The young people of Ireland deserve a good football final

THE GERRY BUCKLEY COLUMN

Pope Francis’ English is not as fluent as the late Pope John Paul II. Accordingly, the Argentinian’s whirlwind visit to our shores last weekend left us with no “young people of Ireland, I love you” mantra as was the case in 1979.

The amiable pontiff is unlikely to have made much sense of the plethora of inter-county jerseys being worn by a much smaller than expected crowd in damp and dreary Phoenix Park two afternoons ago, but I certainly saw more Tyrone tops than their Dublin equivalents. I suspect that, given the astonishing year we have been privileged to witness in hurling, the GAA hierarchy would have loved His Holiness to have been present for the Liam McCarthy Cup decider last Sunday week. Conversely, one shudders to think what he might make of next Sunday’s football showdown if the standard did not greatly improve from some of the appalling stuff on show in recent months.

The upshot of it all is that Dublin are deemed certainties to become just the fourth team (and third county) to win four All-Irelands in-a-row. Mickey Harte’s men are rated at 11/2. To the naked eye, those odds seem hugely attractive in a two-horse race where the underdogs are no donkeys. Indeed, a piece (albeit well written and cleverly thought out) in a prominent Sunday newspaper two days ago which culminated in the production of a best of Kerry 1978-81 and Dublin 2015-18 sides conveniently ignores the fact that Jim Gavin’s troops are not – as yet – entitled to be judged as equals to Micko’s marvellous four in-a-row side of yesteryear. Such an article will be fair game at 5pm in five days’ time if Stephen Cluxton breaks his already-remarkable record of holding aloft the Sam Maguire Cup on four occasions. But it was premature, and semi-insulting, to the underdogs at this juncture. No better team than Tyrone to gain ‘siege mentality’ inspiration from such an article.

The aforementioned Cluxton has become arguably the most influential goalkeeper in Gaelic football history and, despite what appeared to be a slight diminution in his primary purpose of shot-stopping a couple of years back, he is still at the height of his powers with quickly-taken and superbly-directed kick-outs. Indeed, in the same way that Cork hurling netminder Anthony Nash’s bullet-like close-range frees were primarily responsible for the GAA altering the rules on the placing of the sliothar for the latter, it seems that the Parnells maestro’s mastering of a kick-out strategy may well lead to a rule change in that regard. However, in the days ahead, a master plan to counteract this important Metropolitan weapon will be paramount in Harte’s thoughts.

Younger Gaels (i.e. young people of Ireland!) would be used to Tyrone competing in and around football’s top table, but an interesting recent Béarla/Gaeilge documentary on TG4 entitled ‘Tír Eoghain: The Unbreakable Bond’ honed in on the relative novelty of the Red Hand County being challengers for Sam. Their first Ulster title only came in 1956 - a side featuring a footballer who from all accounts was Canavan-esque, Iggy Jones. It is interesting a read a quote from the latter some 60 years ago: “The first time I got the ball, I passed it to a team-mate and raced to take the return pass, but instead he booted the ball two miles in the air!”

The red and white-clad footballers in this day and age are obviously light years more sophisticated than their counterparts of the 1950s and it will certainly be a huge surprise to this columnist if they are hockeyed next weekend. Their aforementioned ‘siege mentality’ was galvanised by the tragic deaths of Paul McGirr and Cormac McAnallen, while the unspeakable murder of the manager’s beloved daughter Michaela while on honeymoon in January 2011 is sure to be an extra motivation for all and sundry when Conor Lane blows his first whistle next Sunday.

All neutral ‘footballers on the ditch’ hate to watch ‘puke football’, but our innate bias dictates that we are more than happy to endure unexciting spectacles when our own county is winning. (I recall how Tomás Ó Flatharta’s defensive strategy worked so well in 2008 and we were more than happy to eke out wins in low-scoring games). Indeed, Harte’s summary of the 2003 All-Ireland semi-final win against football purists Kerry, which prompted Pat Spillane’s infamous ‘puke’ term is succinct: “I wonder how it would have been projected if ourselves and Kerry had served up the greatest spectacle of high-scoring football and we lost. Then it would have been said that Tyrone are a great footballing team, but they can’t win. There’s no use in us playing flamboyantly and losing.” (I recall endless taunts from our neighbours when Westmeath played flamboyantly on a few occasions against Meath in the early ‘noughties’, but ultimately lost out on the day or in a replay.)

With the inter-county year ending a fortnight earlier than usual, it would be great to enter the club-only phase with very fond memories of a skilful and closely-contested football match (with emphasis on ‘foot’) in the game’s blue riband contest. Heaven forbid (can you help Pope Francis?) that hurling ‘snobs’ are out in force from next Monday with clichés such as, “Gaelic football is a game for those not good enough to play hurling”. Or that we awake that morning to opening paragraphs such as that written by the late John D Hickey after the Kerry v. Roscommon final in 1962: “Undistinguished, unexciting, cheerless and insipid.”

Young people of Ireland, and those of us no longer as young as we’d like to be, urgently need a memorable decider.