Asking some questions of sport

A philosophical question – which game will have been more important for Mayo to win, last Sunday’s Allianz Football League Division 1 final against Galway or this Sunday’s clash with Roscommon in the opening round of the Connacht Senior Football Championship?

Historically, one wouldn’t have given too much thought to it, as getting past the provincial quarter-final was more vital for all sorts of reasons, not least the fact that it lessened the risk of an arduous trek through the All-Ireland qualifiers.

However, as we stand on the brink of the commencement (on Easter Sunday!) of the most transformative football championship since 2001, it will be interesting to see how things play out as the provinces progress.

For the counties who were in Division 1 of the league, their places in the All-Ireland championship are secured. Whether they win their province or lose at the first hurdle, they will be on the same starting grid – seedings notwithstanding – when the battle for Sam Maguire begins in late May.

For better or worse, it’s likely that the value of winning your province will be eroded as the new format begins to properly take hold.

Significant win

In that light, Mayo’s win over Galway at Croke Park last weekend was significant in that it gave manager Kevin McStay national silverware at the first attempt, and will have imbued the squad with confidence as they prepare for yet another tilt at the big one.

With the championship looking more open than it has in a decade or so, that could be key.

As a side-effect, it will also have laid down a marker against a Galway side that suffered defeat in a final at Croke Park for the second time in a row, having run Kerry so close last July.

From that point of view, it’s probably a positive for the Tribesmen that they have little time to wallow before facing Mayo again – or Roscommon – in the Connacht semi-final in a fortnight.

In total, there are nine games down for decision this weekend. As well as Mayo v Roscommon, the other side of the Connacht draw sees New York face Leitrim, and London go up against Sligo, while Ulster starts off with the meeting of Armagh against Antrim.

The Munster quarter-finals see Tipperary do battle with Waterford for the ‘privilege’ of playing Kerry, while Cork go to Ennis to play Clare; the winners advancing to take on Limerick.

Leinster

In the Leinster preliminary round, Longford play Offaly, Wicklow face Carlow and Laois go head-to-head with Wexford. The fixtures will continue to come at a swift rate for the next month and a half as the provincial championships are played off.

Attendances are unlikely to be huge – it’s a marathon and not a sprint for the supporters, too – and the biggest storylines are likely to revolve around Division 3 and 4 counties (like that Connacht quartet) trying to make their respective finals and thereby earning an upgrade from the Tailteann Cup to the All-Ireland.

But, seeing as we started with a philosophical question, we might as well end with one – are you better off being among the back markers for the big prize or challenging for silverware in the second-tier competition?

Looking at the bare results – a 31-5 loss away to Wales and then a 53-3- home reversal against France – it seems like it would be hard to make a case that the Ireland women’s rugby team improved from their first game to the second.

Last Saturday in Musgrave Park was tough, of that there was no doubt, but the scoreline shouldn’t be taken as an indication that Ireland threw in the towel. They never gave up, but were overpowered and outclassed by a far superior outfit.

Promising

There were some promising moments, albeit heavily outnumbered by errors caused by the pressure that comes with playing a dominant opponent, even one reduced to 14 players after a red card. A result like that means that there are no excuses and Ireland head coach Greg McWilliams didn’t offer any.

“There is a gulf,” he said, “but as long as we continue to own that, and have the responsibility of our actions, and work hard, we’ll get there eventually. I look forward to those moments.”

The team and management will be glad of the break week before they face Italy. After two rounds of fixtures, there is a clear demarcation – England, France and Wales have two wins each, at the expense of Ireland, Scotland and Italy.

With two of the powerhouses out of the way, a fourth-placed finish would represent a good finish to the campaign.

It was also a disappointing weekend for the Ireland Women’s Sevens team, who finished eighth at a tournament in Hong Kong. All is not lost, though, as their hopes of automatic qualification for the Olympics in Paris next year will rest on the final tournament in the World Sevens Series, which takes place in Toulouse in the middle of May.

Last week, it was announced that Virgin Media Two would broadcast live coverage of the sold-out SSE Airtricity League Premier Division clash between Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers at Dalymount Park on Friday, 7 April.

Much of the reportage focused on the fact that it was a first for the station – which it technically is, but Virgin Media’s ancestor, TV3, showed live games from what was then the eircom League two decades ago. Still, that’s only a side issue to what is a positive development.

As a commercial station, there is no compulsion on Virgin Media to show domestic football, and they deserve credit for taking the gamble.

The meeting of the Dublin rivals – the league leaders at home to the champions – is as good a fixture as any to draw viewing figures, though there is a sizeable caveat in the fact that there will be a number of other games on at the same time, which reduces the potential audience.

Still, it’s an experiment that hopefully bears fruit.

For a long time, domestic football fans have complained that the product wasn’t in the shop window enough – and the lack of a weekly highlights show remains a bugbear – but after Friday there will have been live games on RTÉ, TG4 and Virgin Media already this season, with men’s and women’s matches covered.

You can’t ask for fairer than that.