The training fields, it turns out, trump the killing fields.
What was there to be gained from finishing top of a round-robin group? Plenty, it would seem. Three of the four table-toppers emerged victorious from Croke Park over the weekend – Kerry, Derry, Dublin. The fourth, Armagh, exited the championship after losing a penalty shootout. Monaghan were the anomaly. They will as ever travel their own road, thank you very much.
All four All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals over the weekend were still in the mixer at half-time. Monaghan and Armagh never got out of it. On no occasion was there more than a single point between the counties for the entire match, including extra time.
But if the heat sparked by Ulster derbies continues to generate something of a micro-climate, the other quarter-finals followed a pattern whereby the team in action for a third weekend on the bounce appeared to run out of juice. Long before the final whistle Tyrone, Cork and Mayo looked jaded and beaten.
All three lost the second half of their respective encounters. The team with the gap week played with more vigour and zest. Tyrone looked dead on their feet in the second half of their loss to Kerry. As the savage schedule caught up with Tyrone, they started to fatigue.
“We were flat,” admitted Tyrone joint manager Brian Dooher. “I don’t know, we’ll look back and we’ll chat and see what happened. We just didn’t bring the energy.”
Tyrone trailed Kerry by three points at half time, they lost by 12. Kerry won the second half 2-9 to 0-6.
Cork trailed Derry by the minimum at the break, they lost by four. Derry won the second half 1-6 to 1-3.
Mayo trailed Dublin by a single point at the interval, they lost by 12. Dublin won the second half 1-11 to 0-3.
Perhaps it is all just a coincidence, but if nothing else surely the weekend’s action at Croke Park highlighted the benefits of finishing top of the table. And perhaps the evidence stacks up to pursue a change in the scheduling next year to provide an extra week for all teams ahead of the quarter-finals.
Over the last three weekends Tyrone played Westmeath in Breffni Park, Donegal in Ballybofey and Kerry at Croke Park. In that same period Kerry played Louth in Portlaoise, had a weekend off, and then rolled up to face Tyrone at GAA headquarters on Saturday.
Cork’s schedule saw them face Mayo in Limerick, Roscommon at Páirc Uí Chaoimh and then Derry at Croke Park. Derry’s lead-in to Sunday’s clash was a win over Clare in Longford followed by a weekend off.
Mayo lost to Cork in Limerick on June 18th, regrouped and headed for Salthill for an attritional battle with Galway on June 25th and then made their way across the country to face Dublin at Croke Park on Sunday.
During that same 14-day window Dublin sauntered to a 24-point victory over Sligo and then enjoyed a weekend off to focus on recovery and provide players some extra time to rehab injuries.
Of course there needs to be consequences for victory and defeat, Dublin and Kerry and Derry earned the extra week because they were more successful in the group stages. Often the simplest lesson is the one easiest to forget.
“I definitely think it’s tough on the teams who had the back-to-back games,” said Dessie Farrell. “Benefit of having two weeks so you can fully recover and it’s not even physically, it’s mentally that’s the challenge. Look, that’s the nature of the competition, it was always going to be an outcome where some were getting a rest and some weren’t so that probably impacted Mayo.
“I just think that was probably a significant factor particularly in the second half for Mayo today.”
There are informative stats from American Football whereby the teams who sit waiting to face the winners of the Wild Card weekend emerge victorious from that subsequent game approximately 74 per cent of the time.
Still, Kevin McStay wasn’t using their punishing schedule as an excuse.
“I don’t honestly believe it impacted,” said the Mayo manager. “It’s not somewhere I’d be going anyway in terms of an excuse, but there is a reality that the fortnight is the better rhythm. So that’s a big thing we’ll have to figure out, when you are in a good position to top your group it’s probably the best way.”
The loss to Cork is the game Mayo will have most regrets over because it set them on a path that was littered with danger.
And while Cork only lost to Derry by four, the game was a grind and the Oak Leaf side should have won by more only they missed a late penalty and squandered several other scoreable chances.
“Maybe after the last two weeks our big players around the middle weren’t as energetic and as lively as they were in the last couple of games,” said Cork manager John Cleary.
The killing fields, indeed.
