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Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Dress rehearsal for the real concert
BY ANTHONY HENNIGAN
MY last time in Páirc Uí Chaoimh had been to watch Oasis in concert.
On the morning of that same summer’s day in 1996 I had walked through the doors of St Joseph’s Secondary School in Foxford to collect my Leaving Certificate results. They were average. Oasis were superb.
An overheating engine caused our bus to break down en route and for 52 hyper teenagers to arrive just in time to hear support act The Bootleg Beatles play out their set with Hey Jude. The Prodigy followed and mildly impressed even this harshest of music connoisseurs. But all heads were bopping and bobbing under Cork’s evening sun in anticipation of one thing and one thing only to see that hairy mad-for-it mob from Manchester strut their stuff.
I shed more sweat in Páirc Uí Chaoimh that day than ever a player did in the heat of a Munster final. The highlight of the Oasis set was, for this listener at least, Noel Gallagher’s rendition of The Masterplan, the band’s hugely underrated B-side anthem. It left a tuneful ringing in the ears as our bus chugged and choked its way through the darkness and back home to Mayo.
It was with similar contentedness that we nosed our cars North from Páirc Uí Chaoimh last Sunday, wondering if John O’Mahony’s own masterplan might be about to deliver Mayo its first national senior silverware since 2001. Mayo fans are certainly mad-for-it but despite their five points win last Sunday, Mayo players know they will need to better than bootleg that form in order to secure the National League silverware, but then so too will opponents Cork. And the emergence of a Mayo prodigy wouldn’t go amiss on final day either, but realistically nothing other than a supreme collective effort will beat a Rebels team sure to be at much greater strength for the Division 1 decider next time out.
Already firm favourites to win Sam Maguire in September, Cork will provide Mayo the chance to gauge how near or far they are to being considered genuine AllIreland championship challengers. And it’s important not to underestimate just what booking an extra competitive game might mean to the Green and Red’s provincial aspirations, if only that it annuls any advantage their Connacht quarter-final hosts Sligo might have accrued from themselves having secured the bonus of an extra outing, in the form of a Division 3 final clash with Antrim.
Things are beginning to bubble nicely.
Master McCoy
It’s not often you see grown men cry, least of all battle hardened professional sportsmen, so you know something special has happened when emotion gets the better of even the finest exponent of his sport.
Tony McCoy’s Grand National triumph on board Don’t Push It last Saturday was up there with the most popular wins the grand old event ever had even in the eyes of this reporter whose Black Apalachi was beaten into second! And that McCoy saddled the joint-favourite said so much more about the faith punters had in McCoy’s ability than it did about the quality of the horse he steered.
Undeterred by his 15 previous failed attempts, the punters rowed in behind the Antrim man just like they always had. The greatest ever jump jockey was on board Blowing Wind, the 2002 third placed favourite, on Clan Royal, the 2006 joint-favourite and last year rode Butler’s Cabin, which started the 7/1 favourite before falling at the fifth last.
It took Tony McCoy to win over 3000 races before he added the most coveted title to his list of achievements, but some things are worth the wait.
Come on The ‘Pool
Apologies to all my fellow Manchester United fans; it would appear that to have had a chuckle in this space a few weeks back about Liverpool’s imploding season has not only put the hex on the Red Devils but inspired Rafa’s boys to greater things avid readers of this column that Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Fernando Torres are.
Whilst Chelsea and Bayern Munich have severely dented and terminated respectively, the Premier League and Champions League hopes of United, The Reds look set to make a mockery of that tongue in cheek ‘Liverpool winning race for seventh’ headline I so chuckled at. More than that, they’ve advanced to the last four of the Europa League. Bless ‘em.
It seems as if to qualify again for that same competition is the best Liverpool can hope to achieve from their Premier League season, especially after last weekend’s draw with Fulham, with the top-four berth to be scrapped out by Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. However, wouldn’t it be ironic if Liverpool’s European hopes hinge on them beating Chelsea at Anfield when the two teams clash on the second last day of the season. Oh how they could yet do a massive favour for their bitterest of rivals, United, for whom after last weekend’s mishap at Blackburn, now require for more than just Liverpool to get one over Chelsea if they are to retain the Premier League trophy.
Never did I think I’d see the day, but Liverpool might soon be about to have the support of more than a few Red Devils! Come on The Reds.
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