League jottings: A look over the season so far

The league has come and gone for the year with the championship now just around the corner. Michael McMullan takes a look back at some of the observations…

The perfect league

WITHOUT winning every game, Donegal have had the perfect league, topped off by actually winning it. Nobody in Donegal – inside the bubble or out – will dismiss Kerry. Nobody in Ireland will. They are the champions for a reason. That said, Jim McGuinness will take confidence in beating them and doing so at Croke Park. It’s the makeup of their squad that will please most. Imagine starting the season without Michael Murphy, Shaun Patton and Ciarán Thompson. Add in the retirement of Patrick McBrearty and Niall O’Donnell’s absence, given the important scores he has nailed on big days. Giving Max Campbell a first league start with a job on Seánie O’Shea at Croke Park was exactly what was needed. McGuinness can now see how leaving Brendan McCole to pick up Dylan Geaney worked out with Caolan McColgan tracking David Clifford. Conor O’Donnell was the player of the competition. The biggest plus was seeing the Michael Langan, Jason McGee, Ciarán Moore, Dáire Ó Baoill and Hugh McFadden across midfield at the same time.

Great ‘Wee’ story

GAVIN Devlin deserves a lot of credit for the Louth story. Going into the Derry game, he was short many key cogs. Ciarán Downey, Craig Lennon and Ryan Burns are among their star players. Add in a long-term injury to Peter Lynch. Conor Grimes missed key games and Tadhg McDonnell was only deemed fit for cameos. The fact Louth came so close to promotion speaks volumes. They totally controlled proceedings in their win over Derry. Had Meath’s Jack Flynn not kicked that whopping two-pointer against them; Louth could’ve been heading into the championship with Division One football to look forward to next season. Ronan O’Neill is another Ulster part of Devlin’s coaching ticket with former Armagh goalkeeper Paul Hearty working wonders with Niall McDonnell. Louth didn’t get the respect for beating Tyrone but have backed it up. It will take a quality side to wrestle the Leinster title from their grasp.

Beating the arc

THE 40-metre kick-out arc has been the kryptonite in the face of teams trying to bring an element of control to the game. Kerry’s demolition of Armagh in that spell of control last summer is the one everyone will remember but there have been others. There have been some interesting ways around it. Derry use Paudi McGrogan as the man in the pocket to the extent that Kildare decided to haul him back. Derry combined it with the bunch and break tactic while also using Conor Doherty over his head on the wing. Dublin appeared to kick everything to a box on the flanks. If the ball went over the sideline, they then went man-on-man on the sideline restart. Donegal put their skyscrapers across the middle on their own kickouts and put speed on the front line of their press to stop the pacy defender having a chance to step out of danger. Then you have Ronan Burns and his nerve to always take on the risky kick. The successful teams will be both innovative and varied.

They haven’t gone away

WITH seven games in nine weeks, many quarters of the media and the GAA world in general deal in scoreboard analysis. There is also the recency bias. Watch a game. Dissect a game. Pin a county’s entire season on a game. Within this prism, Armagh have been judged. It has been misplaced. First things’ first. Stefan Campbell, Rian O’Neill, Barry McCambridge, Aaron McKay, Rory Grugan and Niall Grimley – before going into the other squad members no longer there, that’s a serious chunk of quality gone. For a few weeks, ‘Geezer’ was only using a couple of subs and that was a warning sign. While Armagh’s results didn’t always go to plan, the quality of performances suggest they are once again going to be in the shake-up. They were right to take many of the fisted points they did. The fact they were creating chances was enough encouragement. The form of Ross McQuillan was a shining light. Cian McConville is a regular, with Conor Turbitt and Oisin O’Neill used as impact men being another plus.

The earlier riser

ANTRIM, Down and Meath all show the importance of getting points on the board early. Antrim took three games to get their teeth into the league campaign and were without key players early on. Looking back, being a few weeks behind the rest of the Division Four pack cost them promotion. Then you look at Down and Meath, counties with a settled team from day one. Meath used the O’Byrne Cup to have a look at anyone in the county they felt deserved a trial while using the challenge game circuit to build continuity into their starting 15. A look back at Down’s first six games, they had 12 players who started them all before taking their foot off the pedal going into the dead-rubber final game of the campaign. For Conor Laverty, he has everyone in the county that is of county standard. Like last year, they will be trying out for an influx of bigger players in club underage teams in the next year or two. Size matters too.

All ‘Hands’ to the pump

SOMETHING isn’t adding up in Tyrone. The county have the management team they wanted. There have been back-to-back All-Ireland u-20 titles. While they maybe have punched above their weight somewhat last season, they reached the last four. The fan base seems to have deserted them and that is perhaps the most alarming metric in a county that was always absolutely fanatical about the county jersey. Now is the time to circle the wagons. The loss of Peter Harte has been felt. There is the ‘is he in or out’ debate around Niall Morgan. Michael McKernan was one of their best players but is out of favour. Rory Brennan has stepped away. Darragh Canavan had plans for a sabbatical in mid-season. They are all standalone factors that combine to become huge. One pillar of strength is Mattie Donnelly. He just shows up, competes, plays, scores and leads. Every player in the Tyrone squad needs to get down into the trenches beside him. Their only way out is something that that has always stood to Tyrone, that collective grit. The clock is ticking….

Stars of the future

AT half-time in Derry’s home matches, across different codes, there were mini games. It was such a brilliant idea to promote all that is to be celebrated about the league. Children get to play in front of a crowd on the same pitch as their heroes and get photos that will last forever. It also encourages more families to get out and actually go to a game. When the teams emerge for the second half the kids form a guard of honour and there are high fives all the way to the end and onto the pitch for the second half. It’s something that Ulster GAA are excellent at bringing to their championship days and the luckiest ones even get a chance to perform at Croke Park. While the league rolls out competitive games every weekend, the importance of interaction between the players the very youngest fans cannot be underestimated. Well done to everyone involved in ventures like this.