LAST UPDATE | 19 Jun 2023
ONE THING HAS become abundantly clear over the last couple of months. Nobody is winning the Sam Maguire or the Tailteann Cup with their face unmarked and jersey nice and pristine.
This is a gruelling, damaging slog towards the cups and whoever gets there in the end will deserve it. Here, we look ahead to this weekend’s games.
All Ireland SFC
Galway v Mayo
Prior to the weekend, you’d have been looking at the various group stages and the natural conclusion to draw was that Sam Maguire would eventually wash up west of the Shannon.
The one blot between them was Mayo’s loss to Roscommon on Easter Sunday, that coming gift-wrapped with a user-friendly excuse that it was a mere seven days since the league final win over Galway.
Their recovery was confirmed with victory over Kerry in Killarney and a grinding win over Louth.
Galway’s own form ran along similar lines. A league final, a breeze through Connacht and then went into the last round robin top of their group.
Last weekend however, dredged up all sorts of strange Juju and ghosts of non-performances past.
And so the season boils down to this. Their third meeting this year with one draw and one Mayo win. Will Damien Comer, Dylan McHugh and Sean Kelly all be out on the field? Now, or never.
Donegal v Tyrone
Let’s go back a decade ago, and a tale Sean Cavanagh tells of the Tyrone team bus coming over the bridge from Stranorlar to Ballybofey. By the side of the road, a Donegal fan is holding up a door, yes, an actual door, so that the Tyrone players can read the daubed writing; ‘Out the backdoor for Tyrone.’
After losing to them in 2011 and 2012, Mickey Harte arrived with a brand new weapon in Niall Morgan for long range frees, but Donegal made a nuisance of themselves and destroyed his confidence on the way to a win.
The meeting in 2015 was summed up with Stephen O’Neill’s sprint and charge at Neil McGee, intent on inflicting maximum damage. He merely bounced off an unsuspecting McGee, summing up the relationship they had back then.
At times, both of these sides have been glancing over the shoulder, waiting for the towel to be thrown in. Miraculously, Donegal are climbing out what was a wreckage of a season. This is exactly the draw to quicken the heart rate and, having escaped an execution last weekend, Tyrone must feel the walls closing in.
Kildare v Monaghan
Two teams that show remarkable similarities, not least in their records this year. Monaghan and Kildare both won won three and lost four of their league games.
They both won their opening provincial championship game, before losing the semi-final to the eventual winners.
In the group stages, they drew a game, won a game and lost one.
The Kildare formline is most bizarre and inconsistent. Against Derry in the league earlier this year at Newbridge they appeared a complete shambles. And yet in their league meeting and Leinster semi-final matches against Dublin there was clear evidence of significant improvement.
Beating Roscommon is an incredible injection of adrenalin for them. But the night before in Omagh, Monaghan turned in their usual passive display they are so prone to whenever they are fancied by losing to Donegal and coughing up home advantage for this round.
Does an unexpected win have more of a positive effect than the feeling a team can get from feeling their cheated themselves?
Cork V Roscommon
Anyone following Cork’s labouring progress in trying to get daylight between themselves and Louth in the opening round in Navan, might have felt that the two points hard-earned that evening would be enough for them to squeeze through.
Nobody expected a win over Mayo. Even though a Mayo collapse has become a hardy perennial, nobody seems to notice it until we are right in the middle of the meltdown.
All of that strips away the credit for Cork and their management team, headed up by John Cleary, who have had a difficult and often baffling season.
With their draw against Dublin and ten point win over Sligo, Roscommon’s gallop is once again halted when it appeared they were the real deal. Now they are left with an enormous task at hand.
Tailteann Cup semi-finals
Down v Laois
Sometimes in our search for a deeper meaning around a team performance, people pick up on a tactical tweak or a slight change of shape and exaggerate it to batter a theory into place.
Other times, the energy within a group just naturally changes and the cause can be something indescribable. That’s how it feels for the counties of Down and Laois as they head to Croke Park.
Both teams finished third in their leagues on ten points – Laois a rung down the ladder in division four – and had a sugar hit of an opening championship win before reality bit hard in the next round.
Drawing with London and the surrounding criticism Laois suffered, inspired them to a win over one of the tournament favourites, Fermanagh. Down will be fancied, but complacency can arrive undetected, like a cat burgler.
Meath V Antrim
After pouring so much of himself into the Meath job for so many years, Andy McEntee would always have always aspired to this day happening, however difficult it might be.
In any season, Antrim are due a wobble. A chronic lack of confidence means it is almost an annual certainty. The thing is, they usually start the season on the straight and narrow and when the pressure comes on, they tend to fold.
That wobble however, came early on in the season when they threw away commanding positions in league games against Down and Fermanagh, followed by that 31 point defeat to Westmeath.
Since then, their consistency has arrived and McEntee’s tendency to favour big men feels revolutionary in Antrim.
The chastening lessons of the league and Leinster championship loss to Offaly has been bruising for Meath, but their reaction in winning all three group games and a 14-point win over Wexford has them strong fancies.
I watched a few matches, on the telly, in Irish.
@I likes beer: STOP THE COMPETITION! WE HAVE OUR WINNER!!!
For the pro12 final last year, I had to get the Train to Dublin, then the Ferry to Holyhead, wait 4 hours there for a train at half 4 in the morning to Manchester, then sit there another hour for a train to York before a final connection on to Edinburgh, arriving a a few hours in advance after 23 hours travel, then returned home via a Bus to Cairnryan and a ferry to Belfast before a bus down to Dublin and waiting 7 hours wandering around the streets of Dublin for the train station to open to go home the following morning, and I’d do it again tomorrow if I could.
@Patrick Breen: ah sure that’s nothing I flew from Dublin and I live in Naul
There will be a lot of porkies told here
I bought 10 tickets to the RaboFinal for next week last August. 3rd and 4th Row right where the trophy presentation will be.
We are all Leinster fans…..
@Luke Mc Gahren: you’re about 3 seasons too late for the Rabo final
@Jerry: Sorry GuinnessPro12Final*
There marketing was good and the name stuck.
Slept beside a wheelie bin on the platform of Pembroke railway station on the way to Cardiff in 2006 because we arrived at 1 in the morning and there was no train till 7.And we had no tickets for the match either.
Watched Munster’s semi final win on de telly last Saturday. Well actually fell aslerp while watching it. But at least I had the good intention.
Am I in with a shot?
Unbelieveable performance by the way.
My spur of the moment Aironi 4 ever tattoo seems like a bad mistake now.It was to cover up my Border Reivers tattoo.
I along with my fellow coaches brought an under 14s team to see the Munster vs Maori All Blacks game last November, only to discover that when we got to the stadium we had one extra under age player with us ( 20 junior tickets and 21 juniors) so I had to give up my ticket and stand out side the stadium. Luckily/Thankfully one of the Stewards took pity on me and gave me a spare ticket, so I missed the Haka and the jersey presentation and most of the first half.
I swear, I was one of the 400,000 in thomond park in 1978
Lots of deserving candidates here so at this point I would like to withdraw from the competition. I harbour a dark secret. I once spoke while a conversion was being taken in Thomond Park drawing ire and frantic shushing from the surrounding fans.
I know its sounds indefensible but honestly it’s not as bad as it sounds. You see I wasn’t actually in Thomond Park at the time, I was in a pub about a 100 miles away but the new breed of rugby fan has taken “respect” to a new level infact every time Sky compliment them on it, they up it a notch again. I need to get with the program, I hang my head in shame!
Yours very respectfully,
Da Hayeser!
I actually had a heart attack leaving Kingspan after the loss to Munster in October.
Had a second one an hour later when the severity of the loss kicked in….
@Ian Frizzell: that drop goal??
One time in band camp
The 2008 Heineken cup final I had no accommodation organised in Cardiff.. so I took the Dublin to Holyhead sailing .. drove to Cardiff.. got stuck in Traffic and only managed to arrive in Cardiff a half an hour before kick .. after the game..I ended up sleeping in car.. next day drive back to Holyhead.. got lost in the Welsh mountains and missed my sailing home .. epic journey
Travelled from Luxembourg by train to Montpelier to watch Munster play Clermont , beaten but brilliant day, 2 great sets of fans & 2 great teams. Proper rugby supporters
@Seamus Farrar: Oh man wat a wkend that was. I ve friends in monpellier that still talk about that wkend.
I ahm, I ah; I slept with my wife’s best friend so as I could go to the H Cup final with her in 2000.
The only room available in Swansea (travelled by ferry) was a double room for her & me so we took it.
My wife knew & all, she was delighted, it meant she’d someone keeping an eye on me while I was away.
.
(disclaimer – Nothing happened! But technically, yip, I slept with her)
I was in hell last Friday watching that Leinster performance. Does that count?
Season before last I cancelled my Thomond season ticket, my wife was pregnant at the time she wasn’t keen (to say the least) on me getting a season ticket for the following year. Still managed to get to every home game in thomond with little or no grief :)
Been to France, Wales, Italy and Scotland to watch Ireland, Munster, Munster and Leinster respectively. Have been on all forms of transport at some point to get to a game: Car, Bus, Train, Boat & Plane. Its doesnt really compare to the fans who travel to Aus/NZ though. Especially the ones who go game to game during the Lions tour. Now thats dedication
For 2002 final in Cardiff, took horrendous boat trip to Wales through the worst crossing conditions possible, while pregnant with my first child and suffering from the worst bouts of morning (should I say anytime) sickness ever. Arrived back in Ireland 2 days later, not feeling great both from the match, travel and pregnancy. Had to head to hospital a few days later, where less than 2 weeks after the game, my beautiful daughter Kellie was born at 25 weeks (thanks Munster rugby), weighing 1lb 15oz and who now 15 years later, is an ardent Munster fan, travelling to all the matches we can since she was a toddler. Munster Abu.
Heading to the airport this afternoon for what will be my fourth 10,000km round trip of the season. When Axel passed we all had to up our game, not just the players. Thankfully this time I will have more than just 48 hours in the country.
Got the ferry on the Friday night To Fishguard arrived in Cardiff at 7:00am on Saturday stayed up and went to the millennium stadium to watch the greatest comeback in rugby ever
For the ’03 final we couldn’t get a flight to Wales from Cork for love nor money. So we got bus to Dublin and another bus to Wexford. Thumbed a lift out to Rosslare and got the ferry over. The plan was the rent a car when we arrived but little did we know Fishguard didn’t have a rental company. So we got a lift to Swansea in a lorry with a sheep farmer from Connemara. From there we managed to get on a Neath supporters bus and landed in Cardiff an hour before kick off. The Welsh were great craic and mighty singers. Perfect timing, great match and fantastic result. I’d tell ya about our journey back but I’m restricted to 800 characters. I’ll have to save that for the next competition!
My son and myself left his communion party early to go to Leinster vs Munster a few years back
In 2012, a friend and I were both second year arts students when Leinster and Ulster made the Heineken Cup Final. We had no money, but made it to Twickenham via ferry to Hollyhead and train to London. It cost me literally all the money I had, and also meant taking a 4-day break in the middle of a 5-day break between my college exams. I came back and had the exam the next day on the British Empire – literally all I knew was that the Empire in Britain was all Irish now. I got the worst exam result of my entire time in college. Worth it.
In spite of her illness my daughter Kate made the trip to Thomond Park to support Munster in the Champions Cup semi final against Toulouse. She was frozen with the cold but was treated wonderfully by Munster Rugby and stayed as long as she could. It’s our abiding memory as Kate passed away on the 4th of May just four weeks after the game. It was her last trip.