Bad day at the office

The one saving grace of my playing in a hurling match that we lost was that it prevented me having been at either Castlebar or Nenagh to bear witness to what someone euphemistically described to me as a “bad day at the office” for both the Dublin footballers and hurlers. The hurlers have at least met their target of retaining Division One status.
In Castlebar, on the other hand, the footballers gave another passable impression of the sort of team that would fall victim to Melchester Rovers after being 6 - 0 up only for the flaxen haired Roy Race to emerge hirsute and handsome from the dugout having missed the first half through being delayed by stopping to save a drowning dog, collect his Gran from the bingo and prevent a Russian invasion of Welwyn Garden City, before scoring seven goals with the aid of his old chums Lofty Peak and Johnny ‘The Hard Man’ Dexter.
But Dublin do not require any such deus ex machine to engineer their trademark Second Half Collapse. All of their demons are creatures of their own making and appear without fail it seems whenever they are involved in a tight game with any of the big teams. Seasoned observers have grown used to this – some of us even derive a perverse masochistic pleasure in it all – and we look forward to the Summer with hope rather than expectation. We might of course be better off paying young women with whips to set about us. Be less psychologically painful in any event.
Mayo’s win guarantees them a semi final place alongside Donegal whose unbeaten run continued in Limerick. The semi finalists from 1B have not been decided and will depend upon results this weekend with Kildare, Laois, Galway and Derry still in the hunt. Cork, Limerick and Fermanagh are all relegated from 1A regardless of what happens on Sunday and one of Dublin, Kerry or Tyrone will be demoted to Division Two depending on the results.
Down face the ignominy of Division Three football next year while Westmeath and Armagh, who play each other in Crossmaglen, and Louth are still in the danger zone as indeed are Derry who could either be promoted or relegated depending on what happens this Sunday. Monaghan have already qualified for the Division Two semi finals from 2A and will be joined from 2B by most likely Meath and either Wexford or Cavan with Cavan only needing to beat Waterford to ensure their progress while Wexford need to overcome the Royals.
The second spot in 2A is rather more difficult to predict as five teams are theoretically still in with a chance. Leitrim, following a good win over Roscommon last weekend, are actually best placed as they are certain to beat London and could overhaul Roscommon if the Sheepstealers get beaten by Offaly and if Leitrim beat Monaghan who have already qualified and do not need the points or even if Ros narrowly beat Offaly and Leitrim run up a big win against London as well as beating Monaghan.
Kilkenny and Cork are through to the hurling semi finals where they will meet the winners of Tipperary and Waterford, or Galway and Wexford. Antrim and Down are relegated to Division Two while Limerick and Offaly play off to see which of them will have to play the Division Two winners to retain a place in the new Division One for 2008.
They will have a certain advantage in that whoever wins Division Two will have to play at least two more games before meeting the loser of Offaly and Limerick. Laois play Kerry in one quarter final and Kildare face Derry in the other with the winners facing either Wicklow or Westmeath. The extra games are to be welcomed but it will be a lot to ask of whoever does emerge to then take on either Limerick or Offaly. Wicklow were unbeaten in 2A which was the tougher division and it would be great to see them continue their good run but one suspects that the likes of Westmeath and Laois may be able to draw on greater reserves of experience at this stage.
The main controversy of the weekend concerned the failure of referee Eugene Murtagh to send off Crossmaglen’s John McEntee in the replayed All Ireland club final. Cross won the match by five points but the teams were level at the time so it could be argued that it was the turning point. Crokes, however, have said that they will not be pursuing the issue.
Not that it would make any difference if they did as such appeals invariably fail. A Dublin player was wrongly sent off in last year’s Leinster under 21 hurling final and there have been one or two other similar incidents but Croke Park stands by its referees. Most GAA people are also content that even in such unfortunate circumstances that matches are not re-fought in committee rooms.
There was a tragic aftermath to the club replay when TP Pettit of Dromard, County Longford, who had been one of the umpires, died in a car crash near his home after returning from Portlaoise. As Pat O’Shea the Crokes and Kerry manager said, it does put football matches into perspective.