Cumann Chat: Dubs dominance, Kerry randomness and the Tailteann Cup

I HATE that phrase, ‘do you think I came up the Lagan in a bubble’ but it applies perfectly to the Leinster chairman’s recent comments addressing the issue of Dublin’s dominance. Offaly man Pat Teehan said that “the bar has been set very high but it up to the rest of us to raise our standards” and basically downplayed the massive gulf in funding between Dublin and the rest of us. Aye sure we just have to try a bit harder, that’ll do it. Dublin will probably win the next 10 Leinster Championships in-a-row, the tournament has been completely destroyed as any sort of competition, so it must be awfully draining for the rest of Leinster to hear that guff.

NIALL GARTLAND

A FEW weeks ago, Collie Devlin made a suggestion that has stuck with me. He said that in the GAA, we need to re-evaluate what we regard as success. He explained that every year, teams are rated upon whether or not they win their championship. Club teams, county teams, pretty much every team will be celebrated or slated if they finish number one out of a multitude of teams. Even the parlance that we use when talking off-hand about our GAA ‘no one remembers who lost the final’ even highlights our dedication to that winner takes all attitude. What Devlin suggested was that teams and clubs must see success in a more nuanced manner. What he did say was that that was hard to do. Take soccer as an example. They decide their champions based on leagues. A fairer way to decide who’s the best. And teams who are unlikely to win their league can still feel proud that they finished in the top half or top four.

RONAN SCOTT

IT’S an odd thing to criticise Kerry football, they have a few All-Ireland titles there to throw in the face of anyone having a pop, but I do not like their policy of giving the captaincy to players who come from the club champions of the previous season. Paul Murphy was appointed as the 2021 captain, replacing David Clifford, as East Kerry retained the Kingdom title last year. Murphy could be the perfect man to lead the side and this is in no way a shot at the individual but, like those before him, his route to the armband does not sit well with me. All teams have leaders, all teams have players that shy away from that sort of thing. A captain should always be a man or woman who can lead by example, who can produce a clear voice and inspire those around them. Kerry’s policy leaves too much of a randomness to it.

NIALL MCCOY

THE move to appoint Michael McShane as Tyrone hurling manager has come as a welcome surprise after the much-publicised delay in sorting it out. He should do a great job, but it was an unfortunate way nonetheless for Mattie Lennon’s tenure to come to an end. He led the Tyrone hurlers for six years across two stints, and from the sound of things it was a fairly thankless task at times. However, he did a super job, the highlight being leading the team to the Nickey Rackard Cup in 2014. He’s an Armagh man but you wouldn’t guess it from the service he gave to Tyrone hurling, and although he seemed fairly reserved, he was always willing to help with the local press. Damian Casey made a point of singing his praises this week and it was no more than the man deserved.

NIALL GARTLAND

MICHAEL McShane is taking over as the Tyrone hurling manager so that he can make sure that he doesn’t go a single week without pulling on the training gear, and going out to make sure lads are striking off both sides. The reason that he can do so, is the split season. This development of the GAA Calendar brings more and more advantages for folks. Odhran MacNiallais is back playing county football for Donegal, McShane gets a chance to run a county team. If you were being cynical you might say that some lads are going to take jobs off other men. But here, if Mickey wants to spend every night of the week out then it’s his loss. He’s gonna miss out on a really good series of America’s Next Top Model for starters.

RONAN SCOTT

FERMANAGH star Eoin Donnelly spoke out against the Tailteann Cup to BBCNI last week. You could accuse him of self-preservation, or team-preservation, with the Erne county likely to compete in the new tournament, but the quote “it’s very naïve to try and split it down the middle to 16 and 16” really hit the nail on the head for me. Wherever you stand on the opinion of tiered championships, and I’m still wrestling with the idea, having two blocks is simply not going to work. The idea is to have all teams competing for championship silverware, but the sides at the bottom of Division Two are not going to win an All-Ireland, and the teams low in Division Four will not win a Tailteann Cup. Three tiers or no tiers – or else it’ll end in tears.

NIALL MCCOY