Paul singled out again for special treatment

DARRAGH Ó SÉ WEEKLY COLUMN:  DARRAGH Ó SÉbelieves that, following a great weekend for football, it is self-defeating for the GAA to blow the Paul Galvin "incident" totally out of proportion

THERE WAS a very poor Kerry turnout in the stands of Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday. Anybody who stayed away missed out. It was the most enjoyable match I have been involved with or looked at in a long time.

It was a fine weekend for Gaelic football, starting with an excellent match between Fermanagh and Cavan on Saturday evening and then three very good games going to extra time on Sunday. In Páirc Uí Chaoimh we got the pick of the bunch though.

It was a tough day for Cork. There was a big wind coming down the pitch and that wind upset their apple cart in a way they can’t have expected. As we have said before, Cork are excellent on their kick-outs. Dublin, with Stephen Cluxton, were the tops at this part of the game but Cork from number five to 12 have a system going which is second to none at the present time.

On Sunday though, the nature of their kicking was unsuited to the wind. It helped Kerry.

Cork were in the driving seat at half-time having played against the wind but it was one of those days when playing against the wind was easier than playing with it. That breeze, for a corner forward or full forward, meant the ball which was greasy anyway was coming in at too great a speed to be controlled well. And it was the same from kick-outs.

In the conditions I thought that, for a young fella, Ciarán Sheehan coped better with that element than almost anybody else.

Cork’s goal in the middle of the first half had a lot to do with the wind. While he messed up coming for a ball that was hanging there for ages, young Brendan Kealy in the Kerry goal recovered very well. A young fella could lose his confidence with something like that but the way he recovered was a good sign. He won’t be joining Robert Green doing ads for pizza companies.

Apart from the wind factor, I thought Cork lost their way needlessly anyway.

They have looked at Kerry and said ‘okay, they play a high-tempo game, let’s disrupt that physically’. It’s not dirty at all, but hard, physical contact. It comes at a price though, playing like that. The approach cost them. Many more yellow cards and quite a few more frees conceded. And when a guy gets booked, Cork like to take him off or shift him onto another player. So they ended up with a team on the pitch which they didn’t really want out there at all.

With the pace they have around their team, the tactic was counterproductive. Cork are a fine team and chances are they will get back to Croke Park but there is no guarantee that you learn enough about yourself in the qualifiers.

We came away from Páirc Uí Chaoimh last year with a very clear idea as to what was wrong with us. The three qualifying games did us some good but they weren’t the place where we learned what was wrong. We knew. And when we beat Dublin we knew we had it right again.

After two games against Kerry though, Cork are heading into the qualifiers not really sure what to do. From week one to week two against Kerry they named the same team. And then on the second day they ended up with the wrong team on the pitch and the wrong people doing the wrong jobs.

I mean that towards the end of the game on Sunday we saw the likes of Pearse O’Neill and Alan O’Connor shooting for scores when they needed the likes of Colm O’Neill or Donnacha O’Connor doing that work. I felt that they panicked on the line. Fellas were all over the shop.

Or look at the two benches. Kerry came away knowing that Barry John Keane did a huge job for the second week in a row. Darran O’Sullivan had a fine game, Micheál Quirke came in and settled midfield. All the changes worked. Jack and company know much more about their players.

Cork were forcing themselves into changes. I’m not sure how much they learned from all the switches they made.

They can’t be written off but they will find it hard. If they lost and got their questions answered that would be one thing. They didn’t though. Take Pearse O’Neill. How did he hurt Kerry in the last couple of years? He hurt us by bursting through on the run and kicking scores on the run. He’s a big strong man with good pace and good legs and he is very hard to stop on the run. Yet in these two games, Cork never got him on the run.

In contrast Kerry’s big names did what they do. The Gooch, I thought, was brilliant. His balance, his calling of the plays. The whole lot. He was so unlucky with the goal he missed. I’ve watched him so much over the years that I had to look at it again when he missed.

I think the way he kicked the ball he was putting top spin on it so that when it hit the ground it would turn in – the ground was wet though and it slipped wide. Generally his decision-making is flawless. He ran the show. His pass into Donaghy for the goal was brilliant. Against the wind.

That’s the difference in the tight games. People call it leadership but it has more to do with composure when things are going bad.

Look at Graham Canty and Michael Shields. They had been playing very well in the first half. Kieran Donaghy, by contrast, was playing poorly in the first half but kept his head. Early in the second he got the ball in the right position and stuck it for the goal. Changed his relationship with Canty. Declan O’Sullivan was very quiet for the first half. Shields scored a point off him and Cork looked cock-a-hoop but O’Sullivan came into the second half and turned the game. He thundered into it and was a massive influence in that period.

And the play of the day for me was the Gooch when the ball came across the square. He pretended he was coming onto his left leg and he went onto the right and forced the man to hand trip him. The defender had no choice. It was such a quiet understated piece of skill but a touch of pure class.

So all in all a good weekend. I’ve a neighbour back west who has a dog from 1990 called Schillaci. We aren’t at the World Cup this year and we won’t have the sort of excitement that Schillaci ended but we might have a few dogs called Gooch. Gaelic football really stepped into the gap last weekend.

It was a pity then to watch The Sunday Game and see that instead of focusing on the positives of the match or whatever, the big news was Paul Galvin’s “incident” with Eoin Cadogan.

There were a number of incidents on Sunday which came about due to the familiarity between the two teams and the physical nature of the football they play. That’s what people pay money to see. It’s why RTÉ send the cameras. It’s a situation where you have to say look, in part that physicality is what makes this the rivalry that it is. You look at the game on Sunday and overall it was excellent. Very little afters in the tackles. The odd bit of pulling and pushing.

I felt Anthony Tohill went completely over-the-top in the way he dealt with Paul’s incident. We know that there were several other incidents which could have been highlighted but they weren’t and I won’t go down the road of naming them. It is not my place to mention them.

Paul was singled out. Yet again. We would be better served by being positive. Over the weekend all the games were cracking entertainment. Who could have predicted everything we got? Instead of sitting down on a Sunday night and saying that was an incredible weekend of Gaelic football we are pulling out the negatives.

I looked at the game again. First thing I noticed is what Paul puts up with. To be fair to Graham Canty he is a sporting player. At this level there is a constant one-upmanship which is part of the game. Canty was coming out with a ball early on after Paul came in. Paul hit Canty with a hard shoulder, he made fair but hard shoulder to shoulder contact pretty much as Pearse O’Neill had done to Tommy Griffin. Just a big hit. Canty came back at Paul and there was a bit of wrestling and Canty got a yellow card. That was as much as it warranted.

I know though (and again this is no reflection on Graham Canty) that with Paul and the way he is regarded if the roles were reversed exactly Paul would be looking at red. For the identical offence. That’s the best way I can describe it.

Sure you can argue that Paul has made his own bed in the way he plays, the way he comes across as a maverick, how he looks and togs out. He sails close to the wind. I’ve played with the guy and there isn’t an ounce of nastiness in him though. I can put my hand on my heart and say I did a lot of quare things myself on the field over the years and got away with them. Paul gets targeted all the time.

Other teams target Paul. Refs target him. TV analysts do. You just have to watch him for a few minutes to see the abuse he gets and the hits he takes and when it breaks down messily it is very easy to come down on Paul. I think Pat McEnaney’s first instinct was right on Sunday. He was within two yards of that incident and didn’t call it. It was small beer.

I’ve no problem with the rules. Neither has Paul. It is a matter of getting the balance though. I hate to see him being done over. Kerry had a good win. Cork are back to the drawing board. For Kerry to lose Paul for that incident, I don’t think it is warranted.

People say he will be back for the All-Ireland semi-final if Kerry get there. The problem isn’t the missing of eight weeks though and getting back onto the field the problem is having to kick your heels for the next couple of months. Especially playing to the form Paul is in. How do you just pick it up again. How do you go into an All-Ireland semi-final with a big target on your back.

What a tragedy it would be for the GAA if they lost the likes of Paul. How entertaining would the championship be without a player like that. To me from the minute Paul came in on Sunday the place came alive. Everybody has an opinion on Paul Galvin. That’s the nature of the guy, the nature of the sport. He’s a top class player and athlete and people’s eyes are glued to him.

If Paul were a soccer player and we were a franchise he would be the brand leader for the franchise. Jack would be taking Kerry on tours of the Far East every year! You could sell a shed-load of jerseys with Paul’s name on the back. He has that charisma. The way he plays. The way he looks. The character he is. The style he brings.

There are rules but for what went on the last day, the physicality of the game, two big teams, neighbours playing each other for the sixth or seventh time in two years, nobody got hurt, there were no serious incidents, the football over both games was good and sometimes it was excellent. And Paul gets picked out from everything that went on.

A sad postscript to a great weekend.

“If Paul were a soccer player and we were a franchise he would be the brand leader for the franchise. Jack would be taking Kerry on tours of the Far East every year! You could sell a shed-load of jerseys with Paul’s name on the back.