In the year forty-four, towards the end of July,
The great Leinster final was held in Athy.
There were bikers, and hikers and horses untold,
All following and sporting the red, green and gold.
IT is 73 years since Carlow won their one and only Leinster senior football title and the short poem above appeared as the intro to a flowery match report in one of the following morning’s national papers.
They beat Dublin by 2-6 to 1-6 in Athy and went on to narrowly lose the All-Ireland semi-final to Kerry. They’d still be sore in Carlow over the cynicism of the Kingdom that afternoon, with one report stating: "Carlow's fluent handpassing game was troubling Kerry until the Kingdom adopted disruptive tactics evidenced by the free count of 32 frees to Carlow and 17 to Kerry".
At least we know now that Sean Cavanagh didn’t invent cynicism.
In all the time that has elapsed since those famous days from the early-40s until the mid-60s, when Carlow were unlucky not to win more than one provincial title, there have been few evenings that evoked the same kind of pride in Carlow’s ever-so-distinctive colours as Saturday past.
Be honest, who knew the name Sean Murphy four days ago? He took his chance in the shop window and picked up the man of the match award against the All-Ireland champions.
You can only imagine how deeply he will treasure that in 15 years’ time. He’ll drink for free, end up with a column in the local paper and be asked to regale the surrounding clubs and even counties at dinner dances.
Murphy earned even deeper respect when he declined to speak to Sky Sports after the game because he was simply too disappointed at losing.
That’s some credit to Turlough O’Brien and Down native Steven Poacher for installing such a level of belief and pride in those players that they’d be so genuinely devastated at not beating the All-Ireland champions.
We all saw the pictures of their young supporters dancing through the terraces at Parnell Park every time Carlow got a score. It was an evening to savour for those players, and that is what they did.
They did it in their own way. It was a marginally more expansive style that saw them record such a notable win over Wexford a few weeks back but Dublin are a different operation.
Carlow had two options. Make themselves as competitive as possible by working like dogs to frustrate one of the best attacks Gaelic football has ever seen, or else go out all footloose and fancy-free without a shape or a gameplan or an idea, and get walloped the way Longford did two years ago.
They conceded 4-25 in one of the most naïve performances ever seen in Croke Park. There’s having belief and there’s being foolish, and the attitude of Jack Sheedy was very much the latter.
Longford got what any other team would have gotten with such an approach against Jim Gavin’s side. This is a team that’s lost two games of significance since 2012. You give them space and they don’t just beat you, they humiliate you.
So Carlow gave them no space. They swamped the area in front of their goal and they threw themselves on every ball. When they had the legs to attack, they did. It’s not easy to run for 70 minutes with a team that has the comparative luxuries of preparation and so eventually the attacking efforts gave out and Dublin pulled away.
It was with a certain level of disbelief that I read a column from Offaly’s 1982 All-Ireland winning boss Eugene McGee in which he pilloried those efforts.
The best line was where McGee asked: “How innocent can you be?” in reference to Carlow’s failure to pressure Dublin’s attacking half-back line further up the pitch.
To me, their approach was the very opposite of innocent. It was methodical, well thought out and the best antidote they had available to such a marauding set of opponents.
Belief on its own doesn’t carry you very far in the modern game. I’m sure Derry and Antrim and Fermanagh all had certain levels of belief but when the air goes out of the tyres, as it inevitably will, then the team with the better system and better players will inevitably come through.
That it was a memorable evening for Carlow’s footballers but that doesn’t alter the fact that a Championship system that pits a Division Four side against the All-Ireland champions has to be wrong.
In terms of the long-term development of the game in Carlow, they would still be better served by a competition that they have a chance of winning and moving on from there.
Jim Gavin must allow himself a smile at some of the analysis as well. It’s been repeatedly pointed out over the last two years that they are scoring fewer goals and hammering teams by smaller margins than in the past.
Some are still keen to blindly espouse their attacking values as if they are immune to defensive football but Dublin have learnt a hell of a lot from the scars they were left by Donegal in 2014.
They don’t look like a team that will ever be caught in that way again, and that is credit to Gavin’s coaching.
He has had nowhere near enough credit.
It is more methodical and it may not be as exhilarating to watch but their record speaks for itself.
Dublin will only start losing games if they go back to the pre-Donegal style. They may not fulfil their attacking potential if Ciaran Kilkenny carries the ball backwards into his own half, but they would be better served winning 0-12 to 0-11 than losing another shootout.
Down and Armagh thrilled us all in the opening 35 minutes on Sunday. It was wonderfully open. I thought I’d woken up in 1989.
But while it was fantastic viewing for supporters, neither team would go very far playing like that.
It was Down that realised it quicker and closed up shop after half-time, playing a more modern brand but lacking slightly in the ruthlessness it required on the counter-attack.
Whether we like it or not, this is not 1944 and it is not 1989. It is 2017 and it pays to look after your defence first.
