Republican News · Thursday 16 January 2002

The GAA - A bumper year

BY CIARAN Mac ANNRAOI

Looking back on 2002, it was for the most part an excellent year for the GAA; in fact, I would be hard stretched to think of any major disasters, with the possible exceptions of the Cork strike and the substitution rule debacle.

The year started off, with a team never heard of before, Ballinderry, winning the All Ireland Club title, I was delighted to see the small rural parish coming to the fore and beating Nemo Rangers (a big club from Cork City). My only regret is they didn't get the opportunity to play in Croke Park - for athletes who wouldn't be unaccustomed to one man and his dog, it would have been a great experience to play in headquarters.

Speaking of headquarters, it was worth the wait - phase three complete and an 80,000 capacity stadium in Dublin city centre, a stadium the GAA and Ireland can be proud of and a stadium which had its house full signs up on six occasions, with a few near misses as well.

It is great to see our national games progressing so well. Croke Park is as good a stadium as most countries have. The one thing that saddens me was the special congress convened to discuss the Strategic Review Plan. Whilst I am not saddened with the demise of some of its ideas, including the proposed split of Dublin, it was massacred. My sympathies lie with Peter Quinn and his colleagues. Unfortunately, the timing wasn't the best and they faced delegates in an uncompromising mood. I trust they will not give up their endeavours to bring about future positive developments.

yway, back to the important things - on the field of play. As expected, the leagues came and went and not many bar the diehards paid attention. Then summer arrived and the championship action started. Another million people through the football championship turnstiles and good attendances also for hurling, although admittedly the attendances weren't as spread across matches, with big games responsible for a big slice.

In Connacht, Galway did the double, no surprises there. In Leinster, Kilkenny won the hurling title for the fifth year in succession; only Wexford came near to challenging them, and they hadn't a forward who could score.

y sports fan was delighted to see Na Déisí come out of Munster, after a 39-year wait, the emotion was overwhelming; who could deny them their glory? It brought memories back of Clare in '95. More importantly, it shows the strength of Munster hurling, five out the six counties have won the title in the last seven years, Kerry being the odd one out and one would have to go back to the 19th century to see them on this particular roll of honour.

In Munster football, it all came down to the traditional battle of Cork and Kerry in the Semi Final, Cork coming through the replay on an atrocious day in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, although Kerry were understandably off form given the death of Míchéal Ó Sé. Poor Cork thought it would be plain sailing to the Quarter Finals but Tipp had other plans, what a display and I was upset they couldn't finish them off, like London a few years ago; it is unlikely they will ever get that close again. What happened afterwards was a calamity and the Munster council opened up a can of worms for the GAA, one which needs to be addressed now, we have had four cases of the 21st player coming on to the pitch with one ending up in the High Court! Consistency is the important word here and bar this incident in Munster, the transgressors forfeited the match, that was until the Munster Council bucked the trend. Tipp would never have accepted a Munster title under those circumstances and would have offered Cork a second replay - a win win situation for everyone.

Ulster hurling saw a young Antrim team come through and the developmental work is paying off at county level, with a powerful display against Tipp. If they can build on that next year, they might well be going places. Ulster as usual didn't go to script with Armagh defeating Tyrone after a replay, weeks after Tyrone lifted the league title. They went on to their third provincial title in four years.

Back to where it all matters - Leinster! Dublin beating Meath for the first time in seven years and Kildare coming through the other half of the draw. Dublin fans voted at the turnstile on the proposed split in the county. I know it sounds like a cliché but the ticket scramble for early matches was unprecedented, all I can say is thank god I don't need one! In the end they played in four of the sellout games and the Dubs were watched in front of almost 400,000 people over six games - surely one of the best crowd drawers in the world.

I am not going to criticise the knockout/backdoor system here, I have devoted an entire article to that before but we had provincial champions who were rested for weeks coming up against more practiced teams and losing - Galway, Waterford to name but two. Then again, the likes of Sligo do benefit to some extent and they showed what they were made of to come back against Tyrone and Armagh. If they get a bit more experience, you never know - the hardest thing will be keeping them on the straight and narrow. Given the lack of silverware, players can lose focus.

On to the semi final and a repeat of last year, a lacklustre affair. This time Kerry were dishing out the football lesson to Cork - what a turnaround in 12 months. To my amazement, the media instantly backed Kerry as unbeatable. Did they forget Meath last year?

Armagh beat Dublin, and as a Dublin man, I have to take my hat off, we had ample time and opportunity to come back into it and simply weren't up to it. On to final day, I was delighted for Armagh, unbelievable scenes, to win a first title, I can't imagine what it would be like. We saw the return of an old tradition with the pitch invasion and it may not be the safest thing around but who could deny them, never mind contemplate stopping them on the day!

So the county teams take a break and the clubs step in, albeit in Dublin and Na Fianna's case - controversially. I disagreed with them going to court, they had won the match but how can you expect sympathy for a repeat offender! Errigal Ciarán are back, they are on a well deserved rest now, given their marathon run. I was disappointed for Eastern Harps in Connacht; it would be great to emulate the counties performance. No great surprises in Nemo, Crossmolina, Birr or Mount Sion coming through. UCD won in Dublin for the first time since the '70s but made a swift exit after that.

We had the Aussies in town, and the detractors to the international rules game were quiet, 115,000 people over two matches, 70,000 one week, a record crowd to watch an Irish team and that in a sport played nowhere.

Events moved quickly back to politics, with the Cork strike topping the agenda. Thankfully it is over but my congratulations to the players on their stand. I will address pay for play in the future but is it too much to ask for local gym use when you are making sacrifices to play for your county?

I am going to stick my neck out on Dublin hurling. With a strong development plan and youth structure in place, keep an eye out on Dublin Senior Hurling in five years; they will be a force to be reckoned with, and I'm not just saying that because Dublin Sinn Féin Councillor Nicky Kehoe is now one of the selectors. They were unlucky not to retain their Leinster U21 title but it will not be long before the boys in blue get their hands on Sam.

I look forward to another year and I have a few pieces lined up. If you have any comments/questions or suggestions for stories, drop me a mail: sports@macannraoi.com or ring the paper's offices.