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 by JOHN REDINGTON The Evening Echo 16th March 2004 | |||
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The parish is still the key ONE of the features of Gaelic games over the last couple of decades has
been a growing gap between inter-club and inter-county
competition.
Television coverage has put the county team in everybody’s face from
February to September and, despite all the media exposure of English
soccer and Heineken rugby, football and hurling are the best supported sports
in the country.
Inside the counties, however, attendances haven’t grown by anywhere near
the same rate and a major side-effect has been a gradual decline in the
impact of a select group of clubs who, as late as 20 years ago, could often
draw as many supporters as the county team.
Huge crowds used to follow the hurlers of Ahane, Glen Rovers, Saint
Finbarr’s, Blackrock, Thurles and football sides like John Mitchels, Tuam Stars
and Saint Vincent’s of Dublin.
Even the All-Ireland Club Championships, the big success story of recent years, have failed to
stop the slide.
But the conflict been the aims of clubs and counties still hasn’t gone
away, you know.
While the Glen, Ahane or the Stars haven’t made their mark on a
national competition a bunch of their successors have found other ways of
pushing their way into the limelight.
The mega-club, that hybrid creature spawned from an expanding
population, an ambitious sponsor and a highly profitable bar, now looks to provincial
and All-Ireland rather than mere county championships as the benchmark of
success.
However, outside of Nemo Rangers and Kilmacud Crokes in football and
Wolfe Tones and Birr in hurling, they haven’t been making the same impact as
the Barr’s, Austin Stacks and Portlaoise did in the early years and the
parish teams are still the dominant forces in the championships.
When it comes down to the raw emotions of club competition, all the
imported talent in the world finds it hard to beat the ties of place.
One reason for the mega-clubs’ lack of silverware is the fact the
inter-county game still rewards players and managers in a way that they
cannot match.
More than anything else, players crave recognition and their greatest
incentive is to know they’ve impressed those that matter to them.
For those just about making their place on a junior B side, that could
be limited to their team mates.
For serious club players, it’s that peculiarly Irish sense of family
and community that makes up a parish.
For those willing and able to strive for the top, it’s the unique buzz
of being at the centre of the entire county when its colours are flown.
Newtownshandrum are a typical example of how emotional factors can
overcome very obstacle.
By rights, a small rural community from a forgotten strip along the
Cork/Limerick border shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as Mount
Sion or even a big town club like O’Loughlin Gaels.
But throw in a few families, the odd outstanding player you get from
time to time and a club structure built around the love of the game and
mountains will move.
It’s the same at inter-county level.
Fermanagh had a better football team than Dublin last year despite
having less than 1/40th of a population to draw from.
And that’s what gives Gaelic games their unique appeal.
For all the preparations, finance and coaching thrown at a team, the
heart is still by far the most important component in its makeup.
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