SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND: Four talking points as GAA cries out for a proper contest

Mikey Stafford

Will this be the weekend the Championship gets the battle it so desperately needs?

Both the provincial hurling and football championships have been dominated by dominant displays thus far, without a proper contest yet to get the heart pumping.

Because, in the GAA, when the heart isn’t pumping, the lips are flapping as sideshows, opinions and pundits’ opinions drive the news cycle.

So Joe Brolly’s highly-personal attack on Kieran McGeeney dominated the discussion for much of this week as Cavan joined Tyrone and Fermanagh in handing down a heavy defeat in the disturbingly one-sided Ulster football championship.

The early stages of the provincial championships are often short of blood-thumping, white knuckle thrill rides, but this weekend has a few fixtures that should at least take the focus off Geezer v Brolly.

Cushendall are in today's @AIB_GAA Club Hurling Final. It's been a long journey. This is their story. #TheToughest https://t.co/M8scWyjpBG

— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) March 17, 2016

Christy Ring Cup Final – Antrim v Meath, 5.30pm Saturday, Croke Park

When you consider Ruairí Óg Cushendall’s trip to this year’s AIB All-Ireland club hurling final, and Loughgiel’s success in the same contest in 2012, it seems obscene that Antrim find themselves playing their season-finale this afternoon.

Sure, they still have the Ulster SHC to play for, but that the Saffrons will not be involved outside their province beyond June 4th is bizarre.

With just two wins from five Division 2A games, the Ulster men fell well short of winning promotion back to Liam McCarthy by the Allianz League route, but with the Cushendall contingent back in harness they have earned a second bite at the cherry.

Meath are contesting their first Christy Ring final but it is unlikely that even the presence of inspirational captain James Toher or dual star Mickey Burke will be able to prevent Antrim putting an end to their senior exile.

Verdict: Antrim

Leinster SFC Quarter-Final – Dublin v Laois, 7pm Saturday, Nowlan Park

We know he avoids doing it in public, but Jim Gavin must have allowed himself a little smile this week as the furore over this fixture took all the focus away from Dublin’s preparations.

It is hard to see the fixing of this game for Nowlan Park as anything but an own goal for the GAA, as the Cat Laughs, Laois anger and empty seats are likely to only strengthen the argument that Dublin should have been sent to Portlaoise for a ‘proper’ away fixture.

But the Dublin manager will be delighted with all the pre-match talk revolving around the predicted 5,000 unsold tickets, a proposed Laois boycott and a lack of accommodation in the Marble City.

Dublin are unbackable 1/100 favourites to beat the Midlanders tonight, which could come with its own pressure if anyone were talking about the football.

Gavin replaces the absent Rory O’Carroll and Jack McCaffrey with David Byrne and John Small as they begin their quest for back-to-back All-Irelands. But nobody is talking about the football and for Gavin that, not the Cat Laughs, is something to laugh about.

Verdict: Dublin

Ulster SFC Quarter-Final – Monaghan v Down, 2pm Sunday, Clones

Those praying for the Ulster football championship to kick into life may want to look beyond St Tiernach’s Park on Sunday afternoon.

Down have not beaten another intercounty team all season, plummeting out of Division 1 after seven defeats from seven games. Talk of players losing interest and not turning up for training has been denied, but it is hard to see anything but a home win for the reigning Ulster champions.

Beyond the result, Monaghan fans will be looking for signs that manager Malachy O’Rourke has discovered a way to take the weight off the shoulders of Conor McManus.

The Farney phenomenon hit almost half of Monaghan’s points in the Allianz League and the general thinking is that more players than McManus have to contribute on the scoreboard if the 2013 and 2015 Ulster champions are to make an impact on the national stage.

If Darren Hughes and Daniel McKenna can chip in against Down, fans will begin to believe that a first Ulster SFC two-in-a-row in 86 years can be achieved and, more importantly, the county may reach August without a morbid fear of Croke Park’s wide open spaces.

Verdict: Monaghan

Munster SHC Semi-Final – Clare v Waterford, 4pm Sunday, Semple Stadium

All the focus will be on the sidelines in Thurles as the only known tacticians in the game of hurling pit their wits against each other for the third time in a month and four days.

Never mind talent such as Colm Galvin, Tony Kelly, Podge Collins, Conor McGrath, Tadhg de Burca, Austin Gleeson, Shane Bennett and Mauric Shanahan – they are just pawns on the giant chessboard of Davy and Derek’s design.

What a load of nonsense. Criticising Derek McGrath and Davy Fitzgerald for implementing ‘tactics’ is a vague slight and also massively insulting to all the other top hurling counties in Ireland?

Does Michael Ryan just send his Tipperary team out with a word of encouragement alone? Does Brian Cody keep his pre-match instructions to calls for “savage intensity”?

Yep, seemingly only Clare and Waterford pay any attention to team structures, movement and that sort of thing.

What a load of nonsense. Clare and Waterford have cut their cloth according to what they see as their strengths and they contested the league final. Seems things are going okay.

The replay was an intense, frantic game of hurling and something similar would be 100 times better than the dross served up by Wexford, Dublin, Tipperary and Cork two weeks ago.

Goddamn tactics.

Verdict: Clare