Leinster GAA launched its own Hurling and Football Championships in the novel surroundings of Baldonnel aerodrome last week and had plenty of big guns out to give their views on how this year’s Championships might play out.
Brian Cody and Jim Gavin were front and centre stage among the managers. Gavin was probably the most at home given his own history in aviation and the defence forces though it was the future and the weight of expectation looking to make history by winning a first-ever five in a row that was the main topic of conversation.
Cody is one of only two living GAA coaches to have faced that same pressure and while Dublin was on his mind it was more to do with next Saturday’s Leinster Championship opening round game against Mattie Kenny’s hurlers.
We got a few injury updates and a few lines both in tribute to Paul O’Flynn and on the subject of a potential return to the Dublin panel of Rory O’Carroll and Diarmuid Connolly.
There was an opportunity for Leinster GAA to broadcast some of the highlights from the day on Instagram Stories and the photography was a little different to the regulation pictures of moody players loosely holding the Championship trophies.
There is always at this time of year talk of a revamp of the All Ireland series and the decline of the Provincial Championships but we are here again, on the cusp of another season where those same provincial titles will be played out in the same way as that have been for more than a century.
There is always a natural focus on the All Ireland Finals and the ultimate Champion in each year but there is a lot more complexity to the GAA season than a single linear narrative ending on the afternoon of September 2nd.
The Championship ebbs and flows, swelling towards its conclusion but with plenty of staging posts along the way, including those that end up with a provincial medal clasped in the hand.
Image Credit: David Fitzgerald, Sportsfile
