Preliminary quarter-finals sops must be for chopping board

Irish Examiner

3 days ago

In the space of 12 months, Offaly went from being obliterated by Tipperary in an All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final to putting up a fight against Cork.
What was the reason for narrowing the gap by 23 points? The title of Joe McDonagh Cup champions? Last year, they faced Cork in Tullamore the weekend after they beat Laois having lost to Carlow in 2023 before meeting Tipperary there. They were undoubtedly evolving.
In the five seasons of the preliminary quarter-finals, the McDonagh Cup winners have fared better at that stage than the runners-up. Laois shocked Dublin in 2019 and the average losing margin for the McDonagh champions against Liam MacCarthy Cup sides is 10.4 points compared to 19.8 for the second-placed side.
However, last year's result in Glenisk O'Connor Park didn't tell of how a gastro bug had begun to envelop the Cork squad. Alan Connolly was a shadow of himself before he was removed from the game early in the second half. Others were beginning to feel symptoms of a virus that by the time they played Dublin in the following weekend's quarter-final had spread.
'There was a bug in our camp and obviously Rob [Downey] couldn't play,' Darragh Fitzgibbon said of the illness in the camp. 'But there were a couple of other guys in the dressing room who were actually getting sick before the match. A couple of guys had been up all night as well. Alan was feeling unwell too. Alan was probably feeling unwell even before the Offaly game.' Offaly's nine-point loss to Cork is the closest any Joe McDonagh Cup team has come to the third-placed team in Munster. It will probably will remain that way after Tipperary face McDonagh Cup runners-up Laois on Saturday.
Expecting teams ranked 12th and 13th in hurling to come down from the high of winning and up from the low of losing a final in Croke Park a week ago to face the 5th and 6th ranked counties who have had breaks of three or four weeks is fanciful.
It happened once, of course, in 2019 when Laois pulled off a famous win, a day that Dublin's Daire Gray spoke about this week. 'We wouldn't bring it up too much, it's such a long time ago now,' said Gray who was part of that squad.
'It's a whole different group of players, we've changed managers a few times since too so we don't really look back that far anyway, not that we want to, obviously. Yeah, we see the challenge what's in front of us. The past is no-one's business, really, in this group.
'Since then, we have played Carlow in this game (in 2023) and we didn't take them for granted then. It's a championship game, it's fair game, it's whatever team turns up better on the day. We're acutely aware of what we're going into this weekend. There are no illusions to be had here. We're going in facing a tough side.' Be that as it may and Kildare may feel empowered if a bit queasy after their celebrations the bookmakers sense Dublin will win with plenty to spare – the spread is 12 points and double that in Portlaoise where Laois won't be offered much mercy by Liam Cahill's side.
Injecting two teams into a competition at this late juncture does little or nothing for Laois or Kildare, who will rightfully take their place in the Leinster SHC next year. Their and Laois's entry into a competition above that in the current year is promotion without justification.
In September 2023, 52% of Special Congress delegates voted to retain the preliminary quarter-finals. The cat caught the tongue of some prominent hurling people who may have swayed the vote the other way.
A McDonagh Cup running concurrent to the Liam MacCarthy Cup would do far more for hurling development than the sops being played out in Newbridge and Portlaoise on Saturday.
GAA president Jarlath Burns and others have intimated another attempt will be made to do away with them. For the game's sake, they better not miss the next time.
STORIES OF A SOP
The All-Ireland SHC preliminary quarter-finals.
2024
Cork 4-25 Offaly 3-19
Wexford 0-32 Laois 0-20
2023
Tipperary 7-38 Offaly 3-18
Dublin 2-25 Carlow 0-21
2022
Cork 3-27 Antrim 2-19
Wexford 3-30 Kerry 0-18
2019
Cork 1-40 Westmeath 0-20
Laois 1-22 Dublin 0-23
2018
Limerick 5-22 Carlow 0-13
Wexford 2-21 Westmeath 0-16
Seven from eight Liam MacCarthy teams have won, all five Munster teams have won their games and by an average of 19.8 points.