All of the lights! The GAA’s winter hibernation seems to be getting shorter all the time and tonight, All-Ireland champions Dublin and perpetual rivals Kerry are back in town for one night only. As league openings go, the latest staging of the Dublin-Kerry saga in a floodlit Croke Park showcases the winter competition at its most glamorous before the more realistic fare of umbrellas, wild weather and wilder results resumes nationwide tomorrow afternoon.
The sight of Dublin and Kerry colours mingling on the Jones Road for the televised curtain raiser to the Allianz league is also a perfect link between the season gone and the one to come. The quality of last year’s All-Ireland semi-final was elevated because of the excitement value. It is debatable as to whether it was even the greatest Kerry-Dublin game ever played, let alone the greatest football game – but it was the stand out game of the championship.
Not so long ago, the black joke about the Dublin-Kerry jousts was that it was a rivalry which Kerry teams always seemed to win. Now, the Dubs are beginning to enjoy a period of supremacy which some forecast stretching into the foreseeable future. The city game has never been better organised, better resourced or better placed to capitalise on the population advantage for the first time in the history of association.
Impeccable first season
Tonight's game also illuminates the fact that, all of a sudden, Gaelic football has become a young manager's game. Jim Gavin's impeccable first season of Dublin manager was characterised by a boldly-stated attention to win or lose by playing gun-slinging, attacking football and the strength of character to persist with it.
The Dublin manager was almost comically composed throughout the crazier passages of last summer, watching his Dublin team thrill Croke Park as if he was sitting on his sofa watching a mildly entertaining nature documentary.
And the only Kerry man who did not panic when the Kingdom looked third rate in the early stages of last year’s league was Éamonn Fitzmaurice. The Lixnaw man won plaudits for the stirring close to Kerry’s season but it was his calmness during the opening act that set the tone. Tonight he brings just seven of the team that started last year’s All-Ireland semi-final. His influence on Kerry was immeasurable last year and he is starting with a bunch of kids, with Paul Galvin and Aidan O’Mahony acting as reserve muscle.
Colm Cooper is still on club duty with Dr Crokes and may not be seen in this league. It is sobering to think that Cooper – the kid! – is now 30 and it is hard to underestimate his importance to Kerry. But, for now, they plan without him.
Competition for places
Dublin also have their share of absentees and injuries, including Bernard Brogan, Paul Flynn and James McCarthy while Ger Brennan and Diarmuid Connolly will remain with St Vincent's until their campaign finishes.
The absences mean opportunity. As the past season demonstrated Dublin players know that having an All-Ireland medal in your back pocket is no guarantee of game time. The competition for places in the sky blue shirt is fierce and it will start again tonight.
The general word is that the city team are the standard bearers for the season to come. Still, head north and plenty of Ulstermen will be parking cars in the narrow streets around Celtic Park for what they consider to be the real rivalry of the evening: Tyrone versus Derry.
Seán Cavanagh had a supernova season for Tyrone last year has only ever played there three times. “The crowd is very close to the pitch, it’s a tight pitch and they play well.”
The sentence summed up the real appeal of the league: it is raw and cold and imperfect. Those in Derry tonight will get to see the debut of Shay McGuigan, the latest of Frank McGuigan’s boys play for Tyrone.
Scan the fixtures and it is difficult to see the outcome of any of the spinning coins. Last week, Leitrim enjoyed the small high of FBD silverware: this week, they host Antrim in what could be a crucial game for promotion from the basement division. Until throw-in tonight, all counties are in the exact same place: nothing scored, nothing conceded and everything to play for.
