AN ODD DAY TO end the oddest of leagues. A competition that almost everyone had no intention of going out and winning, with two different sets of rule changes.
At one stage, Kerry or Mayo looked as if they were going to be relegated. Instead, they will contest next Sunday’s league final.
There will be a trophy. The competition still has a sponsor in Allianz. If they have a shred of self-respect left after next Sunday, they’ll walk away from the toxic relationship the GAA has created for the league.
While teams couldn’t settle on what they wanted from the league, they knew what they didn’t want. And that was to be relegated.
It fell Tyrone’s way on the last day of the league, coming straight after their strongest showing.
Manager Malachy O’Rourke wears a grin most of the time anyway, and wasn’t too heartbroken as he spoke afterwards.
“It’s very disappointing obviously the way we finished the league, we’ve got five of the last six points, finished with seven points overall and still go down,” he said.
“Maybe it’s the first time it’s ever happened, so disappointing that way, but we just have to accept it.
“We started off well obviously against Derry and then the next we lost the next was but just obviously we had the (Errigal Ciaran) boys missing, boys missing with injuries and things like that there.
“So we hadn’t our full squad, but at the same time we felt we had enough to be picking up more points.”
He continued, “But we knew, there was a lot of good work being done behind the scenes, if you like, and we knew that the performance would improve, and that’s what we found in the last few weeks, but we just have to put it behind us now.
“It’s disappointing, disappointing for the lads, disappointing for, for everybody in the county, obviously, because you want to be in the first division, but we just have to put our behind us now and the championship.”
As he looks ahead to 13 April and Cavan coming to this ground for the Ulster championship quarter-final, some of the Tyrone team picks itself. Darren McCurry, with his 0-9 here, dazzles as brightly as ever, 14 seasons on from his debut.
“That’s what we’re looking to do all the time is, is get our all our forwards and all our players playing to the top of their form and certainly Darren was doing that today and, and then great to see him do it,” he said.
Dublin boss Dessie Farrell had no real skin in the game. It transferred onto the field were Dublin were almost without any appetite.
Truth is, this was the ultimate garbage game on the road for them. Stephen Cluxton was named on the programme but, ‘Picked up a knock during the week.’
Paddy Small now is back training for the past fortnight, but they decided to let him play a club game rather than risk the journey up the road.
Collie Basquel?
“Just picked up another knock,” explained Farrell.
“It seemed as if it was a game with nothing at stake for us. And avoiding the relegation dogfight bled into that type of performance…I’m not sure. But you’d be disappointed that we didn’t push on and look for that additional game,” he said.
Asked was this a result of a tough training block, he batted it back.
“No, at this stage I wouldn’t say so. It definitely wasn’t fatigue. It’s just disappointment in terms of the intensity that we brought. We weren’t at the races. It wasn’t as if we didn’t know what we were coming in to face.
“There was a lot on the line for Tyrone. So it should have been a game to get the juices flowing I would have thought in terms of really testing where we are.
“When you look at that performance, you say back to the drawing board. But if you step back a little bit and look at the overall campaign and what we’ve done…we’ve stayed up in division one, we’re one game away from making the final, we blooded a lot of new players, we had stuff going on with Sigerson and the Cuala lads and other fellas coming back from long lay off.
“So overall, relatively pleased with what the National League has brought.”
When things were going good, they were very, very good as in down in Tralee against Kerry in the second half. When things went wrong, as in their travels around Ulster venues of Ballybofey, Armagh and Omagh, they stank the place out.
“When you can reach a level of performance, you’d like to think you’d be able to sustain it for more of the time than we did. There was definitely that inconsistency from game to game and then within games themselves,” said Farrell.
“I’m not quite sure yet quite what that’s a function of – a little bit of inexperience or…I don’t know. Is it a lack of leadership yet or lack of cohesiveness? I don’t know.”
By the time the Dublin bus would have left the town boundaries, the league campaign was already in the rear-view window. The most pointless league in history.
‘The competition still has a sponsor in Allianz. If they have a shred of self-respect left after next Sunday, they’ll walk away from the toxic relationship the GAA has created for the league’. A fairly loaded and mid informed statement with little context, not sure you understand sponsorship and the role it plays for a business or brand?
@John Coffey: Agreed. The author needs to comprehend the consequences of his pen. I enjoyed this lg far more than most others. It was pretty exciting with all to play gor on last day. Do better Declan!
Should be doing a lot better if day want to win anything even the league
@Alan Moloney: dubs stay up i never taught i would ever here them words
Stupid system to get intetested, the leauge should finish today, with the team top of the pile as champions. You could be league champs finishing 2nd and win a pointless final, but the Grab all association want their money, don’t blame teams for not giving a dam
@James Cronin:
….lack of cohesion….