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.
What if the corner backs are cynically wasting time passing between themselves – will they be getting black cards too? And if Spillane counts too many hand passes on the Sunday game will there be more sanctions?
Maybe the offending player should hop on their bad leg for 2 minutes or something? That would liven it up!!
Or maybe the GAA should let teams do what they do best and commit everything they have to winning and stop pandering to certain commentators.
Leon — I’d have to disagree with you. The amount of cynical fouling, play-acting, and lack of respect for refs and officials has been doing my head in for the past few years. I think the ‘professional foul’ in particular needs to be addressed. If one team needs a goal to win or draw, for instance, the other team pulls them down on the edge of the square and takes one (a yellow card) for the team. It shouldn’t be like that.
Should they let them have a chance to win or draw then?? Nonsense.
I would love to get rid of the play acting and have a lot more respect for officials and i agree with you there. But this is just trying to “improve” (see increase scores) the game to please certain pundits who spout the same rhetoric week in week out with no constructive input.
The Dublin v Donegal semi-final a few years ago was one of the most fascinating games I’d ever seen because of the tactics, intensity and strategy. Not every game needs 60 yd kick passes and 20 points to be entertaining.
@Leon
You seem to be incapable of disagreeing politely.
Quickly turning into a non contact sport ,with all the rule changes & diving.
What about abusing officials, is that to be condoned?
Dreadful suggestion. The problem is the standard of refereeing. Totally different rules on Saturday evening in a club game than you get on Sunday in an intercounty championship game.
Not great for the small clubs who mightn’t have big panels at their disposal either.
If they’re so insistent on bringing in some sort of rule as a solution to the fouling (rather than addressing the real issue of refereeing), why don’t they try the sin bin exactly the way it’s used in rugby. It works very well.
Sin bin would definitely be good. I think this black card is also worth a go though. Notwithstanding refereeing issues; something does have to change in my opinion. If a team gets 7 or 8 points ahead in the second half they can see the game out by faking injury and cynical fouling. It’s crap to watch.
And how many games have you refereed Cormac ?
This years championship should be good craic … FFS. Change the system and bring in the Sin Bin.
It’ll probably be scrapped because of racism!!
And put diving in there too!!
they are right blackcards :-)
Replace the rte studio with the newstalk crew and we can enjoy the coverage, problem solved.
Newstalk presenters really irritating me lately. Way to far up their own ar*es & ill tell you what newstalk guys & gals ( if you read the journal that is ) you are not really that good or funny. I loved the station initially it’s not even on my saved stations in my car anymore.
Sin bin anyone? Works in rugby and ice hockey. Forget this substituting for another player. That is not a punishment
You’ll need a degree to officiate games and the public wont have a clue. Tripping abuse and cynical fouls red card. Soccer and Gaa need to catch up,manly the players
Sin bin is the only logical solution. This black card can’t work at grass roots for obvious reasons.. They seem to be determined to break What’s not broke..
On a related topic….used to be a great rule in ice hockey….not sure if it still applies. When two players go at each other….the third man in gets red carded. Result is that two guys slug away until seperated by officials. No mass brawls. Would def be worth a shot in GAA.
What about the team who gets a black card and has no substitute? Joke of a rule
Please don’t play the black card
There may be trouble ahead with all the confusion and its all of their own making. Black cards, yellow cards and red cards, why don’t they use a deck of cards cos it sounds like a game of chance. Looks as though the GAA are just putting feelers out to see the reaction from managers. Too much spin from FRC and co. They may dig a hole and bury their report.
I can see it being an absolute nonsense but great for the media of course.
Why don’t they ban them from using their hands, make the pitch smaller and get rid of those sticks on top of the cross bar. Then you’d have a sport
There are too many cynical and violent tackles. I think perhaps stricter refs rather than a new card, would do it.
Just leave the game alone ! Had one on the best inter county championships last fee years last year