The interesting thing about sporting records is that they can be set either for or against you. Although either way, aren’t all records only there to be broken? Most end up written in water, rather than being carved in stone.
Most sporting records simply come and go, unlike say Olympic medals, which no one can ever take away. Actually, that’s not strictly true anymore . . .
Anyway, there were plenty of record setting and breaking themes to round three of the Allianz Football League: Dublin, by drawing with Donegal, extending their unbeaten record in league and championship to 32 games; Donegal, at the same time, extending their unbeaten record at MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey to nearly seven years.
Indeed the last time Donegal lost a game in Ballybofey was back on Sunday May 30th, 2010, in the Ulster quarter-final, when Down beat them by two points after extra-time. Down, of course, went on to reach that year’s All-Ireland final, losing to Cork by a single point.
Which also highlights why there was so much fuss over Down’s 22 month or 14 game losing record, which had stretched back to April 2015, and which they finally broke with Saturday night’s two-point win over Meath at Páirc Esler. That’s a record Down presumably won’t want broken again for a very long time.
Down in Killarney, meanwhile, Kerry lost their second consecutive home game, Monaghan beating them by a point, 2-8 to 1-10. Part of the problem for Kerry was that only one forward, Paul Murphy, scored a single point from play in the entire game, which left many Kerry supporters asking themselves: is this a record?
More than any other team, however, Kerry normally have records set for them, not against them, including the GAA’s all-time unbeaten record in league and championships games, which they set back in the early 1930s: they went 34 games unbeaten, including 19 in the league and 15 in the championship, until Cavan beat them in the 1933 All-Ireland semi-final, 1-5 to 0-5 (before going on to beat Galway in the final).
Now here is where it gets especially interesting. Not only were Kerry the last team to beat Dublin in the league or championship, now almost exactly two years ago, back on March 1st, 2015, they could find themselves playing Dublin in round five of this year’s league looking to deny them a record-equalling 34-game unbeaten run.
That will mean Dublin first beating Mayo in Croke Park this Saturday night, and the recent record between those teams is enough to suggest that could go either way. Dublin have had the upper hand over Mayo for the last four years now, but Mayo’s bright start to the league, which continued with a comfortable win over Roscommon on Saturday night, certainly means Dublin won’t be taking their unbeaten record for granted before playing Kerry in Tralee on March 18th.
All 10,500 tickets for that game are already sold out, as are most hotel rooms in Tralee for the Saturday night. It wouldn’t take a whole lot from the game if Dublin do lose their unbeaten run to Mayo next Saturday night, but it would certainly add to it if Kerry are the team still looking to inflict a first defeat on Dublin since March 1st, 2015, which also looking to keep an exclusive grip on the all-time unbeaten record of their own.
Either way it should be a fiery affair: when Kerry last beat Dublin in Killarney that first Sunday in March 2015, 0-15 to 1-10, referee Eddie Kinsella from Laois certainly had his hands full. Both teams finished with 14 men, Kerry’s Jack Sherward black-carded in the final minute (at which stage they’d already used all their substitutes); then in injury time Dublin’s Michael Fitzsimons was shown a straight red card for his part in the minor melee which marred the closing moments.
Indeed, Dublin finished with one red, five yellow, and two black cards – while Kerry had two yellow and two black, and Dublin manager Jim Gavin hardly concealed his dissatisfaction that his team were apparently open to harsher calls. The Dublin supporters who make the trip south didn’t exactly applaud Kinsella off the field.
“You saw the reaction of our travelling support at the end,” said Gavin at the time, “and I think that probably spoke volumes. It’s something I can’t control, and all I ever want my players to do is influence their own game, and I’m very proud of them in that respect.”
Kerry effectively won that game in that third quarter, outscoring Dublin seven points to one, with Bryan Sheehan’s placed-ball kicking particularly influential (he finished with 0-6). Sheehan’s straight red card against Monaghan on Sunday may yet carry a two-match ban and therefore rule him out on March 18th.
Unlike the Monaghan game, five of Kerry’s six starting forwards scored (Kieran Donaghy the only exception). Barry John Keane also scored an exciting two points off the bench, helping Kerry outscore Dublin nine points to 1-3 in the second half. Kerry will probably need to rediscover that scoring verve to beat Dublin, unbeaten records aside.
And aside from Donegal’s now 16-game unbeaten record in Ballybofey, what made Sunday’s draw with Dublin all the more impressive is the fact they achieved it with a team reportedly deep in transition. Between the six retirements, and three players no longer making themselves available, manager Rory Gallagher has only the bare bones of the Donegal team that won the 2012 All-Ireland title, yet they twice came back from four- and two-point deficits in either half to keep alive that unbeaten home record.
Until of course that record is broken.
