Jack McCarron’s touch of magic for Monaghan shows the spell provincial championships hold

I’ll admit, the old heart wasn’t the better for watching the drama unfold beneath me in Armagh at the Monaghan-Derry semi-final in the Ulster Championship last Sunday. But there came with it a confirmation that these provincial matches really do matter, especially in a week where the early draw for the upcoming All-Ireland series seemed to take a lot of people by surprise.

The sheer drama of Jack McCarron’s sideline kick – and the commotion before it – and then Rory Beggan’s match-winner made me realise what Monaghan supporters went through for years. Honestly, it’s easier when you’re stuck in the middle of it as a player than watching as a supporter. It doesn’t make it easy, that’s for sure.

There’s been a lot of question marks about the rules since all the changes were made and none more so than the late sideline call and all that it entailed. Should it have been a one-pointer? Should it have been a two-pointer? Was it a free? Wasn’t it a free? If everybody’s completely honest, 95 per cent of the people in the stadium probably thought the game was over and that would have been it.

But Monaghan had a couple of strong voices on the field. Rory went over to referee Noel Mooney and Davy Garland (who actually does a wee bit of refereeing himself and umpires in championship games, he’s well up to speed on the rules) went over and managed to get the decision turned.

In fairness to Noel Mooney, he did change his mind. At least he didn’t dig his heels in and just push on. So, the referee did the right thing and obviously Jack then stepped up and did what he did. It was an incredible score given all the waiting around and it produced one of the most unbelievable finishes to a game you’ll ever see.

The point of going back to Armagh last Sunday is to emphasise what the provincial championships still mean to players and supporters and how much they still matter. It will be the same this weekend with both the Munster and Connacht Championship finals on the line and the anticipation of two close encounters between Kerry and Cork in Killarney and Roscommon and Galway in Dr Hyde Park.

Obviously, holding the draws for the All-Ireland series in the week coming up to provincial finals is far from ideal but it is a symptom of the current structure in the sense we don’t have time in the schedule for all these things. In an ideal world, the draw would be done the day after the provincial finals, but that would lead to a five-day turnaround for some teams and all the logistical problems that would create.

You can’t have that either. As a result of the condensed championship season, we’re now finding these draws probably have to be done at an inappropriate time but, unless the All-Ireland final goes back in the calendar, that’s the reality of life now. There’s just not enough weeks in the schedule to accommodate all the things that you want to do it perfectly.

Winning a provincial championship doesn’t bring any particular benefits in advancing on to the All-Ireland series any more and teams like Donegal, Mayo and Meath have time to get over their disappointments and time to get a bit of work done in preparation for their All-Ireland matches.

For Padraic Joyce or Mark Dowd or Jack O’Connor or John Cleary, any of those managers headed into a provincial final, the sole focus for them now, having come this far, is going on and winning. Win it and carry that momentum with you.

It’ll be interesting to see what Cork bring to Killarney on the back of a strong league campaign which finally delivered a return to Division One football for next year. They’ll expect to stick it to Kerry this weekend. Cork have always had the ability to perform on any given day. The one criticism that was levelled at them was they haven’t had consistency of performance to get themselves up to Division One for the last decade or so. But they seem to have strung that together now.

But can they go now and take out a big Division One team like Kerry?

Cork haven’t won Munster since 2012 and haven’t been in a final since 2021, so this is progress for sure. But the match being in Killarney doesn’t help, nor does it help that Kerry have got Diarmuid O’Connor back on the pitch and Paudie Clifford back into action as well.

Kerry will have felt the sting from the league final defeat to Donegal and will have an eye on that rematch in a couple of weeks, but I expect them to be fully focused, continue their dominance in Munster and make it six provincial titles in a row.

The Connacht final has a bit more jeopardy for Galway against Roscommon as they bid to win five in a row.

Roscommon are one of the form teams on the basis of their league campaign and that win over Mayo, where they were rampant and their forward play was excellent. Dowd has done a brilliant job since he’s gone in, a no-nonsense manager who has a real passion for Roscommon football. He has them doing all the things you want from your team, working really hard and moving the ball quickly with Enda Smith and Diarmuid Murtagh arguably the top two forwards in the country so far.

Galway are going to have to find ways of snuffing them out, of wiping them out of the game, because if they’re allowed to have the same influence as they had the last day then Joyce’s side are in for a long evening.

It seems to me Galway don’t really know where they are at the moment. The one key thing that they got out of the league was that Rob Finnerty probably established himself as their marquee forward while Oisín Mac Donnacha has also impressed.

They will need to be at their best if they are to overcome a form side like Roscommon, but I believe they will rise to that challenge.

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