns, such as Eamonn Fitzmaurice mentioning how difficult it might be to get a ball for a quick kickout when you are trailing in a game.

It’s been refuted, of course, by Dublin voices such as Philly McMahon and Paul Flynn. Their defences would gain little sympathy outside of their own constituencies.  

Another argument frequently advanced is that players are so keen to play in Croke Park that it overrides any other concern.

Only, that seems a bit hollow for those that have been on the end of Croke Park tankings. Callaghan was part of teams that pushed Dublin hard going down the stretch, but he was also occasionally wishing that he could just disappear while under the harsh glare of a hammering.

“It feels like almost a training match up there in Croke Park. You hear everything the players are saying, every noise. In a proper championship game, you wouldn’t,” Callaghan points out.

“I know from Kildare, there is no real buzz about playing in Croke Park anymore.

“From my perspective, I would much rather play in a provincial ground in a Leinster semi-final say, in Tullamore, Portlaoise or wherever.

“It’s fair then that everyone is playing on a neutral venue then as well.

“Going up to Croke Park, there might only be 15 or 20,000 people. It’s so dead. I found that over the years. As time goes on, once the attendances start dropping, it just got worse.”

The overall situation is one that deeply frustrates former Carlow manager Turlough O’Brien.

A sports nut, he has travelled the world sampling the delights of some of the biggest sporting events. He’s spent time in full balaclava and the plummeting temperatures of Lambeau Field when the snows blow in watching his beloved Green Bay Packers.

And yet nothing leaves him as cold as a sparsely populated Croke Park for a Leinster championship game.  

“It’s sickening, to be honest with you. All of these things are in Dublin’s favour, really and truly,” says O’Brien.

“It’s not right. It’s not the way a competition should be. Just compare it to the Ulster championship and Connacht championship. Even the old arrangement they used to have of playing each other home one year, away the other. The atmosphere is so much better than the games in Leinster. There is no atmosphere in games in Leinster.

“They are nearly all at neutral venues and it is counter-productive, I think.

“I think if you asked all management and players, they would all like to play Dublin outside of Croke Park and on their own patch if they got a chance. But there is nobody listening.”

He continues: “At this stage I am fed up talking about it because I am on a different wavelength then I think to anyone else.

“We should be looking at playing national league and the championship concurrently. Play the championship on a knockout basis. You have one occasion when an occasion where teams could knockout Dublin and when they are gone, they are gone.

“That would really lift football, in Leinster anyway. There’s nothing now. The system is so much in favour of the stronger team the whole time. It’s crazy and I don’t get it.

“Look at Thurles last Sunday, and it was buzzing. Clones the week before. Roscommon, they are great occasions, apart from the actual game. Great occasions for the GAA.

“All those rural venues, the craic you have, mixing with the supporters.”

The greatest trick Cian O’Neill pulled in his time in Kildare as manager was to stand his ground over the Round 3 qualifier game against Mayo.

Kildare fans swarm the pitch after the 'Newbridge or nowhere' win against Mayo. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

Fixed early in the week for Croke Park, once O’Neill coined his ‘Newbridge or Nowhere’ catchphrase, the CCCC were screwed, eventually having to relent and allow St Conleth’s Park to act as host, having initially said it held safety concerns.

Kildare had lost to Carlow in the previous round. Morale was through the floor. He was managing for his future and he stirred something up from deep within that eventually became a 0-21 to 0-19 win over Mayo in 24 degree heat.

Callaghan scored one of the last points that night. He never played a Leinster game at home. That went some way to making up for it.

“Just the atmosphere, the crowd, the match was a sell-out. It was fairly unique; St Conleth’s is fairly unique in itself,” he recalls.

“But the atmosphere was unbelievable that day. Mayo were the second-best team in the country at that time. To get the performance and the crowd, the build-up to that game that week added to it.

“It was one of those games when we really did perform. It had a massive impact on us, going in to play in front of a home crowd in Conleth’s, all that added to it.”

Now St Conleth’s is closed for refurbishment. Kildare have no home venue, but they face Dublin in Nowlan Park.

Let’s see if they can close that two-point margin.