Mention has been made previously on these pages of how the idea of bucket lists doesn’t sit at all well here. If only because it makes a body think about, well, the journey around this big auld ball. And that’s challenging enough without bringing a stopwatch into the equation.
That’s not to say, that there isn’t a list of things one hopes to achieve while in the hotel you can check out of any time you like, but never leave. Some are already in the formative stages of being done. Some definitely will be further down the line. Finally, while it probably is a sad reality that some of them might never be, it sure as hell won’t be for the want of trying.
One which firmly lies in the middle bracket at the moment – mundane though it might sound – is to see a match in the GAA Dome in Bekan. Partly, yes, just to say I’ve been there, but also to sample the mechanics and atmosphere of indoor GAA.
Indeed, having taken in the FBD Connacht League Final between Roscommon and Galway on Friday night courtesy of the invaluable TG4 Sport only heightened the ambition.
What it also did, mind you, was underline that Cup football – the pre season competitions in other words – still have a role to play. That is, besides my long held belief that these need to be retained if for no other reason than to honour the memory of those after whom the trophies are named.
However, more fundamentally than that, though some will undoubtedly sneer at the following, there are a maximum of four trophies any senior inter county team can compete for in a season and winning any thereof deserves to be seen as a commendable achievement.
With no disrespect intended to anybody, a county like Longford doesn’t get to contend for silverware too often so you can be damn sure their retention of the O’Byrne Cup will be something to be proud of and, they’ll be hoping, build on later in the season.
Right, so they may have beaten, as my late father would have put it, “A set of Dublin jerseys”, but, be assured, those in the garments would’ve been keen to use the ocassion as an audition in the hope of earning the coveted spring and summer ticket. To that end, Sean Lowry certainly didn’t do his future prospects any harm.
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Nor did Galway’s Cillian O’Curraoin, whose individual brilliance was a fleck of brightness on a night of harsh learnings for Padraic Joyce’s young experimental side. Essentially, the Galway boss fielded his version of the U-23 Development squads most counties seem to have as part of their structure now.
Which, while in theory is grand, I reckon something along the lines of how Roscommon set up on Friday night – blooding a phalanx of youngsters while blending the experienced heads in – is the ideal mix in preparation for the bigger days which lie ahead.
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Mickey Harte is somebody who – no matter what I might think of him in some ways – deserves the utmost commendation for the respect which he has always afforded the Dr McKenna (and O’Byrne, briefly) Cup competitions as evidenced by the fact that between Tyrone and – as of last night, Derry – teams managed by him have won the Ulster January competition a dozen times now, if the memory box serves me correctly.
With his Derry team in a position where they probably feel the need to make an early statement regarding their credentials as genuine All Ireland contenders as early and often as possible.
Mind you, it could probably be wagered fairly safely that, ahead of the encounter at Healy Park in Omagh, Jim McGuinness and Donegal harboured similar ambitions. Albeit maybe for slightly different reasons.
Whatever the case, there was definitely a feisty edge to the tangle in Tyrone. One which saw the normally mild mannered duo of Brendan Rogers and Paddy McBrearty gated by referee Conor Curran arising out of the same incident.
For all that, whatever football was played in the weather blighted clash emanated from the Oak Leaf County. Their bespeckled boss is long enough on the circuit to know not to read too much into January developments.
However, given his record in the competition and how he has used it as a springboard to bigger things in the past, you can be sure others sat up and took notice.
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