Pat Spillane: GAA committed a major own goal with TV fixture mistake

When the Russians went to the moon, they used a pencil. And guess what? It worked. It was common sense in action. It’s something my late mother always drilled into us. When faced with any problem, use your common sense. Wise words indeed.

Thankfully, common sense permeated the Camogie Association special congress when delegates voted almost unanimously to remove the antiquated rule in relation to skorts.

Although given the number of politicians who aired their views on the issue, I was thinking that if every one of them attended the camogie championships, the ‘house full’ signs would have been up.

Sadly, the attendances were paltry, but am I surprised?

At a time of a cost-of-living crisis and a housing crisis, the issue of skorts in camogie seemed to dominate many of their thoughts. It was merely opportunistic point scoring.

Is it any wonder the country is in the mess it is when we elect so many of these political chancers? Sadly, the Camogie Association decision was the only example of common sense in the GAA world. There was a sad absence of common sense both on and off the field elsewhere.

RTÉ sport in their supposed wisdom, or should that read tokenism towards camogie, decided to show highlights of Cork’s 38-point hammering of Limerick in the championship on The Saturday Game. It was embarrassing to watch, humiliating for Limerick camogie players, and did absolutely nothing to promote the game.

Common sense should have dictated that that package of highlights be scrapped. Sadly, common sense was absent.

And while we are on the subject of television, where, pray tell, was the common sense shown by RTÉ, TG4 and the GAA when failing to show at least one of the senior football championship games free to air the weekend before last?

We had Meath v Cork, which was always going to be a close and competitive game. Louth, the Cinderella story of the championship to date, were playing Monaghan.

Last year’s All-Ireland champions Armagh met last year’s Division 1 league winners Derry. And we had an absolute blockbuster between two of the big guns, Donegal and Tyrone.

Bear in mind that there were no Premier League games that weekend and still we had no GAA game available free to air – what an own goal.

In a congested season, this was another glaring example of poor promotion. And by the way, I did look to see what was on terrestrial TV. RTÉ1 had almost three hours of racing from the Curragh, where there was an attendance smaller than the smallest crowd at a Gaelic football championship game, the meeting of Meath and Cork in Navan which had just over 6,000.

And what was on RTÉ2? You guessed it – three-and-a-half hours of Champions Cup rugby with no Irish interest.

How about a GAA game at 7.0 on Saturday night – prime-time viewing – on RTÉ2? No such luck, as RTÉ2 were showing Super Dogs with Extraordinary Jobs. I give up, it’s a joke, an absolute absence of common sense.

I will take you quickly through a few more examples of this lack of common sense in the GAA world.

While Waterford and Cork were playing their do-or-die championship match in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, 30 minutes up the road in Mallow, the Déise women were playing Kerry in the Munster ladies’ football final.

The ladies’ final finished just as the ball was thrown in at the hurling match. Was there anyone thinking the Waterford hurling game could have had the ladies’ game as a curtain-raiser? Common sense my arse.

Oh and I nearly forgot, with regard to the brilliant split season dreamt up by the whizz kids in Croke Park, let it be known that by the end of May, 72 per cent of all hurling championship matches will have been played. For the next eight months, the likes of Clare, Waterford and Wexford will have no games. We will not see the superstars of our game, Lee Chin, Tony Kelly and Shane O’Donnell, on the big stage.

After today, four weak football counties will exit the Tailteann Cup. How can they improve football standards in those counties when they won’t have a competitive game again for eight months?

The good news for players is that many of them are heading off to the US to play over there for the summer months, which will mean that many will miss the opening round of their club championship games. Oh sorry, I forgot, sure the split season is all about the club player.

Well, here is a dose of reality. Last year, no club championship game was played in June. And 13 of the 32 counties didn’t start until after the middle of August. Whisper it quietly, there isn’t a great urgency to finish this inter-county championship. There is wriggle room. But common sense lads?

Health and safety with the split season? You must be joking. If you are looking for common sense, sadly you won’t find it in the GAA world.

And just to wrap up, a quick review of the games.

The recent action just copper-fastened what I pointed out in last week’s column – the topsy-turvy nature of this year’s championship. It is impossible to make a definitive list of the top four or five counties. An interesting fact: only one team remains unbeaten – Kerry. The other three provincial winners have all lost. I think that sums it up.

The Big Losers

Donegal. They never turned up. We got great mileage out of slagging Mayo’s forwards. How about this from Donegal – one starting forward got one point from play, Ciarán Thompson.

Ten were used in all, and collectively they managed one point and a two-pointer, from Paddy McBrearty. So two scores from play in total from all the 10 forwards used on the day.

In no particular order, what do I see as their main issues?

First off, sticking to the process. All the criticisms I have written before about Donegal are still there, like zonal marking that leaves space to be exploited by heads-up intelligent forwards.

Against Tyrone, their lack of a kicking game in transition is also a bugbear. A major, major problem. And even a lack of common sense on the field.

Two points down at half-time and playing with a strong wind in the second half, they had an ideal target man in Michael Murphy, but they played him out the field and still persisted with their running game.

Also, and not for the first time in a big game, scoring efficiency let them down. It cost them a victory over Galway in the second half of last year’s All-Ireland semi-final.

They kicked 13 wides and two more into the goalie’s hands. The first forward to score from play was in the 40th minute of the game.

There are other issues – not scoring enough goals and the absence of Shaun Patton. But what was so un-Donegal-like was the way they finished.

Two points up with 10 minutes to go, their game management let them down, which is most unusual. They were outscored 0-5 to 0-0, and that will hurt.

That is one of the things they normally do well, controlling the controllables.

Tyrone Make Statement

Deserved winners, Tyrone played heads-up intelligent football. They played on their terms and had a great impact from their subs. Ben McDonnell, Peter Teague and Peter Harte all made a difference. But the thing that really stood out, unlike Donegal, was their game management, which has previously been their Achilles heel.

They lost the lead against Armagh in the Ulster semi-final, just like last year against Donegal in the Ulster semi-final and Monaghan in the Ulster quarter-final.

But the stats from last Saturday’s game were stunning: two points down with 10 minutes to go, they outscored their rivals five points to nil. For seven minutes and 40 seconds up to the final whistle, no Donegal player touched the ball. Incredible.

Steady Armagh

The All-Ireland champions will be happy, scoring 2-21 with 11 different scorers. Job done.

Winning playing badly. They will be disappointed with their last quarter display, where they saw a 13-point lead reduced to four.

Defensively, they were too easily opened up. Derry could have scored another four goals but for Ethan Rafferty. In four games, Armagh have conceded 5-82. We will learn more from the Dubs game.

Meath & Cork wind back the clock

This was like a throwback to the old days. After 20 minutes, the game had produced just three scores and it was an unprepossessing 1-5 to 0-5 at half-time.

The weather conditions were poor, but Cork did a Mayo on it. Only two of their starting six forwards scored from play. Meath’s big men dominated the kick-out in the second half and controlled the match.

Louth falter, Monaghan sparkle

Louth played like they had a hangover from the Leinster final, which was to be expected. They never reached the full pitch of the game and a six-point defeat flattered them.

I loved watching Monaghan. Their attacking play, especially, which had great variety, impressive kicking, and runners coming from deep.

I shouldn’t be surprised. They were the highest scorers in the league out of all four divisions. And they have a forwards coach in Andy Moran who is one of the shrewdest forwards I saw playing in the last 20 years. That intuition is reflected in Monaghan’s play.

So overall, a better week again for the football championship than its dual sibling – but unlike the hurling crowd, we are not going to crow about it.