Over the past seven weeks, Derry’s fortunes have taken a dramatic downward turn. They’ve fallen from the height of vanquishing Dublin in the Croke Park final to losing their Ulster title straight away, and subsequently experiencing defeat in their next game.
While there were no concrete expectations regarding their match against a rising Galway in Salthill, it wasn’t an unrealistic goal for a skilled team with All-Ireland potential playing in good form.
Yet, their actual performance was lacklustre, even defeatist, at times. This showed their hardship and a deficiency in their ranks. The impact of injuries is unavoidable and even Mickey Harte couldn’t forecast losing half his team along with the most likely substitute.
The Derry team suffered a significant setback when Pádraig McGrogan damaged his cruciate ligament. Even though he may not have been chosen ahead of Gareth McKinless, his absence unmistakably affected the team’s strength. Furthermore, losing Conor Doherty and Eoin McEvoy severely disrupted the Derry’s counter-attack, which had been incredibly threatening during their winning league run.
The situation worsened when McKinless received a red card just 20 minutes into the game. The effect on the team was substantial. It appears unlikely he’ll return for any of the upcoming group tournaments.
The widely admired midfield duo of Conor Glass and Brendan Rogers was destabilised due to Glass’s illness and Rogers’ necessary move to the half backs.
Whilst they will certainly recover, the question is in what state they’ll return. Post the match, Harte’s words seemed more like self-reassurance than anything else. “We’ve been severely affected by injuries at a pivotal phase of the season. But that’s life. Not much you can do about it. You just have to cope with it. To lose a player so early was always going to make it a tough battle till the end. I commend our players for staying in the game…A genuinely strong display considering the energy they brought.”
In the press box, the general sentiment was eloquently described by a voice stating, “that’s our season over this year.” – Seán Moran
In another news, Pádraic Joyce expressed dissatisfaction over a stamp on Damien Comer, terming it as ‘an atrocious act’.
Waterford needs to stop permitting so many goal opportunities for the opposition. The reason Waterford may not advance to the subsequent stage isn’t due to an umpire speculating on a 65 at the culmination of the Sunday match against Clare. Even though they demonstrated intense anger and berated the officials post-match, the end decision was just. Admittedly, Liam Gordon’s umpire was somewhat fortunate to make the accurate call, but it was, by no means, a controversy.
Should Waterford face elimination – which they can circumvent only through a victory or a stalemate at Gaelic Grounds – the root cause can be recognised closer to home. The stark reality is Waterford’s championship downfall stems from their folly of granting abundant goal openings to their adversaries. Their loss to Tipp, where a late injury-time goal tarnished their comfortable position, is a testament to this.
During their Sunday face-off with Clare, Waterford was fortunate that not more than four goals were scored by their opponents. Both David Fitzgerald and Mark Rodgers managed a singular goal, but each could have potentially elevated their tally to a hat-trick. Noteworthy saves were made by Shaun O’Brien, Kevin Bennett blocked a shot from Rodgers while diving, and a potential goal by Shane O’Donnell was spoilt by Fitzgerald who over the bar rather than into the net.
If Waterford provides Paul Kinnerk’s Limerick squad the chance to take eight goals the coming Sunday, the result is bound to be quite predictable.
The current nature of hurling, with unrestricted shooting, tends to intensify the frenzy of the crowd in favour of the winning side. Tipperary encountered this phenomenon on Sunday in Thurles, similar to their inaugural match against Limerick at the Gaelic Grounds.
Tipp’s 15-point defeat to Limerick marked their worst loss to this opponent since 1947. Elucidating further on Tipp’s 18-point loss to Cork poses some difficulty due to a divergent scoring system in 1898, when Tipp suffered a defeat of 4-16 to 0-2. The games were swayed based on goals at the time, and points merely served as deciders in cases of draws.
Yet, it seems unnecessary to seek a historical framework to explain Tipp’s capitulation last Sunday. Counting the league semi-final against Clare, three of their last four matches have ended in disappointment. The significance of the minor, under-20, and under-21 All-Irelands within the last decade that Tipp bagged under Liam Cahill’s guidance seems to have waned.
Cahill appears committed to leading the resurgence and it would be imprudent of the Tipp county board to cast their gaze in another direction. Cahill’s tenacity and fortitude are assets they’ll need for this task. Cahill himself is uncertain about the timeline of this rebuild, even pondering if future management will benefit from his contemporary actions. Regardless, Tipp have reached their nadir. – Denis Walsh
[Cork annihilates Tipperary following Alan Connolly’s hat-trick fireworks]
A sorrowful performance from Monaghan in Killarney was out of character
Far from home in Kerry, a defeat for Monaghan over the weekend was not catastrophic. Nobody really anticipated a victory from their visit to Killarney. Since the draw, most assumed that team’s luck under Vinny Corey would hinge on their matches against Meath and Louth. This perspective remains unaltered.
However, the thrashing they received on Saturday did not align with their typical performance. Corey deemed the first half as the grimmest he had witnessed from a Monaghan team, lagging 0-15 to 0-2 at half-time justifies such a description. They managed to outdo Kerry in the second half but only after the hosts had ceased their onslaught.
It was the first time Monaghan experienced a setback of 10 points, their first two-figure defeat since the championship of 2017. This year, they’ve encountered their eighth consecutive defeat, with their last victory dated back to the first league round in January. For the fifth time this campaign alone, they’ve conceded more than 20 points, the figure on two other occasions being 19.
Being a semi-finalist in the previous year’s All-Ireland, the season has been quite disappointing for the team. Without a doubt, this athletically wearied troop is eager for its year to wrap up. Surely, Louth are ready to capitalise on this and look forward to prematurely ending Monaghan’s team in Clones in the coming fortnight. – Malachy Clerkin
[Monaghan trails behind Kerry as they wrestled through a unilateral opener in Killarney]
A Call for Improvement for Kilkenny
Parnell Park saw Kilkenny’s season hanging by a thread after a 55th-minute goal dashed their hopes, putting them three points behind Dublin. For the first time that evening, they slid behind, and Dublin seemed to make the best of the situation throughout the third quarter. However, Kilkenny displayed commendable spirit in getting ahead with a 1-5 to 0-3 overtake down the field.
Though, Kilkenny displayed vulnerabilities last Saturday. Not negating the strong performance put up by Dublin, but the question remains whether Kilkenny poses a real challenge to Limerick’s rule? Not based on recent displays.
By now in the previous season, Kilkenny had participated in 11 matches, marked victories in eight, suffered defeat in two and drew one. As it stands current season, Kilkenny boasts six triumphs, inadequate in comparison to last year. They suffered two unfortunate losses and drew three times after the same number of games.
Eoin Cody achieved the winning goal for Kilkenny last Saturday in the 70th minute, however, the general consensus among spectators was that Dublin certainly earned at least a draw. Kilkenny came into the game on the heels of an unsatisfying deadlock against Carlow and never really threatened to turn Saturday into a showcase performance at any stage. They managed to claw their way to victory with typical Kilkenny tenacity and a staunch unwillingness to accept defeat, but the overall showing was mostly unimpressive. It’s tough to imagine Kilkenny, having conceded the last two All-Ireland finals to Limerick, have narrowed the gap between them and John Kiely’s team. To the contrary, currently they appear to be drifting even further apart. – Gordon Manning
[ Dublin becomes the most recent team to suffer the consequences of failing to defeat Kilkenny thoroughly.]