GAELIC SPORTS WORLD Issue 21 – March 14, 2015 | Page 38

ROUND AND ROUND
THE STORY GOES
In his own inimitable style, Tommy Moran highlights the value of the
current national football league.
– TOMMY MORAN
MARCH 12, 2015
A Clydesdale horse would have a better chance of winning in Cheltenham than a team from Division IV of the
Allianz Football League winning the All Ireland in September.
But at least the League, so often dismissed as irrelevant,
or at best, a warmer upper for the Championship, provides a much greater number of and much more meaningful games for the vast majority of counties. Kerry
brought Sam [Maguire Cup] home several times, having
just played three tough games, the Munster Final against
Cork and the All Ireland Semi and Final. In the Allianz
League, every county gets seven games, seven throws of
the dice and nobody is getting slaughtered, it’s very much
even Stephen.
COMPETITIVE
Just look at the results from Round IV. In Division I, the
Dubs scraped a draw against Tyrone, there were two points
between Monaghan and Donegal and Mayo and Derry,

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with the biggest margin eleven points, between Cork and
Kerry. Laois, Down, Meath and Kildare did manage to
stay fairly well ahead of Roscommon, Galway, Westmeath
and Cavan in Division II, but none of them chanced playing keep-ball. Division III saw Armagh and Fermanagh
draw, Wexford stay one point ahead of Limerick, Tipperary six ahead of Clare, while Sligo really had their shooting boots on against Louth. In Division IV, there were two
draws, Leitrim against Offaly and Carlow against Wicklow, with Longford having seven points to spare over Waterford and Antrim staying four ahead of London.
INCENTIVE
The points table makes interesting reading too, but
nothing is set in stone at the moment, so every side has
something to play for. For the weaker teams especially
there is the incentive of meeting another side that they
have a real chance of beating, whereas the Championship
may throw them up against a really big gun, with a cannon awaiting them in the Qualifiers.