THERE WAS A line in one of the Ross O’Carroll-Kelly books when the titular character’s father, Charles, made a sharp observation about Gaelic football.
Every sport, held Charles, eventually morphs into Rugby. Gaelic football, well, it was just going through a particularly ugly, teenage phase. Bear in mind, that was written before Jim McGuinness entered intercounty coaching.
The four All-Ireland quarter-finals had people giddy because the ingredients were all there; two spicy cross-country fierce rivalries where it’s obvious they can’t stand the sight of each other, one faintly novel pairing and an Ulster local rivalry thrown in too.
While there was much to admire about the games, they were pigs of spectacles. Commentating on contests such as these must feel like your very soul departing the body.
But of all the people on the microphone, Éamonn Fitzmaurice got the sweetest gig. The fact that Mayo did not turn up for their second half against Dublin as Fitzmaurice admits that he can always find something of huge interest to him in any game.
And in Dublin, they served up plenty of food for thought.
Before we go further though; an acknowledgement that Mayo weren’t all that.
Early season optimism gave way to mid-season panic. Restructuring the defence that had previously been built around Conor Loftus felt like Kevin McStay was baling water. Losing to Roscommon and Cork, struggling against Louth, is not – not – the kind of form you want to carry into a meeting against Dublin.
And while they were competing in the first half, the nature of the Dublin scores was puzzling.
When Sean Bugler fed Cormac Costello after five minutes, his marker Jack Coyne was nowhere near him. It was Pádraig O’Hora who eventually rushed out to meet him but couldn’t get there in time.
In the 12th minute, Brian Fenton played a kickpass that actually bounced inside the ‘D’, and up into Cormac Costello’s hands. This time Coyne was close by, but he could do no more than a half-shove on Costello’s back and he twisted one way and then turned the other before firing over from the central channel without any pressure applied.
On 17 minutes, a good old-fashioned up-and-under delivery from Davy Byrne. Colm Basquel fielded it as O’Hora appeared to miss the flight. It was in the net in a flash.
Just before it, Fitzmaurice said with a hint of sarcasm and perhaps frustration having watched the opening game of the day, “Amazing Marty, if you kick the ball in the final third, you can create scores. Who knew?” Prophetic words.
Now, maybe when Dublin face Monaghan, there could well be 12 points between the sides at the end. But you can guarantee that they won’t get their scores as handy in the first quarter.
Just before the half time break, it was James McCarthy powering through, going as direct as possible that eventually led to Niall Scully pushing the ball onto the post, before McCarthy tidied up the crumbs with a point.
From that point on, the game belonged to McCarthy. It was his ball down the line that eventually ended up in the second Dublin goal when Sam Callinan ill-advisedly tried to usher it out over the end line only for Paul Mannion to do the hard stuff, Cormac Costello to execute the nifty pick-up on the run and present Basquel with his second goal gift-wrapped with a bow.
With just four minutes of normal time left, McCarthy went galloping through for his own point, cheered wildly by Hill 16.
In the GAA, no set of fans sing about a player being, ‘One of our own,’ but if they did so about the Ballymun man, you’d know what they are on about.
It’s there in the way he plays, his springy walk inherited from his father John, such an important component of the ‘70s teams.
How big an influence is McCarthy across the team?
When Bernard Brogan was finding life difficult as the former golden boy who couldn’t get many minutes on the pitch, it was McCarthy coming to him pleading for one more big effort to lift Sam Maguire.
Somehow, the generation just below McCarthy got jaded, injured or just wanted to do something different with their life. Paul Mannion went off to China to work. Jack McCaffrey spent his years in exotic locations for medical training.
Others, such as Stephen Cluxton, drifted away for a time leaving no trace of their motivations and intentions.
But somehow, the band are all back together. The A-Team bus is full of the old faces. Noel and Liam patched it up. Knebworth awaits.
The substitutes that Dessie Farrell was able to unleash yesterday; Jack McCaffrey, Ciaran Kilkenny, Paddy Small, Tom Lahiff and Dean Rock, well it’s mind-boggling.
Nobody needs to know if this squad is a squad for five years down the road and often times, managers can hide behind talk of potential or developing a panel. No titles are every given out for a three-year period. All that matters is the here and now and what happens in the next two games.
On ‘The Sunday Game’ evening show, Peter Canavan’s analysis cut straight to the point.
“In the second half, they had all the hallmarks of the great Dublin team that won the six-in-a-row. They had seven attacks at the start of the second half, six shots, scores… There was a physicality and an aggression around the middle. How often have we seen Brian Fenton as aggressive and motivated for the game in the second half?”
Their eye is back in.