The provincial championships are having a moment in the sun. For all the structural incoherence and distortion, they frequently bring to the schedules, this year has had provincial finals with genuine competitiveness stirring up interest and intense rivalries – with the abiding exception of Munster.
Leinster would be great without Dublin
This has become possible since 14-in-a-row champions Dublin had their lease abruptly terminated by Meath, who play Louth in Sunday’s final.
Louth are there for the third year running, whereas Meath have been the most frequent finalists after Dublin since they last won 15 years ago.
In the past 21 years, only two finals haven’t featured Dublin and both of them have been Louth vs Meath. This isn’t to underestimate the attractions of the occasion. Fifteen years ago was an immensely controversial match decided by a plainly invalid goal that swung the final in Meath’s direction.
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More intriguingly, Louth have been superior in recent meetings, including a big championship win in last year’s All-Ireland group stages, followed by another comprehensive defeat for Meath at the end of the recent league.
Louth are waiting to lift the Delaney Cup since they last won the All-Ireland in 1957.
Ironically, the county gave Dublin a good run for their money in last year’s final but hardly anyone turned up. The crowd of 23,113 was the lowest for the provincial final in more than 30 years, with many Louth supporters choosing to wait for the then upcoming qualifier match against Meath.
It is expected that about 50,000 will come next Sunday, making it the best attended Leinster final in eight years.
There’s a great roaring in the west
If anyone doubted the desire or ambition of last weekend’s Connacht finalists, it was plain to see in the reactions of the two teams. As the composition of the All-Ireland groups had already emerged, there had been talk that last Sunday’s finalists would be reluctant to take their place in the so called ‘group of death’ reserved for the Connacht champions, Ulster runners-up, Dublin and Derry.
Who though, will be happier heading for their group fixtures: Galway, as four-time champions, facing Dublin at home in Salthill or Mayo, at home before an indeterminate number of wary supporters needing a decent win over Cavan before they hit the road to take on Donegal or Armagh, and Tyrone?
In the event, it was a primal contest, which remained open until the very end. The only team that might have been interpreted as throwing the match were Mayo, whose inaccuracies and errant decision making ultimately undid them. But if that was their intention, they didn’t look too happy about it afterwards.
As Kevin McStay intimated at the post-match media conference, his team simply have to stop faltering at the end of tight matches just as they did last year in both the Connacht final and All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final against Derry, which they lost on penalties.
Ulster will fight
Suggestions that Mayo might emulate Armagh’s redemption of a whole chapter of bleak experiences by winning the All-Ireland probably overlook how close the champions were to leading teams before they went on their unheralded run last year.
Having exited their previous four championships – two All-Ireland quarter-finals and two Ulster finals – on penalties, Armagh were seasoned competitors. Last year they were considered outsiders among the four semi-finalists but took Kerry after extra-time and clipped Galway in the final.
On Saturday they face champions Donegal, who beat them on penalties 12 months ago. The semi-final against Tyrone indicated how hard a team Armagh are to beat and how committed they remain to the idea of winning the province for the first time in 17 years, regardless of holding Sam Maguire.
Jim McGuinness has constantly put on the record the importance he attaches to winning the Anglo-Celt and Donegal proved the point last year.
No Ulster final has ever been soft-pedalled by a team, trying to prioritise the All-Ireland, which isn’t to say that losing finalists don’t keep going, as Armagh did last year and Tyrone in 2005.
“Gods make their own importance,” as Kavanagh wrote about local rivalries in that part of the world.
Kerry’s difficulty finding the right level
Kerry predictably won as they wished against Clare in Killarney, but on the other hand Cork took them to extra-time in the semi-final.
For the third year, they have drawn one of the less challenging groups. Cork may have taken them to extra-time a couple of weeks ago and whereas Roscommon are a Division One team, they have just been promoted. They played both Leinster finalists in last year’s group and should Louth lose, it will be their third time facing Kerry at this stage.
A year ago, Monaghan had played in the top flight but had been relegated. In the first year of the format, Mayo were unambiguously elite, having won the league.
They went to Killarney and won.
That may have suited Jack O’Connor better in a counter-intuitive way because defeat in the groups is instructive and low risk with three qualifying from four. In fact, two years ago, they even availed of Mayo’s surprise defeat by Cork to top the group and would reach that year’s final.
Last year, the line of least resistance appeared to serve Kerry badly as they fizzled out in the All-Ireland semi-final against a battle-hardened Armagh.
