A gift from the gods, is Ulster football.
Hurling has been enjoying all the plaudits and, to be honest, the last three games have had unbelievable climaxes.
Clare and Galway’s extra time thriller. Limerick and Cork’s extra time thriller. Clare and Galway’s last 15 minutes in Thurles. It’s been end to end, score for score, and the crowd hasn’t stopped roaring.
When you flicked the channel on Sunday to go from the end of an All-Ireland hurling semi-final to the start of a cagey do-or-die Super 8 game, there was certainly a lull in the day. It was quieter, slower, and – that dirty word – defensive.
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By the end of the 70 minutes though, Donegal and Tyrone had scored 3-30 between them.
In Thurles? In that thriller? Clare and Galway scored 3-30 between them.
The same amount of scores were put away in Ballybofey – in that shite Ulster football game – as there was in the heavenly hurling.
In fact, over the whole weekend, the four final round games of the Super 8s saw 14-135 scored. Thats an average of over 37 scores per game and there were just 33 scored in the hurling on Sunday.
It doesn’t mean there’s more drama or that it’s as relentless or any of that – but it does mean that it isn’t the dirt it’s always made out to be.
Handpasses are on the latest Wanted posters but handpasses are only a symptom of the illness that they call defence. They aren’t the problem – just what has come about in the face of mass defenders standing in your road. Expecting someone to kick it down the throat of 15 players is crazy. Restricting the number of handpasses a team can make would only make that cautious system even more effective.
But, after it all, Ulster football served up as many scores as the manic hurling and two teams from the northern province advanced to the All-Ireland football semi-final, when neither even made the decider in their own provincial championship.
Ulster football takes a lot of stick and has been accused of waning. Now they’ll have a representative in the All-Ireland final and, now, they’re even scoring as much as the hurlers.
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