{"id":471184,"date":"2026-05-06T12:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/471184\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T12:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:02:14","slug":"darragh-o-se-all-ireland-draw-should-never-have-been-held-the-week-of-provincial-finals-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/471184\/","title":{"rendered":"Darragh \u00d3 S\u00e9: All-Ireland draw should never have been held the week of provincial finals \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I played golf with a few retired Kerry footballers<\/a>. The conversation ebbed and flowed like it always does when you\u2019re golfing but I\u2019d say if you were handed a recording of it, you\u2019d find that the majority of our day was taken up with chat about Kerry playing Cork in this Sunday\u2019s Munster final<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty to talk about. Kerry\u2019s injuries might be clearing up, or they might not. Bouncing back from the league final hammering isn\u2019t a certainty either. Cork are back in Division One and probably in better shape now than they\u2019ve been for years. Even just the fact that it\u2019s a Kerry v Cork Munster final in Killarney<\/a>. We haven\u2019t had that since Covid time, when you could get only 2,500 into the ground.<\/p>\n

So this is a proper Munster final<\/a>. Or at least it felt like one before Monday lunchtime, when the draw came out for the All-Ireland series. Boom! Kerry v Donegal in Killarney in three weeks. So much for Kerry v Cork.<\/p>\n

Jack O\u2019Connor is 100 per cent right in what he said on Monday. Having a draw as consequential as that in the week when two provincial finals are happening sucks the life out of them. Kerry v Cork and Galway v Roscommon are on this weekend, but once the big draw was made, nobody was talking about those games.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just Kerry v Donegal, either. Cork v Meath is a huge game for both those teams. They know they can beat each other. They\u2019ve had two games already this year and they\u2019ve both won one, with only a kick of a ball in it both times. And Roscommon have their best shot in years at a Connacht title, but it\u2019s totally overshadowed by Tyrone coming to town a fortnight later.<\/p>\n

I know putting these fixtures together <\/a>is never as simple as people like to make out. The explanation for the draws being done this early is that it gives the county boards more time to get themselves organised and get the logistics sorted.<\/p>\n

But surely to God they could have done the draw in two parts \u2013 one next Monday for the four teams playing this weekend and one the following Monday after the Ulster and <\/a>Leinster finals <\/a>had been played. That way, everybody has a fortnight to get ready for their next game and every province can have a decent build-up to their final.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another issue, too. The way it is now, you\u2019re nearly punishing teams for getting to their provincial final. Donegal, Meath, Tyrone and Kildare all got knocked out of their provinces early, but now they get three weeks to study their opponents, including a full-bore, all-cards-on-the-table provincial final in the middle of it.<\/p>\n

\"DonegalDonegal boss Jim McGuinness and his staff will be in Killarney on Sunday doing some valuable reconnaissance. Photograph: Inpho <\/p>\n

Jim McGuinness and his Donegal staff will be in Killarney on Sunday \u2013 they won\u2019t need anyone hiding in a tree this time either. You can be damn sure that Robbie Brennan will be there too, just like Malachy O\u2019Rourke and Brian Flanagan will be in the Hyde. Same with the Ulster and Leinster finals the following week. It\u2019s a small enough thing, but it all adds up.<\/p>\n

Nobody is going to be taking a dive in a provincial final<\/a>. The cup is sitting there on the steps of the main stand \u2013 you\u2019re better off ending your day holding it up rather than watching the other crowd\u2019s captain making a speech. That\u2019s definitely the case in Kerry. The only thing to do when a Cork team is on the rise is to put a stop to it before they get any notions. They can\u2019t be let win a Munster final in Killarney.<\/p>\n

So in an odd sort of way, there\u2019s pressure on them coming into this game. Kerry won a brilliant All-Ireland last year. They lost their midfield, found a completely new one and still kept trucking. That means the Kerry people are looking at the team now and going, \u201cWell, sure, haven\u2019t we a load more players than we thought this time last year, so we can\u2019t be crying about injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KerryKerry captain Gavin White lifts the Sam Maguire in 2025 after victory over rivals Donegal. Photograph: Inpho <\/p>\n

I would say that\u2019s why Jack came back for another go at it. He hasn\u2019t won back-to-back All-Irelands and he knows that if Kerry can get everybody right, there\u2019s a back-to-back to be won with this group. Something like that brings its own pressures.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why you\u2019ll see Kerry going full-bore after it on Sunday. People can come up with all the theories they like about the new structure and why it\u2019s actually clever to lose a game here or there to give yourself a handier route, but it\u2019s all nonsense. My attitude to it would be to go out and try to win every game <\/a>and not get into this carry-on of resting players or anything like that.<\/p>\n

Because the reality is that this is all going to be over and done with very quickly. We\u2019re in the thick of it now. Eight weeks from now, the championship will be down to the last four teams. By then, most people won\u2019t remember a thing about when draws were made or what games became overshadowed.<\/p>\n

Every defeat is bad news. Let\u2019s say Kerry lose to Cork on Sunday and then a fortnight later, Donegal come to town and beat them again. Technically speaking, they\u2019ll be in exactly the same place as they are today, still in the All-Ireland and in with the same chance as everybody else of winning it. But you can\u2019t be losing two games in a fortnight at home and be confident of going back-to-back. That\u2019s not in the plan. <\/p>\n

So none of the talk matters this week. Injuries don\u2019t matter, the Donegal game doesn\u2019t matter, the Cork crowd coming to Killarney doesn\u2019t matter. Kerry have a Munster final to win.<\/p>\n

Provincial finals might be devalued, but some things in life are non-negotiable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week I played golf with a few retired Kerry footballers. The conversation ebbed and flowed like it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[55538,10416,24,17159,18,131567,19,17,30859,111429,132,29228],"class_list":["post-471184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-galway-gaa","tag-kerry-gaa","tag-cork-gaa","tag-donegal-gaa","tag-eire","tag-football-championship","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-meath-gaa","tag-roscommon-gaa","tag-sports","tag-tyrone-gaa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116527533927257282","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}