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
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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