I SUPPOSE whether you attended Croke Park on Saturday or Sunday of last weekend you made the long trip home to Connacht with the same sense of unfulfilled ambition, both as a player and a supporter.
I listened intently to Sylvie Linnane on Up For The Match on Saturday night prior to the hurling final and how passionate he was when he stated that Galway needed a hurling title not just for this generation but the next also to inspire his county.
You could sense the desire but also the need for success unlike the two Kilkenny men sitting either side of him who probably expected it to happen regardless of its impact on a county that has achieved so much.
Unfortunately the same could have been said for Mayo who, like their hurling counterparts, have been knocking on the door for quite some time but have yet to make the breakthrough.
Even more infuriating for both counties is that at half-time in the two encounters Mayo and Galway were perched in very favourable positions against their highly-ranked opposition.
However, both Dublin and Kilkenny showed their undoubted class in seeing off their opponents with supreme skill and confidence underlying their favouritism but they were also helped, I feel, by their opposition’s inadequacy in pushing on when they were in the ascendancy.
In Mayo’s case I had distinct flashbacks to Armagh’s 2000 All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry when we went ahead in the second half and inexplicably sat back and invited the Kingdom to attack us disregarding all positive attributes that we had done previously that had got us to that position.
Many said at the time that this was a tactic employed by Joe Kernan and Paul Grimley that backfired but there was no semblance of truth in that whatsoever as it was something that evolved entirely amongst the players that day who unknown to us possibly found ourselves in unchartered waters and really didn’t know how to react unlike more seasoned campaigners.
Exactly the same thing happened Mayo on Saturday as they stopped driving at Dublin’s rearguard which was causing Jim Gavin’s men untold problems and sat back on their lead, inviting a quality team to do what they do best and gradually gain a foothold on the game that at one stage was slipping from their grasp.
At one stage, when Mayo had just been handed the ascendancy, I witnessed both Cillian O'Connor and Aidan O Shea involved in their own full-back line which was criminal from a Mayo perspective as it robbed their team of their most potent attackers and was also indicative of their mindset at the time which was obviously to shut up shop in the hope that they could hold on to a threadbare lead against quality opposition.
I found it also totally bemusing and infuriating that last week in the second half of the first game when the Mayo men pushed up on Cluxton’s kick-outs they caused Dublin and Cluxton, in particular, serious problems which brought them right back in the game from a seven-point deficit and yet faced with the same predicament in the replay they willingly surrendered possession when at times Cluxton was actually kicking the ball behind him to begin the attacking momentum.
Jim Gavin also had the luxury of emptying a bench that is brimming with flair and enough class to seriously impact proceedings with the likes of Kevin McManamon, Alan Brogan and in particular Michael Dara McAuley having a huge influence on the final result.
I have often heard it questioned along the sidelines and in post-match discussion as to why a manager never made a change in the course of a game and yet few understand that there is no point bringing someone on unless they are going to be better than the man they are replacing, and few teams can boast that claim apart from maybe the two teams that have reached this year's final.
Dublin showed that they are deserving finalists and take their place in the dream final, and yet there are some aspects of their game which I don’t like with one player in particular who had a huge match last weekend but in two games in a row has been guilty of two instances of ridiculous feigning of injury and yet goes unpunished, which if I was Tyrone fan I would be feeling very aggrieved about.
The other massive talking point I suppose from last week was the fact that Diarmuid Connolly was allowed to take his place in the Dublin starting line-up and although he received some negativity from the Croke Park crowd, which I totally disagree with, due to the fact that it is not his fault he abused a loophole in our flaw-ridden disciplinary system.
Robert Frost once said that a jury consists of 12 people chosen to decide who has the better lawyer, which says it all really, as it doesn’t really matter if you are guilty or not as some highly educated barrister will blind any committee with legally binding mumbo-jumbo which flies in the face of any ethics or integrity.
WE ALL witnessed with our own eyes Connolly landing two or three thumps on Lee Keegan as they rolled around the ground but as what seems to be the case nowadays the camera does in fact lie.
The biggest issue I have with this ambiguity surrounding a player's perceived innocence or guilt is that the forever vilified referee who is constantly being criticised for getting big decisions wrong and then he does in fact make the right call and his decision is overturned by people who have precious little to do with the workings of the GAA.
The GAA needs to develop a system which polices its own discipline or quite simply we are malfunctioning as a sporting organisation which flies under the banner of equality and integrity.
