HOLLYWOOD loves the summer blockbuster. Big budget movies that require little in the way of innovative scripts or risk-taking. Instead, a tried and tested formula is used to ensure crowds get what they want.
For the GAA, the football Championship is ticking the boxes. The big teams trundle through early rounds with ease and minimal fuss.
At the side, some minor actors put on entertaining shows for bit of early-season colour before their inevitable sad but inconsequential killing-off as the big boys come out to play later in the year.
Some old favourite sources of drama are commonly thrown in – none more so than the disciplinary side of things. The CCCC are having a spring/summer to remember and, like the politicians of late, doing everything they can to grab our attention.
The on-off Matthew Fitzpatrick 48-week ban, Kieran McGeeney and Davy Fitz’s touchline bans and now Diarmuid Connolly’s 12-week suspension gives some interesting sub-plots that will no doubt rumble on in the background.
Last week’s instalment saw some of the most entertaining games so far this year. Armagh v Down, particularly in the first half, and Meath v Louth were both highly entertaining.
Both games were somewhat shorn of the methodical and disciplined systems of play associated with the big teams – and were more entertaining for it.
There was at times a kamikaze atmosphere and most watching can see that maybe these teams lack the outright quality and tactical astuteness of the top teams, but that does not detract from the entertainment.
Does this mean that, as some would have it, the top teams should realise their responsibility to produce an entertaining product?
As a past player the games give ample evidence that this view is complete rubbish. While the games did have an entertainment value, nothing detracted from the joy in the hard-fought wins nor the pain of the defeats for the teams involved.
Those players put in massive effort for several months and often in environments where Joe Soap in the street is ridiculing their team and their chances.
They would both give anything to come out on top and if that meant a more boring or defensive gameplan then it would quickly be embraced. For Armagh and other teams in their position, entertainment value brings no solace.
The nature of the competitive spirit which tends to burn brightly in our players creates a complete aversion to being second best at the end of the game and in every mini-battle within the game.
Of course, the competitive spirit can burn a little too brightly in some. Diarmuid Connolly (inset) is probably the GAA’s poster boy for failing to find a balance between that competitiveness and going too far.
We all want our county stars to show a passion and determination to win that borders on the obsessive, but we are also very quick to condemn those that go too far. It’s a fine line.
The problem is that once a player gets a name for lashing out they will inevitably get targeted. When it happens to be one of the best players in the country and this is his Achilles heel then that player may as well carry a target on their back, for the opposition, the referee, the media and the public at large.
The issue with last Saturday evening’s altercation with the linesman was that it was completely unnecessary.
This was a game that Dublin were never going to lose and the incident itself was over a simple sideline ball.
For a man of 30 years of age with four All-Irelands in his pocket it really does look daft.
For someone that has had many scrapes with disciplinary proceedings before, you would have thought that significant
self-analysis and coaching to control the demons would have occurred. Obviously not.
Of course, getting a 12-week ban is one thing. Serving it is very much another. Interestingly, Dublin are going to let Diarmuid decide whether he wants to appeal or not.
It would be highly refreshing and a nice precedent to see a player accept, what appears by the rulebook, to be justifiable punishment. The sceptic in me says that if this was at the All-Ireland semi-final or final stage there would be a different approach and they would throw the full legal armoury at it and likely get it thrown out on a technicality.
As it is, Dublin, even missing Connolly, should still make the semi-final and we can enjoy the drama of the big return late in the summer where, no doubt, a special welcome will await him from whoever the opposition is.
Back to the present and next up is Monaghan and Cavan at Kingspan Breffini Park with everyone hoping there is no rerun of the National League grindfest.
It’s Monaghan’s game to lose, but this rivalry usually seems to pull them down and elevate Cavan. The Breffnimen have only one or two seasons left to shake the ‘great underage but failed to come through’ tag.
Their team is now at the prime age and need to fulfil their underage potential. Monaghan, however, remain my team for Ulster and, while I don’t expect a hugely entertaining nor convincing performance, I expect them to come through in their normal pragmatic style.
It is likely to be another competitive game and with Donegal v Tyrone the following week the plot is beginning to thicken nicely...
