Old habits die hard, they say, and so it is that a meeting of two of Gaelic football's oldest foes, contesting a match with pride but little else at stake, will probably attract the biggest crowd of all when the qualifying sections of the Church and General National Football League reach a conclusion tomorrow.
Up to 10,000 spectators are expected to flock to Parnell Park for the Section C meeting of Dublin and Kerry. Neither side can reach the knockout stages and, for one, the losers, the unthinkable awaits: a place in Division Three next season, unless some summer gerrymandering (not beyond the bounds of possibility) takes place. Tommy Carr, the Dublin manager, admits any meeting of the two teams has "a bit of romance, a throw-back to the '70s" attached to it but, rightly, wonders "is it applicable or realistic" at this stage?
Indeed, it is the fact that one of these superpowers of the game will be cast away to the league's nether regions next season, rather than the traditional magic of a Dublin-Kerry encounter, that adds some intrigue to tomorrow's proceedings and, perversely, is the root reason why so many people are expected to be in attendance. Kerry, the reigning All-Ireland and League champions, have never been relegated from Division One since the league was reorganised in 1970; now, they face the prospect of slipping all the way to Division Three in one fell swoop.
The real romance associated with meetings of Dublin and Kerry may belong to another age, but it has nevertheless survived in some misty-eyed form into the back-end of the '90s. Carr, seeking to put a more modern slant on it, says: "I suppose that Dublin are the 1995 All-Ireland champions and Kerry are the 1997 All-Ireland champions and that adds a bit of spice to the game," before adding a touch of reality to the occasion by adding, "we're both fighting to stay up in Division Two rather than play our football in Division Three next season."
His Kerry counterpart, Paidi O Se, observes that there "is always a bit of bite" to be expected when the two meet, even if that bite, in the past, was created when actual silverware was at stake.
Carr remains philosophical about tomorrow's game. "We're looking ahead towards the championship, and that is more important than whether we will play in Division Two next season. This game is part of the preparation for the championship and I'm not too concerned that we are without the Erin's Isle lads because it gives us an opportunity to look at some other players." One of them is Dave Martin who, ironically, was introduced to inter-county fare by Mickey Whelan a couple of years ago with high hopes but subsequently suffered a punctured lung in a game, was placed in limbo and resurfaced in the early days of Carr's reign when a number of trial matches took place. He gets his chance tomorrow in the problem full back position.
Still, Carr believes both teams go into this game on the up. "Kerry's win in Monaghan shows they've got their act together and that is a sign of a good team," he says. "After our defeat to Monaghan, we knuckled down and got a good win in Tyrone which will restore a bit of confidence," he adds. "We're beginning to change the emphasis at training now and, although we are fit, we may not be as sharp as we'd be for the championship. Hopefully, that bit of hunger can compensate for that lack of sharpness."
The truth of the matter, however, is that everything - for Dublin and Kerry - is geared towards the championship. This will be Kerry's last competitive game before they face Cork in the Munster championship on July 5th; and ditto Dublin, whose next competitive outing is the Leinster championship match with Kildare on June 7th. "This sort of game is worth seven or eight challenge games in assessing where we stand," asserts Carr. And, deep down, that carries more weight than any romantic notions for both managers.
The only really international aspect to Gaelic games is the annual match between Ireland's hurlers and Scotland's shinty players. And Nowlan Park will tomorrow play host to a series of matches at senior, under-21 and under-12 level. After suffering a bad defeat to Scotland last year, the Irish senior team is out to gain revenge and will be backboned by many established inter-county players including Clare stars Brian Lohan, Jamesie O'Connor and Sean McMahon, Wexford's Damien Fitzhenry and Martin Storey, Galway's Michael Coleman and John Leahy of Tipperary.
