The chaos is back in Gaelic football... and that's a good thing

Extra.ie​

02-05-2025

It was only a matter of hours after the final whistle at Portlaoise before the WhatsApps started flying around. A Meath-Louth Leinster for the first time since the infamous ending of 2010? Here's an AI generated shot of Meath full-forward Joe Sheridan, wearing a number 14 jersey, slinging back shots with match referee Martin Sludden, as if to toast the most famous 'try' in Gaelic football and the decision to award the former's match-winning goal when he slid over the line with ball in hand.
Or how about the action figure of the Tyrone official as a pre-Leinster final gift for that Meath or Louth fan in your life? One complete with shades, a white stick and an action figure guide dog.
The throwbacks came in all sorts of different forms. There was a nod to Meath's humbling of Dublin at O'Moore Park with a 1996 figurine entitled 'Hon the Royals', this one featuring an action figure in the image of flinty defender Colm Coyle who is sporting a black eye, a blood-spattered jersey and holding a bottle of red wine. A mini replica Sam Maguire and a slice of the Croke Park turf completes the package. Joe Sheridan of Meath against Louth in 2010. Pic: David Maher/Sportsfile
Ah, the good old times. A nod to when a bit of chaos was part and parcel of Gaelic football, the 1996 drawn final against Mayo taking that notion to its ultimate level by featuring a mass brawl that made national headlines.
Plenty of Meath fans in Portlaoise at half-time last Sunday must have felt like they had stepped back in time.
The scoreboard was certainly a reminder of the glory days under Seán Boylan: Meath 0-17 Dublin 0-5. As the players exited the field, there was even a bit of argy-bargy between the two teams. And if the new rules had shown anything, it was that there was a bit of chaos back in Gaelic football, in the main down to the kick-out having to be booted out past the new 40-metre arc. Meath and Mayo square off in 1996. Pic: INPHO
Stephen Cluxton will go down as one of the most influential players in the history of Gaelic football. His lasered kick-outs and ability to clip or curl a restart to a pocket of space that invariably favoured a blue shirt became a calling card and signified a distinct move away from the old long-kick competition that goalkeeping tended to involve.
The second half of the 2019 All-Ireland final was arguably the greatest exhibition of control under pressure, when Dublin were down to 14 and he faced down the Kerry press and managed to get 10 of 13 kick-outs away, including the first seven in a row without losing one.
Last Sunday, Dublin lost 13 of 19 first-half kick-outs. A 43-year-old Cluxton was floundering like never before. Facing into a stiff breeze was one element. Cluxton doesn't have the same dynamite in his boots to compare with a Rory Beggan, Ethan Rafferty or Donegal's Shaun Patton; his restart game was more a masterpiece in control and timing and execution. Dublin goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton takes a kick-out against Meath. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
But the new rules preclude the clipped or curled short restart with the ball having to go past the 40-metre arc. And that first half was like stepping back to a time when Meath had big go-to men around the middle, whether it was John McDermott or Liam Hayes or Gerry McEntee, and were just as happy to feast on breaks.
Take the opening five minutes of the game as a snapshot. With just 40 seconds gone, Cluxton fires one roughly 40 metres out right where the break is won by Ciarán Caulfield — Meath free. A minute later he tries to clip his second left-footed to that familiar pocket on the right side of the arc only for it to be intercepted — Matthew Costello point. For his third he goes longer, out to the left side of midfield. With teams having to keep three men in the opposition half, there is no opposition running every player back to park the bus. So this one, too, is contested — two versus two — and the break is won again by Meath.
'They are going after Stephen Cluxton's kick-outs from the very beginning,' intones match commentator Dave McIntyre on the GAA+ live stream, a sentence not heard before. That passage of play leads on to a foul on Costello. Eoghan Frayne points the free.
For his fourth kick-out, Meath goalkeeper Billy Hogan is out around midfield giving him another problem to consider. Cluxton sends another high floater to right half-back, just outside the 45 where Meath win the break again — the ball is recycled to Eoghan Frayne from Costello for another point. Meath's Mathew Costello and Dublin's John Small battle it out. Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne
It takes him five goes before he gets a successful one away, a short clipped one to the edge of the arc.
But that trend would continue all the way to the break by which time Meath had built up that 12-point lead, which helped them inflict a first defeat on Dublin since the semi-final of 2010 and end a run that extended to 14 Leinster titles in a row.
It's hard not to think that the new rules had plenty to do with it. Not just in the two-pointers that Meath used to build up their lead but in how much harder it is now to control possession off your own restart. While Armagh's Ethan Rafferty did put on a clinic in that respect against Tyrone with 23 from 24 successful restarts, the theme of the spring and early summer is of old-school midfielders competing for more kickouts that have to be raffled to a certain extent. Bryan Menton of Meath celebrates a score. Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne
The best teams — Dublin in particular — had become masters of playing keep-ball off their own restart. And then managing and minding it for long periods to deny the opposition a sniff of the turnover ball that might just turn the balance of the game.
Last Sunday, even in the frantic endgame as Dublin surged back to within two, the key moment came when goalkeeper Hogan thumped the next kickout long — and Bryan Menton leapt high to win it cleanly and call the mark. He singlehandedly stopped Dublin's momentum. He palmed another restart minutes later down to Cathal Hickey which led on to Aaron Lynch's insurance score.
For another underdog team like Clare who face Kerry in Sunday's Munster final, they will have to take heart from the tale of the tape in Portlaoise. Outsiders Cork already came within a kick of the ball of knocking out one of the All-Ireland favourites.
The bit of chaos is back in Gaelic football… and that's only a good thing for the game.