GAELIC SPORTS WORLD Issue 17 – January 10, 2015 | Page 32

2014 CHAMPIONSHIP REVIEW – TOMMY MORAN JANUARY 5, 2015 Tommy Moran looks back on the Gaelic Football Championship of 2014 and soon will be casting his eye over the fast approaching Football National Leagues. The 2015 All Ireland Football Championship beckons already, but if the Bookies’ odds are to be believed, there will be only about five or six real runners in the race. They might not be certain of the eventual winners, but they have proclaimed loud and clear the teams they are certain will not be Croke Park bound in September. Odds like 750/1, or worse still 1000/1, offered for many counties tells its own story. One has to wonder how a Team Manager from the expected also-rans can motivate his charges. Perhaps it is still the chance of reaching a Provincial decider or maybe even stealing the title that keeps them going, or maybe the hope of a bit of a good run in the Qualifiers. UNBACKABLE DUBS Of course it was the same story last year. Except the main topic was who would face the Dubs in the All Ireland. They were unbackable favourites, but Jimmy [McGuinness, former Donegal manager] was still winning matches and dumped them in the semi-final. It probably was a pairing few had expected, no more than Kerry being 32 seriously thought of as reaching the other semi against Mayo. The most talked about and most written about footballer from the Kingdom during the Championship never got to kick a ball for Kerry at all, it was felt they just couldn’t do it without The Gooch [Colm Cooper]. Then up comes the bould [James] O’Donoghue, with Star at his heels and we found The Kingdom could do it, as we have found out so often in the past. BEST FOOTBALL Those semi-finals were thrill-a -minute games, with Kerry and Mayo giving a double serving of the magnificent best in Gaelic Football. Even the most hardened heart would have to have sympathy for James Horan and his team. So, so, so close once again, within a whisker of another All Ireland appearance, a final they felt they would have won. Now, as the farmer said, they will have to start from the butt of the ridge again. DIFFERENCES Of course there were other close calls and hard luck stories and if only’s in the 2014 campaign. It’s from the concluding stages that we remember most of these, of