Genius is never understood in its own time.
There hasn’t been a divisive footballer like Diarmuid Connolly since 1884.
There isn’t a divisive sportsman quite like him all over the world, barring maybe Cristiano Ronaldo or Floyd Mayweather.
Type his name into Twitter. It’s one Dub professing their love for him followed up by three or four tweets of absolute disdain. There’s no in-between with Diarmuid Connolly. There’s barely even anyone willing to say something like, “Yeah, he’s really good, but I don’t like him.”
No, he’s either liked or hated. He’s either guilty or innocent. He’s either brilliant or shit.
Someone as good and as hungry as Lee Keegan can’t even do a brilliant job on him without people exclaiming that Connolly is a nothing player – completely undermining the job Keegan is doing and the decision to put Mayo’s best man on him.
And in the midst of it all, no-one seems to value the work that the Vincent’s man goes through.
Either Tomás Ó Sé has never seen him play before or he’s just never seen him play before but the Kerry man was surprised on The Saturday Game when he pointed out that Connolly was back in his own half at least three or four times during the first half of the replay. That’s what he bloody does. He’s virtually been playing as a dropper the whole season, getting back into defence, tackling and harrying and carrying the ball back out again.
He’s actually the link man between defence and attack, that’s the role he’s playing and yet he’s chastised for not scoring four and five points every game.
What half forward does that anyway never mind one playing as deep as Connolly?
If Connolly played behind Dublin’s two full forwards, he’d rip the place apart but Jim Gavin wants and needs him further out the pitch using his athleticism, all his physical power and all his playmaking prowess. No doubt, he’d still get it tight against Lee Keegan further up the pitch but what’s wrong with that?
The greats all have their nemeses and Keegan should be in line for Footballer of the Year along with Connolly and Brian Fenton.
Someone remarked, after the final, that the Dub had failed to deliver on the biggest stage again. Of course, he finished off his sentence like this: “… with the exception of the penalty.”
With the exception of the most crucial score in the game.
Connolly got to attack twice in the first half – some of that was to do with his position and work, a lot of it was to do with Keegan – but, in two attacks, he curled over with his left and he was brought down for what was a black card for his marker.
Referees and pundits are the only problem when it comes to the black card, writes @ConanDoherty https://t.co/hArNd2SN5p #GAA
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) October 2, 2016
In the second period, he was controlling the tempo and calming his side in a one-point game. He put a penalty off the inside of the net with pure conviction with a ‘keeper at full stretch in a one-point game. He held his nerve and delivered in front of 83,000 people with every neutral in the world willing him to miss.
But it wasn’t about Connolly becoming the first Dubliner to score a penalty in a final since Jimmy Keaveney. It’s about his all-round contribution, all year, all season.
Only him and Cluxton have started and finished every one of Dublin’s four All-Ireland successes in the last six years.
Only he would try kicking a 45’ with his left foot, just for the craic, or try curling over a sideline with the game more or less won in an All-Ireland final. That was the wrong decision but that’s the adventure and freedom that Diarmuid Connolly plays with. That’s the possibilities he sees.
Only he could’ve floated over that effort in the dying moments against Kerry on the wing, off his supposedly weaker foot and only he could’ve picked out Dean Rock over the top of the entire Mayo defence the first day out to set up Dublin’s second goal as if he was launching a heat-seeker missile the entire length of Croke Park.
Only Diarmuid Connolly could’ve nonchalantly buried that penalty with that sort of level of skill and fearlessness and only he could carry that sort of responsibility and be asked to hurry back behind his midfield at the same time.
It's only a football – it goes wherever the hell Diarmuid Connolly puts it https://t.co/AsO0VYLVyr
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) October 2, 2016
What this man can do with a football is pure, unfiltered magic. It’s breathtaking to watch his command of a 50-yard foot pass but it is his uninhibited confidence that makes him and his glorious skill set so damn compelling.
Only Diarmuid Connolly can do exactly what Diarmuid Connolly does.
But only he wouldn’t get the credit for it too.
His genius is denied and ignored by the masses beyond the Pale but they’re the only ones who stand to lose.
Anyone who doesn’t appreciate what Diarmuid Connolly can do simply doesn’t appreciate football at its divine, mouthwatering best.
The GAA Hour podcast is out every Monday and Thursday. Subscribe here on iTunes or listen on Soundcloud (if you want to).
WATCH: Liverpool BOTTLED the title race 🤬 | Who will win the Premier League?
