Footballers finish season on a high note
Waterford’s James Power and Stephen Curry after the Déise footballers' Munster SFC win over Tipperary. On Saturday last they followed that up with a Tailteann Cup win over Longford. Photo: Inpho/Ken Sutton.
I have no doubt our county footballers duly celebrated the end of their long season over the bank holiday weekend and why not. They started the Allianz League with a home draw over Tipperary and went through the remainder of the league without a victory while suffering some near misses and a couple of heavy defeats before beating Tipperary in the opening round of the championship. A loss to a strong Clare side saw them into the Tailteann Cup and a creditable performance away to Leitrim before conceding second half goals to favourites Kildare that were to seal their eventual Tailteann fate on score difference.
They went to neutral O’Moore Park on Saturday last as virtual no hopers against a Longford side with an outside chance of securing a place in the last eight and produced a performance that left them just six points short of securing a place in the last eight which was taken by Tipperary on score difference given the Premier’s shock win over Wexford in Carlow.
With New York entering the competition at the preliminary quarter final stage one third placed team had to lose out and it is ironic that Waterford had to do so to a team they had drawn with in the league and beaten in the championship.
Still, Waterford’s win over Longford last Saturday, and more so the manner of it was some reward for Paul Shankey and his charges at the end of a difficult season. It was a result that will have strirred some optimism going forward to next year and will have shown some players who may not have committed this year that something can be achieved by playing football for Waterford.
The return of Nire’s Sean Walsh to the team from the senior hurling panel for Saturday’s game was a huge boost and showed that where Paul Shankey is concerned the door is always open for players to commit. The manager went through a full league and championship campaign with limited numbers and options but stuck with it as did his players and now there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel.
The big game of the weekend was unquestionably the U-20 All Ireland clash between Offaly and Tipperary in Nowlan Park where The Faithful duly avenged, in some style, the heartbreaking defeat of their minors two years ago at the same venue by the same opposition. Offaly’s progress through the underage grades to this victory has been amazing given the county’s decline at adult levels in both hurling and football.
That there are future senior stars on this Offaly side is beyond question and in Adam Screeney they have a player of great potential but one would hope that the media will give him and others time and space to develop further.
Saturday’s game in Nowlan Park was something of a throwback to the 1992 All Ireland U-21 drawn game and replay between Waterford and Offaly at the same venue when the ground was filled to its then 28,000 capacity. Defeated that day, that Offaly team went on to win two All Irelands and on Saturday last it was interesting to see former star player at U-21 and senior Johnny Pilkington as a mentor/selector on Leo O’Connor’s back room team.
Offaly and Laois meet this coming weekend in the Joe McDonagh Cup final with both, win or lose, going forward to preliminary McCarthy Cup quarter finals against Cork or Wexford while Waterford, Galway and Tipperary sit out the remainder of the championship. Interestingly, Laois will be the more fancied of the neighbours going into Saturday’s game but the big question now for Offaly will be whether or not to launch some of their stars of last weekend such as Adam Screeney and Dan Bourke into their senior panel for the next two big games or hold them back for next year.
The sight of Offaly and Cork supporters last Saturday and in Thurles two weeks previously thronging the pitch to acclaim their victors has been unmatched in the football championship this year. Attendances are down all round at provincial and qualifying levels with the attendance of just over 11,000 at Croke Park last week for Dublin’s championship clash with Roscommon being nothing short of an embarrassment.
Wins for Cork and Armagh over Donegal and Derry respectively bucked the trend with Cork having benefitted from moving the game from the vastness of Pairc Uí Chaoimh to Pairc Uí Rinn to generate a real atmosphere. Apart from those two games there were no full houses at any of the home games as all the expected teams advanced to quarter finals and preliminary quarter finals with the Tailteann Cup following the same pattern with virtually zero attendances at some games over the weekend. If they do not meet earlier Kildare and Down should meet in the Tailteann final and might bring a crowd of about five or six thousand to Croke Park.
There is no doubt but that the football championship needs looking at and while Jarlath Burns has set up his committee to do just that perhaps they should have another look at the hurling championship as well.
