When they’re giving out on the radio about the cost of schoolbooks, it’s a sure sign that the summer is nearly done. The last knockings of the hurling and football season are upon us, even though it feels at times that the action hasn’t quite got underway just yet. Still, we turn to Croke Park this weekend, with a mixture of optimism and duty to fuel us.
It has been a trying summer in many ways. No weather to speak of, no big soccer tournament to pass the time. Into that void, the GAA can usually be relied upon to insert itself but the general consensus holds that neither code has caught fire. And yet, attendances are up, rising all the time.
Supposed betters
Because what are we going to do – not go? Try telling the reborn people of Waterford that there’s been nothing to see.
They have a young team to follow, one that hasn't an earthly idea how good it can be. From the league quarter-final against Galway when they first took on and beat one of their supposed betters, it's been a year of relentless discovery. Where it ends, nobody knows.
Or try telling the trainloads and carloads and busloads of Kilkenny people not to bother making the trip tomorrow. This is their time of year. The festivals are mostly over with, the tourists have mostly come and gone. They are where they want to be, two games away from another All-Ireland.
They’ll let the pressmen cry about the quality of the championship, they might even pretend that it matters a damn.
This is the thing. For all the earnest talk of the hurling championship needing a good game tomorrow, not a single person will have that thought in their head as Brian Gavin throws in the ball. Good game, bad game – they're probably going to play out the other semi-final regardless. And almost certainly the final too. Sometimes we tie ourselves up in knots with very low-grade rope.
The football championship has long been used to this kind of hand-wringing and yet it has survived just the same. The game is crocked and broken, by all accounts a busted flush. Yet there will be close to 60,000 in the big house today. Traffic coming down the M1 will start simmering from before midday as convoys from Tyrone, Monaghan and Donegal filter south. Mayo will send its usual band of hopefuls from the west.
The place will tingle and gurgle with people who are hopelessly, helplessly alive. Who are, for a few hours at least, in a place where something matters. Who have come from Tyrone for the 10th All-Ireland quarter-final of Mickey Harte’s 13-year reign, unconvinced of their team’s credentials but confident about their chances. Who have come from Monaghan, all colour and sound, still not sure about where the year might end.
Who have come from Mayo, more nervous than they probably ought to be but unable to shake the habit of a lifetime. And who have come from Donegal, hoping that this isn’t the last dance for some of their 2012 heroes but ready to shower them in cloudbursts of love whether it is or not.
Barnburner
No, the championship has not been a barnburner in either code. The feeling that both championships have two outstanding teams apiece that stand above the rest has been increasingly hard to shake.
There have been one-sided games, there have been games that were close only because neither side had the skill or gumption to go and win them. There have been no epics.
But will you go the weekend without tuning in for some or all of it? Would you? Could you? Thought not.
