Everyone remembers the seagull finding refuge on the field during the first half of last year’s All-Ireland senior football final between Armagh and Galway. Maybe that was a last Cantona-esque warning of Gaelic football nearing the abyss. When the seagull follows the baller…
Our winged guest spotted a safe zone and a predictable pattern of human behaviour and movement until hauled away by a member of security. The injured seagull came to symbolise the game’s ailing condition, a stricken bird for a stricken game.
The final, won by Armagh, was another in the long resume of caution-leavened contests which, even on the biggest occasion on the football calendar, drained and muted the atmosphere particularly in the first half. All the while revolution was in the air, with the FRC’s reform proposals being firmly rubber-stamped by the GAA later in the year.
Six months later the two All-Ireland finalists returned to action to Pearse Stadium in Salthill at the start of the national league and the tail-end of a storm in January with all eyes on how the new rule enhancements being trialled this year would influence the state of play.
The match also marked the official turning on of new floodlights at the city venue while chronic traffic chaos in the city in the hours before led to the throw-in time being delayed by 15 minutes.
Those that made it deserved something for their efforts, with heavy showers falling on the players as they warmed up beforehand and at intervals during the play.
Armagh got to grips with the new game much more quickly than their hosts, leading 0-5 to 0-1 at the end of the first quarter’s play but they failed to score for the rest of the half and managed just four more scores after the interval, only one from play. Over the course of the match they failed to raise an orange flag, or two-pointer, for scoring from outside the new 40m arc.
The second half did provide more interest and entertainment but for much of the first half the crowd must have been underwhelmed by what they witnessed. Galway laboured under the new rules, looking indecisive and unsure about what exactly they were supposed to do. Armagh sat back in a defensive formation around the arc and inside and the home team looked bereft of ideas on how to pierce their defensive orange fortress.
Goalkeeper Connor Gleeson came up the field several times but was used to little effect as Galway merely played the ball over and back and with little tempo. Inside two minutes Paul Conroy, the footballer of the year, had a go from outside the arc from play but shot wide. Later in the half he had another miss from that range and Cillian O Curraoin also had an attempt that failed to hit the target.
Yet, somehow, they went in at the interval leading 1-4 to 0-5, helped by a late rush of scores after trailing 0-1 to 0-5 after 17 minutes.
O Curraoin kicked three late first half frees, the last for a breach of the 3 v 3 rule, which Armagh also fell out of earlier in the half. And the home supporters finally had something to shout about in the 32nd minute when Aidan Forker’s foul on O Curraoin led to a penalty award. Matthew Tierney sent Blaine Hughes the wrong way and Galway led for the first time in the match.
The match didn’t provide much in the way of open play but Armagh were more threatening and sharp. Three of their five first half points came from Oisin Conaty, the second a peach of a score and the third, after a raking cross field pass by Rory Grugan, a goal attempt that narrowly cleared the cross-bar. Grugan kicked their other two points, including the free brought in for a 3 v 3 infringement.
While the game lacked intensity and was short on thrills, the kick out rule made the restarts more interesting and open, while the tap-and-go free was also used freely. Another notable and welcome change in behaviour was evident in players handing back the ball on conceding a free rather than cynically delaying the play.
Galway hit six first half wides and dropped one short, but went in at the interval in better spirits and hoping, surely, for a better command of the new rules when they came back out.
In the second half the match began to find a more agreeable accommodation with the rule changes even if Armagh faded badly. Armagh had a fourth point from the impressive Conaty and he also had an assist from a converted free by Conor Turbitt in response to Matthew Tierney’s free right after half time that left Galway a goal clear.
From there Galway opened up with Shane Walsh coming off the bench. In a counter attack, helped by the allowance for a quick resumption of play, Galway almost scored their second goal but Hughes denied Finnian O Laoi when blocking his low shot in the 40th minute.
And in the53rd minute came the first successful two-pointer, a well struck effort from O Curraoin which finally saw an orange flag raised. It left the home team 1-7 to 0-7 in the clear and opened the floodgates, sort of, with two more two-pointers following in quick succession, the first when Walsh opted to kicked from outside the arc after a free for a 3 v 3 breach, quickly followed by a fine kick by Conroy, his third attempt from that range paying off.
Suddenly in the space of three minutes a one-point game went out to seven and a small vista of a new game could be seen.
Armagh’s situation worsened considerably on the hour mark when midfielder Niall Grimley was red carded by referee Conor Lane for throwing a dig at Daniel O’Flaherty.
Scorers: Galway – C O Curraoin 0-5 (3 fs, 1 2pt), M Tierney 1-1 (1-0 pen, 0-1m f), P Conroy 0-2 (1 2pt), S Walsh 0-2 (1 2pt), D O’Flaherty, F O Laoi 0-1. Armagh – O Conaty 0-4, R Grugan 0-4 (0-3 fs), C Turbitt 0-1 (f).
Galway: C Gleeson; D O’Flaherty, S Fitzgerald, J McGrath; D McHugh, J Daly, S Kelly; P Conroy, C McDaid; C Sweeney, F Ó Laoi, C Darcy; C Ó Curraoin, M Tierney, S O’Neill.
Subs: S Walsh for McDaid (41), J Maher for Tierney (45); L Silke for O’Neill (53); K Molloy for Kelly (62); J Heaney for O Laoi (67).
Armagh: B Hughes; T McCormack, B McCambridge, A Forker; C Mackin, J Duffy, G McCabe; B Crealey, N Grimley; D McMullen, S McPartlan, S Campbell; R Grugan, O Conaty, A Murnin.
Subs: C Turbitt for McPartlan (ht); R McQuillan for Forker (38); C Mc Convulse for Duffy (48); T Key for McCormack (60)
Referee: Conor Lane (Cork).
Now its Mayo’s turn to kick into the Hill 16 End as Dublin play in the direction of the Davin Stand. Will we get an equally exciting half as we saw in the first 35 minutes!?
The Exiles grab a consolation goal through their own Sean Nolan, while Wexford’s Sean Nolan continues to point frees for fun! Gavin Sheehan raised the green flag for Wexford just before half-time. There are just 5 minutes of normal time remaining!
We’ve had it all at GAA headquarters! Dublin surged into a healthy lead with Kevin Lahiff bagging 1-01 and Sean Bugler adding on 0-4.
Mayo rallied and reeled off 1-6 without reply as Fergal Boland and Paul Towey stole the show. We’ll be back shortly!