GAA Features

Our weekly reflection on all things GAA – and although both Kildare and Derrytresk were playing this weekend, we manage to avoid any talk of handbags or shemozzles.

By Shane Breslin

There are some seriously good forwards around right now

Everywhere you looked at the weekend there were points being kicked from all sorts of distances and all sorts of angles. Right, you could always blame soft defences but heavy pitches have never been the natural habitat of silky forwards. And yet every game saw a series of exceptional scores. Armagh’s Aidan Forker, Monaghan’s Kieran Hughes and Paul Finlay, the brilliant Ross Munnelly of Laois and Dublin’s Diarmuid Connolly all helped themselves to fine long-range points at the weekend. Owen Mulligan might not have scored from play this week but he and Stephen O’Neill were exceptional against Kildare at Croke Park in Week 1.

And it's not just forwards, either - Eoghan O'Flaherty (Kildare), Malachy McKenna (Monaghan) and Mickey Murphy (Tyrone) were among impressive scorers from the backs or midfield. Meath had six points from play from either backs or midfielders, although it must be said that it was against Westmeath.

Things are bleak, very bleak, for Donegal

Throughout their Ulster championship win and journey to the All-Ireland semi-finals last year, you got the feeling that togetherness was the single most important thing for Donegal. Their game-plan required a huge work-rate from everyone involved to stifle the space required by opposing forwards and playmakers, with a certain amount of self-sacrifice from star forward and captain Michael Murphy also expected.

The final score said there was just three points between them and Laois but the midlanders were 11 points ahead at one stage and Donegal needed a phantom goal to close the gap. With Kevin Cassidy spending his time on TG4’s Seo Spóirt these days after that row with Jim McGuinness, there’s a sense that the Donegal house of cards is in the process of very quickly tumbling down.

The phrase ‘It’s as good for one as the other’ is now removed from the GAA lexicon

Traditionally, match abandonments had no place in the GAA. Waterlogged pitch – what’s the problem? Frozen pitch – get on with it.

Dense fog? Sure it’s as good for one as the other.

Thankfully, though, that anachronistic attitude now looks to have been consigned to the past. Referee Marty Duffy called a halt to proceedings at half-time in Castlebar because you couldn’t see in front of your nose in Mayo. The abandonment was a correct decision (although Duffy had no excuse for the decision to send off Dublin’s James McCarthy).

If you were of a cruel disposition, you might argue that not being able to see the goalposts could be the making of several Mayo forwards. But only if you were very cruel.