THERE is a kind of an irony at the heart of TnaG's much praised scheduling of All Ireland finals since 1974 (All Ireland Gold, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10.30). The series bases its appeal on nostalgia for those generations who remember the championships and on curiosity value for those who can't.
Nostalgia is, however, frequently ill served by video. Whereas it's true that great matches and individual achievements now live forever, they will serve a more demanding posterity than in the past.
Matches whose reputations grow through rheumy eyed reminiscence seldom have to withstand much scrutiny unless iconoclastic witnesses speak out on the matter and even then there's no way of arbitrating competing opinions of that sort.
Then there are those matches with no particular reputation to maintain and which rarely trigger reminiscences, rheumy eyed or otherwise. All of which leads us to All Ireland Gold. This week's featured year is 1975 and tonight's broadcast the Kilkenny Galway hurling final, with Kerry Dublin to follow this Thursday.
Both can be argued as seminal events. It was Galway's first hurling final in 17 years and in the 18 years that followed, they were to contest another 11. The Dublin/ Kerry game was the overture to 10 years of rivalry during which period the counties were to meet in the All Ireland on a further six occasions.
That tonight's match marks Galway's arrival as a hurling power is of course an entirely retrospective judgement (and anyway, the League final which they won that year and the semi final victory over Cork, their first over Leinster or Munster champions in 22 years, would better illustrate that point) and owes little to the quality of the All Ireland final in which Galway were subdued and comprehensively beaten.
Last week saw the beginning of the series and whereas the showing of the back to back LimerickKilkenny finals in 1973 and 74 was interesting, the football last Thursday generated a greater number of talking points. Highlights of two matches were shown, the 1974 Munster and All Ireland finals.
Both matches were played in unpleasantly wet conditions, but even allowing for the rain the Cork Kerry match in Killarney was of a strikingly poor standard. Cork won comfortably in the end, but the accuracy of the kicking from both teams was bad. Even Mikey Sheehy looked an uncertain place kicker.
Neither was this an inconspicuous pairing between two undistinguished teams. Cork were AllIreland champions at the time and had Billy Morgan in goal and dual virtuosos Ray Cummins and Jimmy Barry Murphy at the height of their football careers.
Kerry, even more astonishingly, contained 10 of the team that was to sweep to an All Ireland a year later and several players who were to feature year after year as Mick O'Dwyer's team went on to dominate the sport for 12 years.
Kerry kept in contention until half time and there was a degree of poignant wonder in the flamboyant performance of Mickey O'Sullivan who caused Cork a lot of trouble from centre forward until fading with the rest of the team in the second half. Any contemporary prophecy of imminent greatness for Kerry would have had to have presumed a large role for him.
Instead, having captained Kerry to the 1975 final, his career was to be effectively ended by a dreadful foul which ended his involvement in that All Ireland and appeared to dissipate his interest in the game to the stage where he stands out as the one big talent that proved unresponsive to O'Dwyer's direction.
The match was notable for another slightly sad cameo. Video came too late for Mick O'Connell and All Ireland Gold picked up on his last championship appearance. Introduced, at 37, as a substitute, the great man went in at full forward.
Although the game seemed to pass him by and none of his renowned high fielding was to be seen, in the ashes of his career a few embers glowed as he launched a couple of magical 40 yard kicked passes to give glimpses of quality to a dull occasion.
It was therefore all the more discordant to view an incident which nearly 23 years later still seemed oddly shocking. With Cork leading comfortably, their centrefielder Denis Long in possession confronted O'Connell in the middle of the pitch. Standing still, he toe tapped the ball three of four times apparently taunting the bemused Kerryman.
Of course for Long it may just have been another opponent. He wasn't to know the historical cadences of his actions. Maybe O'Connell and he had some sort of mitigating history. Commentator Mick Dunne simply referred to the incident in terms of Mick O'Connell, for so long the tormentor of Cork.
If it was simply his brilliance that had tormented Cork over a long and distinguished career, the contempt shown was gratuitous - which is how it appeared to any viewer unacquainted with an explanatory context.
There was one comparison with O'Connell which suggested itself. Nineteen years later, at the same venue, Bomber Liston hauled himself out of retirement to help out his pal Ogie Moran, then in his first year managing Kerry. It didn't work out, but as the Bomber was substituted, the crowd rose to him in recognition of the substance of a legendary contribution rather than the mere detail of its ending.
Of the other points, one was common to both the Cork Kerry match and the All Ireland final. In an age when goalkeepers are selected and dropped on the basis of their kick out prowess, it was interesting to see Cork's corner back Brian Murphy and Galway's full back Jack Cosgrove taking the kick outs. Maybe the game is too quick nowadays to allow that sort of flexibility.
Dublin's All Ireland win was memorable in many respects, but one which stands out in retrospect is the impact of Kevin Heffernan's strategy to introduce unprecedented levels of fitness. "We wanted to create in the players a sense that they had an asset which nobody else had," he once said. "We were going to make them the fittest team in the country."
The asset's exclusivity only lasted a year before Kerry bought into it, but it appeared to be very effective in a final which was pushed beyond Galway only in the final quarter of what was, significantly in this respect, the last of the 80 minute finals.
In a fortnight the apotheosis of the era - the 1977 All Ireland semi final between Dublin and Kerry - is to be shown. How will that stand the test of time?
