Did the GAA inadvertently stumble across a great new matchday feature?
Tunnel interactions, tunnel shemozzles, tunnel banter, all captured on tunnel cameras – you could call it ‘Tunnel Vision’.
Every big Championship match could be preceded by the teams lining up alongside each other in the tunnel before racing out onto the pitch together.
The interactions could be fascinating – Sigerson team-mates shaking hands and sharing a few words, younger players nervously avoiding eye contact, jesters trying to get a smile out of the likes of Stephen Cluxton, a few hard chaws trying to provoke a response with a judicial elbow here or there.
This very ritual in soccer provided one of the most memorable moments in Premier League history.
https://twitter.com/ThrowbackAFC/status/708013287691194372
We can imagine Diarmuid Connolly cast in the role of Roy Keane, protecting John Small (Gary Neville) from the attentions of some Patrick Vieira like character in the Mayo team.
If that all gets a bit stale you could throw in a cheeky mascot.
It could be a great addition to the television viewing experience, something that could be suggested by one of the many suitors for the GAA TV rights, which are up for grabs after next month’s All-Ireland final replay.
The broadcaster who suggests it is unlikely to win many friends in Croke Park, however, given the official response to Sunday’s pre-match shemozzle between Mayo and Dublin.
The Central Competition Control Committee (CCCC) are to investigate the circumstances behind the two finalists meeting in the tunnel on their way out on to the pitch – a collision that led to “skelping” and “up-scuttling”, according to one eye witness.
Tunnel vision https://t.co/X8sqc5VMe3
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 19, 2016
If the root cause of the skelping and up-scuttling is found to be Dublin’s late exit from their dressing room (they were due out two minutes before Mayo) then they could be fined.
A fine for being five minutes late out of the dressingroom ahead of the biggest game of the year?
Imagine the nerves. Imagine the unscheduled and repeated trips to the WC. Imagine forgetting your gum shield (as Seamie O’Shea told us he did).
There are myriad reasons for 40 people being delayed leaving a dressingroom, but the last thing you could say was it took away from the occasion.
There was an electric atmosphere as the teams came out together, and that was before we knew they had been skelping and up-scuttling in the tunnel.
https://twitter.com/Woolberto/status/777508404327747585
RACE TO THE HILL! Both teams out together #DUBvMAYO
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 18, 2016
Some eagle-eyed TV viewers even spotted that it spilled out on to the pitch as both sets of players tore across the field to have their pictures taken.
I think Aidan O'Shea can count himself lucky to not be looking at a suspension for this…. pic.twitter.com/77XuuplCgX
— Dublin metropolitan Gaa page (@Themetropolita4) September 19, 2016
But did anything untoward really happen? Anything that, on the field of play, would be considered unlawful? Everyone was fit to play so we can assume the skelping and up-scuttling was not too extreme.
Fining Dublin for being five minutes late to the field seems like an odd avenue to take in order to punish one party in an incident that had no impact on the result, was not witnessed by the public (bring in Tunnel Vision!) and was seemingly forgotten by the time the ball was thrown in.
The only shame here is the the rest of us did not get to see it.
We review a crazy All-Ireland final and chat to Lee Keegan about his special relationship with Diarmuid Connolly. Listen below or subscribe here on iTunes.
