Replays can be tricky for players, for fans, for managers and for the media.
Players must pick themselves up to return to the same physical and emotional pitch, fans have to source tickets again, managers have to recalibrate after the draw and make sure they get the right team out to face an opposition with whom they played out a stalemate.
And the media? They have to come up with new things to talk about as they effectively preview the same match twice in a fortnight. It can be tricky.
So hats off to the Mayo News sports department for backing up their All-Ireland final front cover with another beauty.
Big thanks and huge compliments to @eyeintheclock for her brilliant work on our All-Ireland Final cover. #mayogaa pic.twitter.com/B8vWK0NVWh
— Mayo News – Sport (@mayonewssport) September 13, 2016
Last time graphic designer Michelle Gannon depicted the Dublin juggernaut being stopped in its tracks by Aidan O’Shea, Keith Higgins and Kevin McLoughlin, brandishing a broom (sweeper, geddit?). All the time Lee Keegan is lying off against a post, with his Tipperary and Tyrone markers in his back pocket.
This week illustrator Jennifer Murphy manages to perfectly capture the tactical showdown that awaits, as the cover consists of Mayo manager Stephen Rochford facing off against Jim Gavin in a game of chess, with Stephen Cluxton, Cillian O’Connor, Aidan O’Shea, Diarmuid Connolly, Lee Keegan and Kevin McManamon drawn as chess pieces on the board.
The cover declares that “The next move wins”.
However at least one reader is concerned about the fate of midfielder Tom Parsons, who along with Bernard Brogan is on the cover but not on the board.
https://twitter.com/EndaMcGearty/status/780677314082471936
