Dublin v TyroneAS BIRTHDAY parties go, tonight's bash near the North Circular Road is guaranteed to be the talk of the town. The new GAA season begins in brash and spectacular fashion, with Dublin, all out with new hopes and new dreams, entertaining All-Ireland champions Tyrone in the first league match of the season.
Tonight’s match in Croke Park is the centre point of the GAA’s 125th anniversary celebrations, which will include an evening of song, archive material and a fireworks show that is gloriously and unapologetically at odds with the zeitgeist.
The half-a-million quid the GAA high table decided to splurge on their Big Night has drawn criticism from within the association, with some members uneasy about such extravagance in such grim economic times. But the association has decided to plough on regardless. Even in the best of times, the GAA was never associated with frivolous expenditure.
The association has a tradition for managing its accounts with a level of brilliant parsimony that might have served many a financial institution well. In leaner years, the GAA would have been content to mark birthdays with a bag of colourful – and guaranteed Irish – balloons, a jammy sponge cake and many cups of tea.
But after 125 years of existence, if the association wants to celebrate with Hugh Hefner flamboyance, then who should begrudge it?
It has not been said yet but you are going to hear it soon enough: it is not the GAA that landed us in this latest fine mess.
The 125 Spectacle Event is “almost” sold out, with a crowd of 70,000 expected to show up. It could be pointed out that recent Dublin and Tyrone affairs have tended to create human pyrotechnics and there are many reasons to believe this opening night could be a keenly contested affair. Mickey Harte has picked a ferociously experienced team.
The Dublin management may gulp a little when they ponder the Ulster side’s front three of Stephen O’Neill, Seán Cavanagh and Owen Mulligan – whose stunning individual goal in the summer of 2005 still sends shivers through the hearts of Metropolitans.
Aidan Cassidy from Augher, who caught the eye during the McKenna Cup, is the one new face on the champions’ team. Tyrone relish key occasions and in their last two All-Ireland championship winning years, victories over Dublin teams transformed their summers. There is a sense Harte may view a win in this high-profile and historic encounter as an important beginning to a year in which Tyrone attempt the tricky business of defending their title.
It marks a daunting beginning to Pat Gilroy’s time in charge of Dublin. He has selected a brave team for this fixture, planting erstwhile defenders Ross O’Connell and David Henry in midfield and centre forward respectively and handing Denis Bastick an opportunity to fill the troublesome number three jersey.
He has picked Jason Sherlock, his former team-mate back in Dublin’s last All-Ireland winning summer of 1995, at full forward, a reminder that the Glasnevin man’s long and distinguished service for Dublin may soon merit a fireworks display in its own right.
Tonight’s January parade is as close as a GAA affair is ever going to come to the Superbowl. Sharon Shannon, Mundy and Hector all feature during the evening and the director general himself has promised there will be no wardrobe malfunctions.
It remains to be seen whether the Tyrone men have trimmed their beards for the occasion. The match begins at 7.30 and will be followed on Sunday with a full programme of matches, played in the traditional afternoon hours and with no frills other than the brass band, a flask of tea and a newspaper for a cushion.
DUBLIN: S Cluxton; P Andrews, D Bastic; A Hubbard; B Cullen, G Brennan, B Cahill; R McConnell, C Whelan; J Brogan, D Henry, T Diamond; C Keaney, J Sherlock, B Brogan.
TYRONE: J Devine; M Swift, Justin McMahon, M McGee; D Harte, R McMenamin, P Jordan; E McGinley, A Cassidy; T McGuigan, C McCullagh, Joe McMahon; S O'Neill, S Cavanagh, O Mulligan.
