The Sunday Times' Michael Foley looks back on some of the major shocks the GAA Football All-Ireland Championships have produced since their inception ten years ago.
"What teams make of their future this weekend won't be determined entirely by tradition anymore, but what they make of themselves."
At the start of May, when groups of managers, players, journalists and pundits were gathered at various different press conferences around the country to launch the GAA Football All-Ireland Championship, they joined to deliver a familiar rendition of an old refrain when prompted. The blood and thunder of the knockout provincial championships, many of them reckoned, is now replaced by bouts of shadowboxing between May and June with the real punches in the Championship saved for August. The treasured old glories of the big day out had been pillaged and squandered by the GAA All-Ireland Qualifier era. The provincial championships now cranked into gear with barely a whisper of anticipation, betrayed by cute bucks thinking big and playing smart, looking for long grass where they could crouch and wait to pick off those that rode headstrong into the summer.
It's a rickety enough assumption to suggest that the tension that always coloured provincial championship matches has been diluted by the prospect of a second chance - Cork-Kerry? Galway/Mayo-Sligo? Kildare-Louth? - but it's a modest price to pay for the health benefits bestowed on the Championship as a whole by the Qualifiers. The provincial championships still threw up some engaging matches this year and four novel finals containing more teams that would crave a provincial title than we've seen for many years. Meanwhile, in the same way a few good weeks' of sunshine can overpower even the grimmest summer, the Qualifiers have chased the clouds away, confirming again that instead of draining the best of the excitement from the Championship, it simply shunts some of it forward a few weeks.
Consider the GAA Football Championship during the decade before the Qualifier era began in 2001. How many real surprises and breakthroughs did the Championship produce? Clare against Kerry in 1992 and Cork in '97? Leitrim in 1994? Antrim's win over Down in the 2000 Ulster GAA Championship was something, but beyond that, those scrimping along beneath football's monied classes largely settled for being paraded like poorly turned out cattle at a summer show before being sent for slaughter.
Now consider the stories inspired by the Qualifier era. Sligo in 2001 and '02. Fermanagh in 2004. Longford beating Derry in 2006, running Kerry close last season and scalping Mayo this year. Limerick annihilating Meath in 2008. Westmeath turning over Mayo in 2001 and Galway in '06, and almost beating Tyrone in '08. Louth coming equally close against Tyrone in 2006 and Meath a few years before. Carlow catching Offaly one night in 2005.
The list is long and colourful. Wicklow winning three consecutive Championship games last year for the first time in their history. Laois being nailed by Tipperary a few weeks ago. Sligo and Antrim scaring the pants off Kerry last year. When Limerick arrived in Cavan for a Qualifier in 2002, one Cavan supporter was overheard declaring the sky would fall in if a crowd like Limerick beat them. He left the match more nervous than Chicken Licken.
The Qualifier system has given almost every county has their own little parable of achievement, with a nourishing moral about hard work, patience and courage. More of those results that once were considered shocks are now greeted as due reward for years of patient building work. The most punishing labour has often been accomplished through the Qualifiers.
Sligo beating Mayo and Galway in one Championship season is notable for the long stretch since Sligo last managed that, not because it happened this season. That strength and belief was partly earned by investing in the Qualifiers. They captured the liberating spirit of the 'back door' in 2001 by beating Kildare and fetching up in Croke Park for the first time since 1975. They broadened their ambitions further by beating Tyrone in 2002 and running Armagh close, and eventually parlayed that into the foundations for a Connacht title in 2007. Almost beating Kerry last year gave them a fresh reference point for this summer. Look at them now.
Same with Fermanagh's run to the All-Ireland semi-final in 2004. The roots of that were planted against teams in the first few years of the Qualifiers, when Fermanagh frequently stuck a leg out and sent a big team tumbling. Finally reaching an Ulster GAA Championship final in 2008 wasn't a shock. It reflected the status they had achieved. The Qualifiers helped get them there.
Over the years the system has rewarded resolve, diligent tending of limited resources and talented coaches capable of helping their players through the adversity of defeat. Longford's win over Mayo in the last round of the Qualifiers was a classic of the genre. Longford embraced their second chance. Mayo's weaknesses were exposed by Longford's attitude. That is the basic virtue of the Qualifiers. They leave no doubt about a team's worth, and reward those that embrace the challenge.
Because of the Qualifiers the best team now wins the All-Ireland annually, and almost every team ultimately gets what they deserve. Longford's example is the lesson for a handful of teams venturing into games this weekend in the shadow of towering opposition. The early rounds of the Qualifiers in particular are a classless place with equal opportunity for all. What teams make of their future this weekend won't be determined entirely by tradition anymore, but what they make of themselves.
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