After a difficult season the curtains come down on the Church & General National Football League with tomorrow's final between Cork and Dublin at Pairc Ui Chaoimh.
In keeping with the competition's haplessness this year, the venue is guaranteed to reduce the numbers in attendance - bad news at the conclusion of knockout stages plagued by unimpressive crowd figures. Croke Park officials were gloomily assessing the likely turnout at around 15,000.
It hasn't all been the competition's fault. The last three rounds have been played in awful conditions, wet and inimical to decent football as well as discouraging for spectators. At least tomorrow should be free from the taint of phoney war because the two counties remaining would both gain something from winning the title.
Both have been given the less difficult side of their provincial draws and have enough time to prepare for the demands of the summer. Both teams also contain young players who will gain in confidence from winning a national title. As a result we can expect a genuine contest.
For developing teams there is a fear that the League, having gone well, can within the space of one match turn into a disaster. If the wheels come off the bandwagon and areas of acute weakness are exposed, there isn't much time left to reconstruct. But as long as defeat is not too traumatic, the losers tomorrow won't have to suffer a major setback.
Yet winning will be better. For either Cork or Dublin, a season that sees them reach the provincial final with the league title in their back pocket and the status of outsiders theirs by right is a satisfactory one.
The teams also complement one another in the sense that they will test each other's weaker spots. Dublin's uneasy full back line will get a good workout from their direct opponents. Mark O'Sullivan played very well when the teams met in Pairc Ui Rinn last March and has maintained good form.
Unfairly pilloried after the semi-final against Meath, O'Sullivan made a useful contribution. In conditions that were disastrous and against probably the best full-back in the game, he recovered from a shaky first half to play well after half-time and ultimately set up all three of the points which divided the teams.
Shane Ryan seems to be the Dublin player at whom the finger is pointing for the full-back position so he'll have fun tomorrow.
Joe Kavanagh has also been playing well and if he remains at centre forward, his presence may well restrict Paul Curran's influence which has been extensive of late. Together with fellow veterans Brian Stynes and Dessie Farrell, Curran has been in great form. We'll learn more about Dublin's longer-term prospects when the old guard find themselves under pressure in some match.
Farrell has been going so well - although Sean O hAilpin played him well in March - that it might seem unnecessary to wonder about his positioning at full forward but the attack needs his creative skills further out the field. Maybe Jim Gavin can provide the same vision on the 40; again, he will be extensively tested by Owen Sexton, one of the most striking presences in Cork's new-look defence.
Dublin's attack is a work in progress whereas Cork's rearguard is getting better every day. A great deal will hinge on whichever unit gets the upper hand.
Cork enjoy the luxury of having the Damien O'Neill-Liam Honohan mid-field on the bench recovering from injury, but Honohan is believed to be ready to make an appearance. Jason Sherlock is Dublin's reserve weapon and he should see action sooner rather than later. His cameo in Pairc Ui Rinn discomfited O hAilpin and had the ground been harder, the impact would have been greater.
A close match may swing Cork's way because they have demonstrated greater consistency in recent weeks whereas Dublin's form has oscillated.
Finally, the Bank of Ireland football championship gets underway tomorrow with two Leinster preliminary-round matches in Carlow and Wexford, with West Meath and Longford the visitors. West Meath received a boost with the news that mid-fielder Rory O'Connell has been cleared to play by the GAC, which handed him a month's suspension arising from incidents in the notorious West Meath-Wicklow league match. The suspension is from the player's last match and he last played on April 5th.
Clare hurler Fergus Tuohy's fate after being sent off in the National Hurling League match with Limerick has yet to be decided by the GAA's Games Administration Committee.
In a surprise move the GAA has announced that the Hurling League final between Tipperary and Galway is to be held in Ennis tomorrow week at 3.30. Originally it had been thought that the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick would stage the event. That venue will, however, be used for the All-Ireland under-21 football final which takes place this day week.
Tickets for the covered stand at tomorrow's league final in Pairc Ui Chaoimh are still available in Croke Park.
The Teams
Cork: K O'Dwyer; M O'Donovan, S O hAilpin, A Lynch; C O'Sullivan, O Sexton, M Cronin; N Murphy, M O'Sullivan; A Dorgan, J Kavanagh, P O'Mahony; P Clifford, Mark O'Sullivan, A O'Regan.
Dublin: D Byrne; P Moran, S Ryan, P Christie; T Lynch, P Curran, K Galvin; C Whelan, E Sheehy; D Darcy, J Gavin, B Stynes; N O'Donoghue, D Farrell, B O'Brien.
