This is a slightly amended piece from what ran in the Waterford GAA match programme over the past weekend...
THE elation that accompanies survival is wholly understandable. That players react with a sense of trophy-winning joy when their team retains their status at whatever grade that may be is completely natural. As for promotion? Well, that’s wedging both the wedding, hangover honeymoon into the same weekend!
The fate of Ballysaggart and De La Salle at Senior level come 2022 was decided on Saturday last, with the Gracedieu club prevailing under the Fraher Field lights. Both clubs have made fantastic contributions to the club game over the past decade or more beyond the county boundary and one hopes that Ballysaggart will bounce back come next year’s Championship.
The same applies regarding the meeting of An Rinn and Dunhill in Saturday’s Intermediate Hurling Final (won by Dunhill) in what must represent one of the most competitive weekends in the history of the club game here in Waterford.
Whether so many finals and play-offs should ever be packed into such a narrow window of time again is a debate for another day. I must confess to a sense of dizziness when reading through last week’s local titles to keep track of what was going on and where.
Surely sandwiching in so many fixtures doesn’t do anything to promote the various titles and statuses at stake?
Granted, this is the second of two unusual years in all of our lives - sporting or otherwise - and, to be fair, it’s a credit to everyone at county, provincial and national level that the calendar has proceeded so smoothly.
There’s a welcome exhalation coming for club secretaries (rarely if ever lauded by the press, let’s face it) and administrators just around the corner and it has been well and truly earned.
Promotion to Senior level is, unquestionably, a double-edged sword: it provides the Intermediate champions with a chance to pit their wits against the Senior elite and might entail a rare and welcome derby with a neighbouring parish.
But it almost certainly means the following year’s championship is going to be all about survival, therefore the bar of expectation gets somewhat tempered. For the losing IHC finalists, the immediate disappointment may be lessened by the prospect of going one step further the following year – but that’s never a banker either.
Had it been put to any Roanmore supporter back in the late 80s/early 90s that they’d wait three decades to play in a SHC semi-final, let alone a Final, they’d have never accepted such a prophecy. Success can be fleeting. Stasis can be like knee-high treacle.
It’s to the credit of An Rinn and Dunhill that they’ve contested the IHC Final, collectively, on nine occasions over the previous 13 campaigns, seven of those in this century alone. Both have done so with a slighter playing complement than some other clubs in the same grade.
There’s a case to be made for giving the promoted team the guarantee of a second season at Senior level. That might persuade experienced players to remain committed for one more year while also keeping younger players at home for just a little longer.
And while it would complicate the current one up/one down scenario, perhaps this is a nettle which club delegates might consider grasping sooner rather that later in an attempt to stymie the yo-yo factor that undoubtedly exists between both grades. Food for thought, perhaps?
Photos with thanks to Noel Browne
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