Experience proves crucial as SFC comes down to two
Covid-19, the greatest sporting spoilsport in living memory – and this ancient columnist has a long memory after celebrating a ‘Sergeant Pepper’ birthday last week – has even managed to deny us the great old-fashioned Gaelic games concept of double-headers, with a whopping two hours elapsing between the end of the first and the start of the second Westmeath senior football championship semi-finals in TEG Cusack Park last Sunday.
What didn’t change in the penultimate round fixtures was the presence of wise heads in vastly experienced teams, both recovering from semi-disastrous starts to ultimately eke their way into what will be a fourth Flanagan Cup decider between St Loman’s, Mullingar and Tyrrellspass since 2013.
Eerie atmospheres prevailed – hopefully, today’s Government announcement will include the allowing of some fans to attend matches in the short-term – and even the garda advice to allow some frustrated supporters admission to the second game, rather than blocking the canal line, failed to ignite a championship semi-final atmosphere.
Another eerie aspect was the near-identical pattern between the first and second matches. Both underdogs, Athlone and The Downs, had the aid of the useful wind blowing towards the aforementioned canal end of the ground – albeit its swirling nature was drawing imperfect shots towards the scoreboard – and raced into commanding leads, but crucially missed goal chances to build up almost unassailable advantages.
However, both Tyrrellspass (to a greater extent) and St Loman’s, Mullingar managed to keep the scoreboard ticking over against the wind, before ultimately availing of priceless big match craft and know-how to eke out narrow victories. Apart from the opening quarter, Athlone were generally disappointing and Emmet McDonnell’s troops looked the likelier winners from early in the second moiety, whereas John O’Mahony’s charges were not headed until the second minute of added-time. Accordingly, there is likely to be a lot of frustration in and around the resplendent facilities off the main Mullingar-Dublin road in the upcoming days, the black and amber-clad outfit having already taken out the holders Garrycastle in a tight quarter-final.
Despite the chaos inflicted by Covid-19, the county finals are due to be played very much in line with ‘normal’ times, albeit there will be no progression for the respective champions to provincial competition, with inter-county fare taking over. ‘Eerie’ is not a remotely strong enough word to describe the near-certainty of having to witness a semi-empty (fully-empty?) Croke Park as the championship gathers momentum - I was going to say ‘the race for the Delaney Cup’, but there is no race!
‘Near-certainty’ is probably an optimistic way of predicting Westmeath’s footballers’ loss to Dublin in round one (surely a semi-empty TEG Cusack Park can now be used for that fixture?), but the results in two crucial league game against Laois (home) and Kildare (away) will effectively dictate whether this strangest-of-strange years will be deemed a success or a failure.
Two players sure to figure in Jack Cooney’s plans for these three games are John Heslin and Ger Egan. Either would be an appropriate recipient of the (Paddy) Flanagan Cup next Sunday week, the respective St Loman’s and Tyrrellspass top scorers again playing pivotal roles in their narrow wins last Sunday.
Remarkably, the men from the ‘Tidy Town’ have qualified for the final without scoring a single goal in their four-match campaign to date. This may need to change if they to entertain realistic hopes of bridging a 13-year gap since their two in-a-row side of 2007. What will certainly need to change is a huge reduction in the number of goals let in by Declan Kelly’s men from the five conceded in the first round robin contest.
Overall, let’s say a big ‘well done’ to all the powers-that-be in Westmeath GAA for getting to this stage against the odds. And, as if their headaches, financial and otherwise, are not severe enough in this annus horribilis, wait till they have the ‘loaves and fishes’ exercise of allocating the limited tickets available for county final day!
Footnote. The only abnormality in GAA circles 25 years ago as of this Thursday was that a Westmeath man was being presented with a major trophy in a full Croke Park!
That honour fell to Damien Gavin, a worthy recipient after his inspirational leadership of a star-studded Lake County minor side who came through a gruelling eight-match campaign to emerge as All-Ireland minor football champions.
The never-to-be-forgotten events of the summer of 1995 have been regurgitated in this paper in recent ‘abnormal’ months with live sport having been abandoned, and it would be superfluous to go into too much detail again. However, those of us who grew up dreaming of such glorious days will forever be indebted to Luke Dempsey and his charges for fulfilling our dreams.
This particularly grateful Westmeath fanatic would like to wish health, happiness and prosperity to all associated with that magical triumph, while fondly remembering two pivotal components of the unprecedented success, deceased selector JJ O’Connor and Minor Board secretary, Adrian Murray. The latter’s very welcome tray of sandwiches at the top of the Hogan Stand that afternoon ended up being drenched by my tears of unbridled joy!
– Gerry Buckley