Forget about your Senior Football and Hurling...
This weekend proved that the Junior and Intermediate Championships are where it's at, and where it's always been when it comes to the best stories in the GAA!
I got the chance to watch two All-Ireland contenders up close and personal this weekend for Off The Ball - and they both delivered in their own distinct way. Ballygunner’s awesome defensive prowess and efficiency up top, swallowed Na Piarsaigh, another hurling powerhouse, whole. Corofin’s tenacity in the turnover, and distinct quality on the ball ensured a fairly smooth return to the Connacht final. Worth noting that fourteen of their sixteen scores were from play, just so impressive on a blustery, wintery day in Salthill.
With just twelve teams left in the senior club football championship, and nine left standing in senior hurling, it’s all truly heating up. However, this weekend proved that the intermediate and junior championships are where it’s at, and where it’ll always be when it comes to the GAA…
The Off The Ball GAA+ podcast feed has a brilliant collection of podcasts available for members from the past week; weekend reaction from Limerick and Salthill, Tom Morrisey on Hurling and the All-Stars, The Powers, fifteen minutes with Brian Fenton and Richie Hogan in studio with Joe Molloy. We also teased out some of these thoughts on Off The Ball Breakfast earlier (7.30-10am weekdays)
The latest episode of The Football Pod with Paddy Andrews and James O’Donoghue will be available, free to air, in the usual places late on Monday night.
The Lower Grades Grab The Headlines
The headline game across the country was of course in Kerry - Milltown-Castlemaine upsetting the Fossa fairytale, and returning to the Kerry SFC.
Paidi Clifford was brilliant, David Clifford kicked 0-12, but man of the match Eanna O’Connor, with 0-08 for Miltown/Castlemaine and Brendan Casey’s 2-01 in the second-half, got them over the line by the bare minimum.
Maurice Brosnan captured the ending perfectly in his Irish Examiner report: “Never was sport’s capability for cruelty better summarised than the final agonising sixty seconds. In this game, inches separate joy and despair. Having been awesome for an hour, in the 64th minute David Clifford had exactly what he wanted. A free that he won himself on the 13-metre line, a hoop inside the sideline on his left foot. The shot trailed off outside the far post. When the final whistle sounded, he made for the tunnel with his head in his hands.”
If the quality and drama from the Kerry Intermediate Football final (highlights) wasn’t enough to convince you never to watch another senior club game again, have a listen to this, spotted on Ah Ref’s twitter account over the weekend - Francis ‘Bunty’ Roche, the Monivea Abbey manager speaking to Galway Bay FM before their Intermediate semi-final against Mayo’s Kilmeena…
Francis Roche speaking to Galway Bay FM on that ‘cocky crowd in Mayo.’
No fear! And what did Monivea Abbey go on and do? They went on and bate Kilmeena by a point (courtesy of a last minute penalty save.) Brilliant way to whet the appetite for the neutral before that clash. Francis has a mighty record with his home club, and the Tuam/Cortoon Ladies Footballers. He also won back-to-back All-Ireland’s, as Galway Minor Football manager back in 2004/05.
That was pre-match, LMFM served us an instant classic of the post-match genre on Sunday afternoon. Glyde Rangers, a junior club in Louth, won their first Championship title in 27 years in October - and on Saturday evening they beat Man O War of Dublin to reach their very first Leinster JFC final - Reporter Colm Corrigan caught up with their captain Brian Duffy after their win and their chat had it all…
Glyde Rangers captain Brian Duffy speaking to LMFM after their win
Glorious stuff from Glyde Rangers - best wishes to every team left standing in the provincial club championships, in all four codes.
Classy Corofin keep going, but are we too negative about Gaelic Football?
Back to Saturday in Salthill - I’ve made a habit of going to watch Corofin play Football over the past few weeks - it seems to be a good omen for them, and it’s been a very enjoyable few hours of work for me. In their county final against Maigh Cuillin, you could see the hallmarks of that great side that completed the first ever three in-a-row of All-Ireland club titles, at the turn of the decade.
They play sharp, slick, heads-up up football, but they are hardy and wily too, knowing how to foul, and they have an utterly insatiable appetite for turnovers.
Corofin never really went away, as Gary Sice insisted to me a few weeks back, and now that their new generation have their paws on a first senior medal, we’re watching them blossom; wing-back Bryan Cogger, Patrick Egan in midfield and corner-forward Jack McCabe.
McCabe had a quiet county final, but on his provincial bow, he delivered a man of the match performance of masterful skill and maturity that belied his years. His five points from play, were only bettered by the fact that his last two, both fisted efforts, came in that crucial final stretch. Corofin had gone 13 minutes without a score, Ballina with the breeze, and momentum, had reduced the gap to a goal. What came next, was a vibrant flurry of punches, created by that perfect blend of youth and experience that Corofin have fostered this year. First, Michael Lundy, on his maiden start of the year, clipped over - then McCabe floored the Mayo champions, striking twice in a minute.
It’s St. Brigid’s of Roscommon up next in the Connacht Final, between them, they’ve taken 11 of the last 17 provincial titles. It should be a cracker.
While the much derided Mayo Champions, Ballina fell short on Saturday, there was a feeling during the second-half that they could catch fire - Evan Regan and Frank Irwin in particular, kicked some wonderful scores from play in the third quarter.
Afterwards, I grabbed their manager Niall Heffernan for a quick chat and asked him if the criticism of his side affected him and if we’re being too negative about Gaelic Football at the moment.
Hurling heavyweights cannot distract from the real threats facing the game…
With Ballyhale Shamrocks out of the way, Ballygunner - Na Piarsaigh was billed as a warm-up for January’s All-Ireland club hurling Final - these two have served up an epic rivalry over the last 12 years, and Sunday was set to be the 6th meeting between them…
We were expecting a classic, what we got was a game that never really caught fire - and which actually turned out exactly like most Football games these days do;
Tetchy
Defensive
Tense
Spluttered with a few moments of class,
Before a final, furious flurry of excitement and utter chaos…
Na Piarsaigh’s late goal put a gloss on this one, watching on though it really felt like a four-point hammering. Ballygunner, much like Corofin, were a class above this weekend - and their savage defensive nous is what set them apart.
Anthony Nash covered the game for Off The Ball, this is what he made of Ballygunner’s brilliant set-up, and where Na Piarsaigh fell short.
Boring Hurling and tactical warfare isn’t the real problem for the sport though, it’s the fact that, where it thrives, it flies - but elsewhere, it’s dying a quiet death, and it’s clear that we’ve been asleep at the wheel for quite a wheel.
A document appeared last week, which sparked this debate into life, proposing that five counties; Louth, Fermanagh, Cavan, Leitrim, Longford - all have their intercounty teams removed from the NHL until they can field five senior hurling clubs in their respective championships for three consecutive seasons. Outcry ensued - whatever about the merits or not, of this particular proposal, it’s clear that a lot of work has to be done to preserve and spread the great game of hurling.
Martin Fogarty, the former National Hurling Development Manager (still vacant) from 2016-2021 spoke brilliantly about this topic with Nathan Murphy earlier in the summer.
I started this site last January with lofty ambitions of writing a GAA piece every week, life and work took hold, which condemned those intentions to eternal rest. Until now - hopefully, with my new role as GAA correspondent with Off The Ball, I can make this a more ‘semi-regular’ place to consume and discuss Gaelic Games. Thanks for taking the time to read it, all feedback and thoughts welcome in the comments, or wherever you feel like messaging me!
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