All Stars Football Tour:For a city that's 90 per cent building site and about as far removed from the GAA traditions as possible it seems a little strange that Dubai will today witness a closing chapter in the careers of two legendary players in Gaelic football - Peter Canavan and Séamus Moynihan.
The annual Vodafone All Star exhibition game, set for the typically plush Polo Grounds of this desert city, has the added bonus of supplying onlookers with the sight of Canavan and Moynihan on the same field for surely the last time. Both are retired from intercounty football, though still playing with their clubs, and it's fitting the two should share one last such moment.
It is also fitting the men overseeing this afternoon's game also oversaw some of the highlights of their great careers - Tyrone manager Mickey Harte and former Kerry manager Jack O'Connor. Harte takes charge of the 2005 All Star selection (the year he won an All-Ireland with Canavan) and O'Connor the 2006 selection (the year he won with Moynihan), and even if the game will most likely be low on the competitive stakes, it will still be high on quality.
The players were put through just one light training session this week, and for once the managers are the ones exerting themselves a little more. O'Connor has been rising every morning to run the two-mile stretch of white sand that backs the team hotel, and that is followed by a steady swim in the clear, blue ocean.
Such runs inspire reflection, and O'Connor has been doing a little of that in recent days, specifically on his three-year term as Kerry manager, which he ended last November after delivering two All-Ireland titles and making the final of another. But unlike Canavan and Moynihan, this is not a closing chapter - but rather a time out from one story of his life he intends to continue at some stage, and probably sooner rather than later.
"Well I'm sure I'll miss it all right," he says, "especially once the competitive action gets going next month. But you can't be regretting anything. I made a decision and I'm happy with that. I just needed a break from the game. Maybe I was getting a little burnt out from it. I'm back doing a bit with the school, but nothing too strenuous . . . I think sometimes you can stay in something too long, almost get addicted to it.
"But it was a great way to go out for now. The last game of the year is the one you're left thinking about, and we finished up playing great football, in Croke Park. Losing the year before certainly hurt, having gone the distance and fallen at the final hurdle."
O'Connor lost that 2005 final thanks in part to the man standing on the line beside him here, although his respect for Harte - who has big All-Ireland ambitions with Tyrone again this year - remains high. O'Connor still reckons All-Ireland defeat boiled down to a more battle-hardened Tyrone, something he clearly did learn from.
"We still had a good shot at it in 2005, we really did. But I still regret not qualifying for the knockout stages of the league that year . . . I believe if we'd got, say, those two extra matches, possibly playing Armagh in Croke Park, that would have set us up even better for the championship. Instead I think missing out on that came back to hurt us in the end, when Tyrone turned up the heat on us.
"That's why all teams are putting more emphasis on the league. You can't beat competitive games to get players hardened for the physical and mental battles ahead. But the key to it is still hunger. You either have that or you don't. You can't force it. It has to come from deep inside."
That thought brings things to the present, and whether Kerry have the hunger to win an All-Ireland in 2007. O'Connor doesn't hesitate in saying his replacement, Pat O'Shea, is as good a man as anyone to lead the way.
"I really do think it will give the team another little lift, and possibly a better chance of winning another All-Ireland. A new manager will always bring great enthusiasm, and Pat O'Shea has that. He also has his own ideas on how things should be done. So a fresh face and voice certainly won't hurt Kerry's chances." And what about the pressure? "Sure I don't think he's under great pressure. All he has to do is win another All-Ireland," he laughs.
This afternoon's game is the climax of a two-day GAA festival featuring around 40 clubs from the Gulf region, Asia, Ireland and London, playing in a sevens tournament, and superbly hosted by Dubai Celts GAA club. O'Connor agrees winning won't count as much as a healthy display of skill - and that is guaranteed.
ALL STARS 2005 SELECTION: Paul Hearty (Armagh); Ryan McMenamin (Tyrone), Michael McCarthy (Kerry), Andy Mallon (Armagh); Graham Canty (Cork), Conor Gormley (Tyrone), Aaron Kernan (Armagh); Paul McGrane (Armagh), Seán Cavanagh (Tyrone); Declan Lally (Dublin), Peter Canavan (Tyrone), Owen Mulligan (Tyrone); Paddy Bradley (Derry), Stephen O'Neill (Tyrone), Steven McDonnell (Armagh).
ALL STARS 2006 SELECTION: Alan Quirke (Cork); Barry Owens (Fermanagh), Karl Lacey (Donegal), Séamus Moynihan (Kerry); Ger Spillane (Cork), Aidan O'Mahony (Kerry), Shane Ryan (Dublin); Nicholas Murphy (Cork), Seán O'Sullivan (Kerry); Alan Brogan (Dublin), Alan Dillon (Mayo), Conor Mortimer (Mayo); James Masters (Cork), Ross Munnelly (Laois), Brian Kavanagh (Longford).
