Spinning the records
Dublin's thumping win over Mayo on Saturday has brought about the much anticipated trip to Tralee in two weeks with the home side's 84-year old record on the line. Jim Gavin's team are now unbeaten in 33 league and championship matches, going back with unerring coincidence to a defeat by Kerry - 1-10 to 0-15 in Killarney - just over two years ago and can equal the home county's 34-match unbeaten sequence from the 1920s and '30s.
How do the respective records compare allowing that football is altogether a different game in the modern age both in terms of style and organisation?
In some ways Kerry had it easier in that particular era. For instance, their league statistics from this sequence begin in the 1928-29 NFL when their qualifying group was simply a replica of the Munster championship, which yielded five wins against Waterford, Tipperary, Limerick, Clare and Cork.
Their championship record is however superior to Dublin’s, as their run encompasses a four-in-a-row All-Ireland achievement. Their record also lasted four years and eight months as opposed to Dublin’s potential two years and 17 days.
Their 1929 double is unusual in that the league final was played after the All-Ireland at the beginning of December. A repeat of the All-Ireland final against Kildare, it attracted a big crowd to Croke Park - generally given as 11,000 although Pat’O (Patrick Mehigan) in this newspaper recorded it at 18,000.
From July 8th 1928 when they lost to Tipperary in Tipperary town in the Munster semi-final until March 19th 1933 - by further coincidence the upcoming match weekend will mark the 84th anniversary - to when they lost to Meath in Navan to end not just their record run but also a sequence of four successive league titles, they were unbeaten.
Meath went on to win the league just as months later Cavan, who brought Kerry’s five-in-a-row ambitions to an end in the All-Ireland semi-final would capture the Sam Maguire.
The obvious question in relation to this is why Kerry’s record stands at only 34 when they went the best part of five years unbeaten. In this respect their achievement might be considered superior, as through no fault of theirs there simply weren’t as many matches.
For instance the county received a bye into two Munster finals during this period (one, admittedly because of a tour to the US in 1931) which knocked two more potential matches off their record.
Even as it stands, the group-stage match against Wexford in 1930-31 was registered as a walk-over; otherwise the record would stand at 35 and Dublin's potential date with destiny would be less symmetrical and have to wait until Roscommon visit Croke Park at the end of this month.
Another issue that reduced Kerry’s record was the complete absence of a league in 1929-30 - a gap that might have cost another six matches had the county gone unbeaten through the competition.
It is of course impossible to compare two generations of teams, separated by nearly a century. On the bare facts Kerry between 1928 and 1932 won four leagues and four All-Irelands in the space of five years whereas the current Dublin side have four leagues and four All-Irelands in six years.
Years ago a correspondent in Wicklow took issue with me for describing Mick O'Dwyer's team of 1975-86 as the 'greatest football side' and said that in his experience having seen both he believed the Kerry side of the 1920s and '30s to have been better.
Dublin’s big advantage in all of this is that they are still on the road accumulating victories and silverware and so a definitive verdict on all of this must wait a bit longer.
Capital returns – Dublin’s winning streak
2015
League
March 7th, Croke Park: Dublin 1-9, Tyrone 0-12
March 14th, Castlebar: Mayo 0-10, Dublin 2-18
March 28th, Croke Park: Dublin 0-8, Derry 0-4
April 5th, Clones: Monaghan 1-11, Dublin 1-22
April 12th (semi-final), Croke Park: Dublin 0-16, Monaghan 0-15
April 26th (final), Croke Park: Dublin 1-21, Cork 2-7
Championship
Leinster
May 31st (quarter-final), Croke Park: Dublin 4-25, Longford 0-10
June 28th (semi-final), Croke Park: Dublin 5-18, Kildare 0-14
July 12th (final), Croke Park: Dublin 2-13, Westmeath 0-6
All-Ireland
August 2nd (quarter-final), Croke Park: Dublin 2-23, Fermanagh 2-15
August 30th (semi-final), Croke Park: Dublin 2-12, Mayo 1-15
September 5th (semi-final replay), Croke Park: Dublin 3-15, Mayo 1-14
Sept 20th (final), Croke Park: Dublin 0-12, Kerry 0-9
2016
League
January 30th, Croke Park: Dublin 2-14, Kerry 0-14
February 6th, Castlebar: Mayo 0-7, Dublin 0-9
February 27th, Croke Park: Dublin 1-14, Monaghan 0-16
March 5th, Croke Park: Dublin 2-14, Cork 2-10
March 12th, Newry: Down 1-7, Dublin 1-15
March 26th, Croke Park: Dublin 1-10, Donegal 0-7
April 3rd, Carrick-on-Shannon: Roscommon 1-12, Dublin 1-13
April 10th (semi-final), Croke Park: Dublin 1-20 Donegal 0-13
April 24th (final), Croke Park: Dublin 2-18, Kerry 0-13
Championship
Leinster
June 4th (quarter-final), Nowlan Park: Dublin 2-21, Laois 2-10
June 26th (semi-final), Croke Park: Dublin 0-21, Meath 0-11
July 17th (final), Croke Park: Dublin 2-19, Westmeath 0-10
All-Ireland August 6th (quarter-final), Croke Park: Dublin 1-15, Donegal 1-10
August 28th (semi-final), Croke Park: Dublin 0-22, Kerry 2-14
Sept 18th (final), Croke Park: Dublin 2-9, Mayo 0-15
October 1st (final replay), Croke Park: Dublin 1-15, Mayo 1-14
2017
League
February 5th, Kingspan Breffni Park: Cavan 0-11, Dublin 0-18
February 11th, Croke Park: Dublin 0-10, Tyrone 1-7
February 26th, Ballybofey: Donegal 2-5, Dublin 1-8
March 4th, Croke Park: Dublin 1-16, Mayo 0-7
Ryan’s Father and Master McGrath
Tipperary are slowly creating their own landmarks in hurling. Manager Michael Ryan continues to soft-pedal his team’s achievement in winning the first three matches of the league campaign and the focus and quality of their performances to date.
In Thurles on Sunday after beating Clare he was keen to impress on everyone that the team were doing exactly what they had always done but just the results were better. The insistence that Tipp have always been all-out in the league didn’t seem to have impacted closer to home.
When informed after the latest victory that it was the first time since 2009 that the county had won its opening three fixtures, he replied: “Right, we’ll be jinxed so. Ah there’s all sorts of stuff, I was with my father earlier today and he said ‘will ye be trying to win today?’ I said ‘yeah, you can take it that we’ll be trying to win!’ That’s just it, we’re always trying to win.”
For all Tomás Hamill, a late switch to full back, played very well on the edge of the square and was awarded the TG4 Man of the Match gong, most present were struck once again by the performance of John McGrath.
As a 2016 All Star and Munster Hurler of the Year, he doesn’t need further spotlighting but his ability to find an exploit space on heavy pitches in wet weather is striking. Five points from play was a tribute to his ability to execute brilliantly in trying conditions and it emphasises what a shame it was for Ryan’s predecessor Eamon O’Shea that McGrath - and for the most part his brother Noel - were missing in the 2015 championship when Galway defeated the county by a point in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Already that year the younger McGrath had given notice of his potential with league performances. At that early stage he was already proving a thorn in Clare’s side, shooting five points from play against them two years ago. He followed up that by going one better with six from play in last year’s league quarter-final, which was won by Clare.
