If there’s one side that don’t need a football league title, it’s Mayo.
Cast your mind back two years ago, and their three-point win over Galway. Sure, they played it down, made like the trophy was going to be dropped off in a turf shed out the road, if they even took it with them of course from Croke Park, but already they must have felt Roscommon hunting them down.
A Connacht championship opener a week later in Castlebar, and they were beaten by the Rossies.
We note that the league final this year is also just a week out from Mayo opening their championship campaign with Sligo coming to Castlebar.
So they don’t need to win the league.
But to get a little buy-in for the rest of the year, they need to start winning league games all the same. They have a fortnight now to get themselves ready for the visit of Tyrone.
*****
2. Carlow’s Hurling Rising
Almost as soon as it happened, you had people diminishing the achievement of Carlow beating Waterford for the first time, as being more about Déise shortcomings.
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This, despite Carlow having to win their game twice over after they survived a few combinations from Waterford to come out 2-21 to 1-19 winners.
That won’t deter or discourage the progress of Carlow, who have been steered brilliantly by Tom Mullally, and grabbed a draw against Offaly the week before. They may operate off a small pool but they use their resources cleverly, with clubs competing in the Kilkenny competitions to gain more games.
They also are in a sweet spot in the province for challenge matches that the likes of similar aspirational counties like Antrim don’t have going for them.
And that geographical advantage works in terms of recruiting coaches too. The Carlow coach this year is former Waterford senior footballer Shane Briggs. He comes with experience of coaching hurling in his own club of Abbeyside and the Kerry senior hurlers.
He is also the brother of former Irish rugby international, Niamh Briggs.
Carlow hurling boss Tom Mullally. Tom Maher / INPHO
Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO
*****
3. Paul Geaney’s Brain
A couple of months after his 34th birthday, and with his bar and restaurant on Main Street in Dingle providing just as many headaches and concerns that any business of that kind can, you have to hand it to Paul Geaney.
By the time he came on in Sunday’s opening win for Kerry over Derry, they were 0-19 to 2-9 behind and it might have been more only Ethan Doherty’s shot went over rather than under the crossbar.
From that point on, Kerry outscored Derry by 3-6 to 1-5.
The first score of the sequence was, literally, a gift when Derry had a three-man infraction, which also was mirrored by Kerry but not noticed. Sean O’Shea brought the free outside the arc to make it a 2-pointer.
With five minutes they were still five points behind. An O’Shea effort at a two-pointer dropped short to the alert Geaney to pot his shot to the net. He also scored another goal four minutes later with Kerry taking advantage of dropped ball in the Derry defence.
Little wonder that in assessing the contribution of his young players such as Keith Evans, Cathal Ó Beaglaoich and Donal O’Sullivan, Kerry boss O’Connor noted afterwards his long-serving attacker.
“You can’t beat the head the Geaneys have. Paul might be pushing on in years but he still has the brain and the head for it.”
Back when Kieran McGeeney was the Kildare manager, his players had a couple of numbers printed on their training tops.
One combination of numbers tallied up to 18 points; which was at that time the kind of score that would win the vast majority of matches. The other amounted to 13 points. Go for those sort of margins, and they wouldn’t be far off.
Nowadays, you would wipe your derriere with 18 points. Over the weekend there was 5-15 by Kerry and 1-24 from Derry. There was 2-29 for Monaghan who are clearly finding life after Conor McManus to be, well, more of the same for now anyway, along with 1-23 for Armagh without Rían O’Neill.
Serious shooting, helped of course by the addition of the two-point arc.
Some coaches are pointing out that the methods of keeping a game under control are disappearing. Cork boss John Cleary talked of how previously you could shut up shop rather than suffer the kind of defeat they did against Down.
Sympathy among the public will be in short supply for now. The new rules are not perfect. But they are certainly not boring, either.
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*****
5. Where have all the Tipperary fans gone?
On RTÉ Radio on Sunday, commentator Pauric Lodge and his co-commentator John Mullane were running the rule on Tipperary’s win over Wexford when a thought struck them.
You couldn’t say Tipperary hurling fans are staying away from Semple Stadium – 5,125 came to this game – but they felt it might be worth taking the games on a spin of the county, bringing hurling to the people, with the preferred option of McDonagh Park in Nenagh suggested.
After their first league game, a handsome win over Galway, manager Liam Cahill touched on that topic.
“I’d ask the Tipp supporters to be brave as well and come out and support them. There’s not much bravery in going up to Croke Park every year over the last decade for semi-finals and All-Irelands and all that.”
Last year, their heavy defeat away to Limerick in the Munster championship had a frankly pitiful attendance of Tipp fans. Next weekend, they bring their unbeaten league record to the same venue to face John Kiely’s charges. Let’s see who turns up.
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Opening defeats for Mayo, Carlow's hurling rising, and Geaney brainpower helps Kerry
1. Mayo’s opening defeats
If there’s one side that don’t need a football league title, it’s Mayo.
Cast your mind back two years ago, and their three-point win over Galway. Sure, they played it down, made like the trophy was going to be dropped off in a turf shed out the road, if they even took it with them of course from Croke Park, but already they must have felt Roscommon hunting them down.
A Connacht championship opener a week later in Castlebar, and they were beaten by the Rossies.
We note that the league final this year is also just a week out from Mayo opening their championship campaign with Sligo coming to Castlebar.
So they don’t need to win the league.
But to get a little buy-in for the rest of the year, they need to start winning league games all the same. They have a fortnight now to get themselves ready for the visit of Tyrone.
*****
2. Carlow’s Hurling Rising
Almost as soon as it happened, you had people diminishing the achievement of Carlow beating Waterford for the first time, as being more about Déise shortcomings.
This, despite Carlow having to win their game twice over after they survived a few combinations from Waterford to come out 2-21 to 1-19 winners.
That won’t deter or discourage the progress of Carlow, who have been steered brilliantly by Tom Mullally, and grabbed a draw against Offaly the week before. They may operate off a small pool but they use their resources cleverly, with clubs competing in the Kilkenny competitions to gain more games.
They also are in a sweet spot in the province for challenge matches that the likes of similar aspirational counties like Antrim don’t have going for them.
And that geographical advantage works in terms of recruiting coaches too. The Carlow coach this year is former Waterford senior footballer Shane Briggs. He comes with experience of coaching hurling in his own club of Abbeyside and the Kerry senior hurlers.
He is also the brother of former Irish rugby international, Niamh Briggs.
*****
3. Paul Geaney’s Brain
A couple of months after his 34th birthday, and with his bar and restaurant on Main Street in Dingle providing just as many headaches and concerns that any business of that kind can, you have to hand it to Paul Geaney.
By the time he came on in Sunday’s opening win for Kerry over Derry, they were 0-19 to 2-9 behind and it might have been more only Ethan Doherty’s shot went over rather than under the crossbar.
From that point on, Kerry outscored Derry by 3-6 to 1-5.
The first score of the sequence was, literally, a gift when Derry had a three-man infraction, which also was mirrored by Kerry but not noticed. Sean O’Shea brought the free outside the arc to make it a 2-pointer.
With five minutes they were still five points behind. An O’Shea effort at a two-pointer dropped short to the alert Geaney to pot his shot to the net. He also scored another goal four minutes later with Kerry taking advantage of dropped ball in the Derry defence.
Little wonder that in assessing the contribution of his young players such as Keith Evans, Cathal Ó Beaglaoich and Donal O’Sullivan, Kerry boss O’Connor noted afterwards his long-serving attacker.
“You can’t beat the head the Geaneys have. Paul might be pushing on in years but he still has the brain and the head for it.”
*****
4. Scoreboard Changes
Back when Kieran McGeeney was the Kildare manager, his players had a couple of numbers printed on their training tops.
One combination of numbers tallied up to 18 points; which was at that time the kind of score that would win the vast majority of matches. The other amounted to 13 points. Go for those sort of margins, and they wouldn’t be far off.
Nowadays, you would wipe your derriere with 18 points. Over the weekend there was 5-15 by Kerry and 1-24 from Derry. There was 2-29 for Monaghan who are clearly finding life after Conor McManus to be, well, more of the same for now anyway, along with 1-23 for Armagh without Rían O’Neill.
Serious shooting, helped of course by the addition of the two-point arc.
Some coaches are pointing out that the methods of keeping a game under control are disappearing. Cork boss John Cleary talked of how previously you could shut up shop rather than suffer the kind of defeat they did against Down.
Sympathy among the public will be in short supply for now. The new rules are not perfect. But they are certainly not boring, either.
*****
5. Where have all the Tipperary fans gone?
On RTÉ Radio on Sunday, commentator Pauric Lodge and his co-commentator John Mullane were running the rule on Tipperary’s win over Wexford when a thought struck them.
You couldn’t say Tipperary hurling fans are staying away from Semple Stadium – 5,125 came to this game – but they felt it might be worth taking the games on a spin of the county, bringing hurling to the people, with the preferred option of McDonagh Park in Nenagh suggested.
After their first league game, a handsome win over Galway, manager Liam Cahill touched on that topic.
“I’d ask the Tipp supporters to be brave as well and come out and support them. There’s not much bravery in going up to Croke Park every year over the last decade for semi-finals and All-Irelands and all that.”
Last year, their heavy defeat away to Limerick in the Munster championship had a frankly pitiful attendance of Tipp fans. Next weekend, they bring their unbeaten league record to the same venue to face John Kiely’s charges. Let’s see who turns up.
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Carlow GAA Gaelic Football Hurling Kerry Mayo Talking Points