Two weeks before Meath played Down in the All Ireland SFC Final of 1991, as a family, we celebrated Mam and dad’s 25th wedding anniversary. Back then, The Village Inn in Clonee – Lord rest its gentle soul – had live music every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. It had sort of become a local for us at that time, with my brother having his 21st birthday celebrations there around the same time.
Anyway, apart from my sister flying in from London to surprise the parentals (and yours truly) the one other thing I recall from that night is the band, noticing we had the function room festooned in green and gold, at every opportunity piped up with ‘Up Down’!
For you see, even though our lads had changed the course of GAA history that year, it was no secret that 31 and a half (the half being all the outsiders living in Meath) were rooting for those in the other corner.
Though not without reason as, at the time, the men from the Mountains Of Mourne held the special distinction of having never lost an All Ireland Final up to that point. So from a neutral perspective, the occasion was set up perfectly. Even though as we now know, that defeat tore the ar*e out of a lot of us.
It’s funny the way things come back to mind in what may almost seem bizarre circumstances. Like the build up to that All Ireland very much mirroring a prelude to tonight’s (Friday) PDC World Darts Championship Final at the Alexandra Palace. On the one hand, you have the hottest property in the sport – or maybe any sport – Luke Littler on the cusp of claiming the title which has been professed to be his destiny.
But then, you peer into the other corner and you look at the possibility of Michael Van Gerwen annexing his fourth custodianship of the Sid Waddell Trophy. Indeed, you’re drawn to the comparison between MVG and Rory McIlroy. In that, whereas you are inclined to be surprised that the Hollywood star has ‘only’ four Majors, it’s the same with MVG. It’s scarcely believable that, at the time of typing, the Green Machine has only brought Sid home three times in what has, to date been a truly astounding career.
So, from the point of view of a neutral spectator, initial inclination tonight would be to sit on the fence as the title would not be begrudged to either. But the problem with that is there are probably splinters everywhere on the fence as the vast majority of observers will be of a similar mindset.
That being said, my instinct is to think that if something looks too good to be true, it generally is. In other words, while Littler’s impending coronation has been seemingly professed for months on end, there are no certainties in life, other than the three Mark Twain mentioned all that time ago – life, death and taxes. I am not, in any way saying there’s no way Littler will fulfil the prophecy tonight. Just that it may not be as straight forward as people might think.
Though the following might seem a strange appraisal, gut feeling is to think that Van Gerwen’s need may be greater. The thought process being that, while, in terms of a darts career, 35 is still very young, the exorbitant standards by which MVG judges himself, a wait currently sitting at six years for a world title is six too many.
Let there be no doubt Littler will be a world champion, and may well reign for a long time once he does scale the mountain top. However, on this occasion I think he may have to wait just a tad longer to receive his ultimate crowing but, getting the apologies in first, I could very easily be wrong and the young Manchester United fan might make such an opinion look very foolish indeed. Save me a spot on the fence!
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