Kildare and Wicklow’s home comforts; Louth’s giant leaps; dummy teams for dummies
Con O’Callaghan thriving in captain’s role for Dublin, and Cork’s dual jewels − what we learned from the GAA weekendDublin’s Con O’Callaghan comes up against Jack Kirwan of Wicklow during their Leinster SFC game. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/InphoSome counties are still locked in the tradition of naming their captains from the county club champions in the relevant code from that some season, who get to nominate their choice. Other counties prefer to do it in a more objective manner.
“I’m sure there will be aspects of his own performance he won’t be happy with but definitely he always tries very hard,” said Farrell. “It’s never a lack of effort and he has shown leadership throughout, when maybe some other fellas weren’t really stepping up to the mark for ourselves.”Cork's Hannah Looney celebrates after the game Camogie League final against Galway. Photograph: Ben Brady/InphoOn the male side of the house, intercounty dual players have been extinct for years.
For how long more can they keep it going? Orlaith Cahalane was on both panels last year but this season she opted just to play camogie. When the amalgamation of the three Gaelic games associations finally happens will the fixtures calendar be any more sympathetic to dual players? No. Playing games on successive days will be as good as it gets. Is that sustainable?By coincidence, Saturday featured the two championship venues to have generated greatest controversy in recent times.
The fascination with the redeveloped Croke Park has long abated. Back in the 2008 Leinster semi-finals, Westmeath ran Dublin to two points before a crowd of 67,075 and a year later an attendance of 51,458 was described as “disappointing” in a match report when the counties met again. Sunday saw the oddest example of the lot. It was Dublin’s 14th championship meeting with Wicklow and only the second since 1990 but the first to be played in Aughrim.
And it’s all set against the backdrop of how this whole Louth project was meant to collapse after Mickey Harte’s departure in September 2023. But here they are, on the doorstep of history. The intention was to put all teams on an equal footing and level of transparency, given some counties, Dublin in particular, were known to release “dummy” teams, or else make no team announcement at all. Under the new requirement, managers could still make two changes, if originally listed players had to cry off on certain permitted grounds.
Dublin-Gaa Cork-Gaa Louth-Gaa Wicklow-Gaa Kildare-Gaa Five-Things-We-Learned Dessie-Farrell Stephen-Cluxton Con-O-Callaghan
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