NFL Finalists Aim to Chop the Long Grass

Here's a little game for you. Over the next few months, as the GAA championships get under way, count the number of times you hear or read the expression 'waiting in the long grass'. As in, "it was great to beat Kerry today but we know Waterford are waiting in the long grass," or, "despite their good league campaign, Monaghan came up against a Cavan team who had been waiting in the long grass."

I'm not sure exactly where it derives from; is it an agricultural thing, or something to do with shooting ducks? Or does it go back to the War of Independence, when our bould Volunteers picked off Black and Tans under the concealment of rushy knolls?

Wherever it comes from, it underlines the importance of the element of surprise in the GAA championships. In contrast to the long, expositional league system by which most professional sports identify their champions, the Championships are decided on a handful of tumultuous, telling occasions, few enough that guile and subterfuge are often strategically deployed.

Mayo and Donegal will be well aware of the phenomenon this weekend.

The National League finals, positioned as they are on the cusp of The Serious Business, are a peculiar affair. GAA director-general Liam Mulvihill pointed out at the beginning of this league campaign the curiousness of the fact that "most competitions start with a whimper and go out with a bang but it's very often the opposite in the National Leagues."

The principal reason for this is that, after stellar league campaigns, the two combatants in Sunday's final find themselves in a place where no county wishes to be: standing buck naked in the middle of the road, without a blade of grass to protect their modesty.

Not that they baulk at the promise of silverware (a win on Sunday would be Donegal's first trophy of any sort since the All-Ireland in 1992, and Mayo can never be so sated as to pass up national honours) and, one presumes, neither side will skimp on effort.

But there they will be, two Championship contenders, parading around in the open, while their rivals are regrouping for the big push in the secrecy of their barracks. Donegal, perhaps slightly more so than Mayo, have reason to blush at their exposure; widely regarded as the most impressive team in the National League, lifting the trophy on Sunday would see the conferred with that most worthless of honours: the best team in the land in April.

For all that recent seasons have promoted the idea that National League success is the father of All-Ireland glory (three of the last four years have have seen League/Championship doubles in football, the exception - 2005 - witnessing NFL winners Armagh fail narrowly in epic struggle with eventual All-Ireland champions Tyrone) a side like Donegal does not yet have the sturdy legs to survive the pace of being front-runner.

But what's an oft-derided, psychologically suspect team to do? All both Sunday's combatants can address years of underachievement with is the repeated winning of matches. If the summer storms blow their respective houses down every year, what can Mayo or Donegal do but build them back up again, stronger and stronger again until, one calm September morning, they might wake up with their roofs still intact?

And anyway, this whole idea of 'the long grass' is not without its flaws. While some teams practice guerilla warfare expertly, very often the hidden enemy attacks with pea-shooters. It's a twist on the old notion that it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt. And the status of league champions will confer fear of no-one on Mayo or Donegal come the summer.

Still. Did you see something moving there? Where? Over there, in the long grass.....

NFL Debrief

In keeping with the time of year, the gaelic football season has, in recent weeks, began transforming from an ugly winter larvae into the beautiful butterfly of summer.

Pitches have hardened, ferocious hailstorms have abated and spare tyres have been run off players' midriffs. The sun has come out. Oh and Dublin have been losing games in the second half. Summer's here!

With the semi-finals and final being merely a passing out ceremony, let's break down the lessons from GAA boot camp.

Hey, Good Lookin'

Obviously, the four sides that contest this weekend's NFL Division 1 semi-finals can be said to have had A Good League. Let us segregate the two division 1A top dogs for special praise here, however.

Donegal and Mayo not only emerged - comfortably - from the tougher of the two top echelons, but they also accumulated a total of five extra points than the sum of the points totals of their division 1B counterparts, Kildare and Galway.

Presuming they round off the league in the manner in which they have conducted it so far, Donegal can re-gather themselves for the Ulster Championship in confident mood. Brian McIver's side's excellence was based on a potent combination of a limpet-like full-back line, a midfield perfectly balanced between Neil Gallagher's towering poise and Kevin Cassidy's explosive class and a forward division that scored 10-79 in the league (that while pulling up in the last two games).

The timing of Mickey Moran and John Morrison's removal from the Mayo tiller - in the aftermath of an All-Ireland final - may have seemed inappropriate to many observers, but it was clear that the county needed rejuvenation following another harrowing September.

Enter John O'Mahony and Mayo look steady and refreshed. David Heaney's deployment at midfield has worked well, unsurprisingly given the former full-back's natural footballing ability, and, whisper it, Ciaran McDonald's absence might just have allowed others, like Conor Mortimer, the space to grow.

Kildare and Galway came through a division which was a much more egalitarian affair, but the fact that the Lilywhites made it through to their first league semi-final since 1997 suggests that they will be delighted to be returning to some sort of national eminence, after a 21st century which has thus far been been largely hallmarked by mediocrity. Freescoring Johnny Doyle could step up to celebrity status this summer if Kildare have a good run.

Things Can Only Get Better

For everything that Dublin football represents, demotion to division 2 is a blow. Paul Caffrey is right to point out that a second tier that features Armagh, Cork, Westmeath, Meath, Cavan, Monaghan and Roscommon is not exactly a pond of full of tiddlers for the metropolitan big fish, but all the same, it's not where they want to be.

The Dubs don't appeared to have addressed any of their 'issues' during the league campaign. Ross McConnell does not look the the final solution at full back, only intermittently have they dominated in midfield and they continue to lack a true focal point in attack. That Jason Sherlock was recalled - and performed better than most - and that Shane Ryan is missed further back is worrying.

Most infuriating is the continued meekness that sees them allow games to repeatedly slip away, a flaw which reflects a lack of leadership, or even composure.

Adding to Donegal's confidence will be the distinctly mortal image that Tyrone and Armagh projected. Such sage operators as Mickey Harte and Joe Kernan will not mind such an impression. Both missed important players in the league, but while Armagh can at least welcome back the Crossmaglen contingent, Tyrone will be willing Brian McGuigan's recuperation to gather pace.

Peter Canavan's retirement robbed Tyrone of a presence whose maturity and wile contributed hugely to steering his county to their two All-Irelands, truncated as his appearances were. In his absence McGuigan's orchestrative powers from centre-forward are the closest Tyrone have to the great man's intelligence; without him they will not win a third All-Ireland.

Donegal Top of The Class Early On

And so for our first real look at matters GAA in 2007. Or, at least, that part of it that involves actual action on fields, as opposed to stuff about stadiums and payments and committees and all the other things that fill columns in January, but are barely footnotes in July.

The inter-county scene at this time of year resembles a classroom of attention deficient kids in the moments before their teacher barks order and they settle down into their pre-assigned seats to do as they're told. For those few minutes, while their teacher drains her tea-cup in the staff room, anarchy reigns.

Division 1A and 1B in the National Football League are headed by Donegal and Westmeath respectively. Both boast 100% records, neither were expected to do so at this point. Westmeath lead the weaker of the two divisions, not that that denigrates their achievements so far (good wins over a rebuilding Laois, Derry in Celtic Park and Down on Sunday last).

On the contrary, they were so unfancied that the NFL organisers might already have been chiselling out a space for them in next season's division 3 (the 2008 NFL will be organised in four descending divisions based on this season's final places, the bottom four teams in divisions 1A and 1B going into division 3 next year. Phew!). So primacy over the likes of Armagh, Galway and Laois even at this higgledy-piggledy stage is good work indeed.

But Division 1A is meaner-looking bunch altogether. Four of the five teams regarded by the bearded sages of the GAA as genuine contenders for Sam this year (Kerry, Tyrone, Mayo and Dublin) are there. Then there's Cork, last year's Munster champions and All-Ireland semi-finalists.

Donegal, too, are not without their own cred. But they are generally regarded in the vein of a Tottenham Hotspur: haven't won anything since the early 90s, plenty of talent but, nah, you wouldn't back them against one of the big boys.

They've come racing out of the blocks this year though (again with the Tottenham 'top of the league in August' Hotspur comparison). Wins over Cork (away) and at home against Mayo and Dublin have put them at the head of some very exalted company. Of course, as we mentioned earlier, everything's a little scattered at this stage of the season, but its still worthwhile to study the tea-leaves.

Indeed, given that this season's league places have more resonance than usual for next term, and also the now-established truism that the old chestnut about the league not mattering come the summer is, well, a false-ism, you have to take notice.

Dublin were comfortably dispatched on Sunday in Ballyshannon. The Dubs appeared not to fancy it from the start, not that it doesn't blow gusts of horizontal rain in Dublin of course. Donegal were five points to the good before the metropolitans had folded away their AA road map, and though they rallied to 0-5 to 0-3, that oh-so-familiar diffidence allowed Donegal to pull away in the second half. "Winter football is winter football," explained Dublin manager Pillar Caffrey, like a devoted mother excusing her bank-robbing sons by saying "boys will be boys."

Whatever about Dublin, Donegal looked pretty sharp, not a little mean and plenty keen. Two very good goal chances passed up by Rory Kavanagh and Brendan Devenney early on could have ended the contest in the first quarter.

Manager Brian McIver has been busy building strength in depth. Missing through injury yesterday was All Star Karl Lacey, and coming on as subs were such luminaries as former All Stars Adrian Sweeney and Christy Toye, seasoned county man Eamonn McGee, and bright young things Kevin McMenamin and Johnny McLoone.

There was variation in style as well as numbers. Despite the bias of the wind, Donegal won both halves. Kevin Cassidy - another returning erstwhile All Star - dropped back from midfield to aid Paddy Campbell and Barry Monaghan in smothering Dublin's forwards. The oft-won ball was thrust directly into the forwards with the wind, and in the second half Donegal's more familiar short passing game was deployed to suit the elements.

Dublin looked willowy in attack, lacking the physical presence to master the conditions, and the thorny issue of full-back looks no nearer to resolution, as Niall O'Shea was repeatedly roasted by Devenney.

Donegal face Tyrone next, whose defeat of them in the McKenna Cup final is the only blemish on their season so far. Their neighbours are always a good yardstick by which to measure progress. And although they're the smartest looking kid of a scruffy bunch right now, they've shown enough to suggest they could be in the front row come class photo time.

National League reforms: Football Euthanasia For Weaker Counties?

As we know, pretty much every reform that the GAA comes up with - be it the rejigging of competition formats, the stiffening of disciplinary procedures, or the sanitising of pitch-side chaos - is attacked like piranhas on a Bond villain's leg by contemptuous inter-county managers. Being voraciously devoured today are the proposed changes to the football league and, in turn, its knock-on to the championship fortunes of the 'so-called weaker counties'.

That phrase alone is surely endangered, ponging as it is of political incorrectness; we must soon undoubtedly call them 'the developing counties', or even 'counties of alternative footballing cultures'. Bob Geldof and Chris Martin could plead for the donation of spare footballs, while wearing a wristband in the Carlow colours (Chris likes the fact that they're a bit Rasta).

Basically the ragged poor that finish bottom ranked in this season's National League, i.e., the bottom four in each of Divisions 2A and 2B, will be cast out into a colony called Division 4 from next season. But it is the ignominy of their championship fate that has most appalled the human rights campaigners in the managers' ranks.

Upon losing in the provincial championship at any stage before the final, any team with 'Division 4' branded on their scrawny posteriors will not be allowed to enter the qualifier system, transported instead to the icy wasteland of the Tommy Murphy Cup (How Tommy Murphy's family must rue the day the late Laois great was 'honoured' with the naming of this trophy, its mention invariably preceded by the words "the lads have no interest in...").

No less than Mick O'Dwyer himself struck forth with his mightiest ire against the changes, describing them as "pure crazy".

"It's pure elitism. The eight so-called weakest counties are discarded while everybody else gets a second chance in the real championship. That's unfair. It's also daft that there's a connection between League and Championship for Division 4 teams. They're separate competitions and should be kept that way," said O'Dwyer.

Longford manager Luke Dempsey echoed O'Dwyer's comments, adding "I also believe that the winners of the Tommy Murphy Cup should be re-admitted to the All-Ireland race. That would really spice it up."

Yikes! A little too spicy old boy! The likes of Wicklow or Tipperary parachuting into the glamour stages of the All-Ireland - we couldn't have that!

The changes are an effort to eliminate many of the seemingly meaningless first round qualifier games, wherein, say, an Armagh or Tyrone bundled sensationally out of Ulster in the first round must tiresomely thump a London or a Waterford before properly rejoining the race.

Also, by discarding a round of inter-county fare, an extra weekend is freed up for the poor, neglected club championships.

So is this a case of killing the weaker counties with kindness, saving them the pain of a hopeless All-Ireland campaign and instead giving them eternal rest in a competition which offers a meaningful chance of silverware?

Or is it, as O'Dwyer says, elitism, the sporting equivalent of a government rounding up all the homeless people off the street and shooting them?

Certainly the wee guys would seem to get little from the All-Ireland championship, save for one big summer day, which they will still get to enjoy. And the charge of elitism can be addressed by the fact that no county is doomed forever to toil in the basement, with league promotion bringing them back into polite society come championship time.

It does seem a unfair, though, that, should they win through even to a provincial semi-final, they would not get the reward of a second chance in the qualifiers.

But the creation of more meaningful games, and championship competion in which teams have realistic ambitions of victory, can only be good for the weaker counties.

It may seem that the GAA are putting these counties out of their misery, but, in the long run, it could be the best thing for their long-term health.