We know the feeling well, and it usually occurs this time of year. You know the one. Several days good weather in a row. An actual feeling of heat on the back and the sensation of sun on the face.
'Enjoy it while it lasts' is our most common line to each other as our weather-worn, inner voices of experience speak up. So it goes for the football championship.
We have become accustomed to needing to enjoy occasional good games to the hilt as the vast majority were for the easily satisfied purists. The feeling at present is a strange one. We had an early-season glut of entertaining games with long highlight reels of good play, comebacks and dramatic endings. Poor ones have been present too, of course, but they have been the exception.
While the new national pastime of debating the rules will continue for quite some time, to argue that the game isn’t more entertaining at present is now the forte of only the most contrary within the GAA. The run of good games brings us to the same unchartered territory as the spell of good weather. Surely it can’t last!
Maybe it’s just the sun getting to us, but is it possible that heading into the finals of the maligned provincial championships, we have at least three unmissable games to look forward to?
First up this weekend are the Connacht and Munster finals. Kerry and to a lesser extent Galway, start as clear favourites. But both are shorn of key players. Paudie Clifford most notably for the Kingdom and the Damian Comer-Shane Walsh axis for the Tribesmen.
Out west, the fact there hasn’t been more than a score between the teams in their last nine championship meetings says it all.
That all the form lines are with Galway isn’t the predictor it would normally be. Not in this tie. If anything stirs the soul out west it’s the sight of the neighbour’s jersey, and if those wearing maroon are expecting to waltz into town for their coronation, it would appear a sure-fire thing to spark a response.
Much appears to depend on two key factors. Can Galway maintain their stranglehold on aerial ball round the middle which they enjoyed against Roscommon and can Mayo somehow have Ryan O’Donoghue escape the clutches of Johnny McGrath either by altering his position or through a standout performance from the Belmullet man himself? Both factors falling in one team’s favour will determine the destination of the Nestor Cup.
Galway’s strength at present, ironically, has possibly arisen from the fact their two star men have been so hampered over a number of years with injuries. They have developed an attacking approach which is much more about the collective and has a spread of scorers that makes it a particularly hard puzzle to figure out.
Mayo, on the other hand, have Mr Resilient himself O’Donoghue, who has been ever-present and contributes a huge amount both on the finishing and creative sides of the their attack. The issue here is the aforementioned McGrath. Sometimes certain defenders just appear to have certain forwards' numbers and the fact, as I have it, that O’Donoghue has only scored two points from play over their past four meetings would suggest that is the case here.
As mentioned, there has traditionally been nothing between these sides, so if O’Donoghue can break free of that stranglehold even a bit, then that could be crucial.
While still on the Wild Atlantic Way, proceedings in Killarney are likely to be a tamer affair. Kerry, Division 2 winners and Clare failing to get out of the third tier isn’t an encouraging starting point in the search for reasons that this game could be a true contest.
Closer inspection though gives more credence to that hope. The Banner’s failure to gain promotion was harsh in the extreme, having got the better of promoted Kildare and Offaly. Cork’s performance the last day, while typically Cork in its unexpected nature, was still enough to suggest the Kingdom motor isn’t at its top tune just yet.
An unexpected trend of the new rules has been that weaker teams that would have parked the bus in previous year have arguably fared better than expected now that the option has been taken away from them. They’ve been forced to come out and play.
New York, Antrim, Wicklow, Sligo, Leitrim and Meath have all produced performances which far exceeded expectations in their respective games. The latter’s win over Dublin in particular will have cemented Peter Keane’s message this week that a win is possible.
More simply though, Clare were stubborn opponents to put away last year and are stronger this year with the return of Eoin Cleary and Keelan Sexton.
Jack O’Connor’s side however are without Paudie Clifford who amazingly appears even more central to their team’s performance level than his illustrious brother. With Keane in charge of the visitors, there is enough there to be very wary of ruling out an upset even with this year’s chapter in Fitzgerald Stadium.
Good weather and good football – enjoy it while we can, surely it can’t last!
Watch a provincial football final double-header, Kerry v Clare (1.45pm) and Mayo v Galway (4pm) on Sunday from 1.15pm. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.
