Supers 8s: Between the Idea and the Reality

By Declan Bogue

 

WASN'T quite what we expected, was it? Not in Tyrone. Or Roscommon. Or Kerry. Or even Dublin. None of the shocks and surprises. No bumper crowd. No breathless excitement and surges of adrenalin from 320 odd minutes of football in Croke Park. No. What we have here, is a failure to communicate. Specifically, from the GAA to their public and anyone else that might be interested in coming to see the sport of Gaelic football.

 

The action on the pitch mightn't have been great, but let's put that down to the second day being played in conditions that we really thought were a thing of the past in the new, sub-tropical Ireland of 2018.

 

The Original Super 8s Questions do remain. And the first one is, what do we even call this thing anyway? It has been made known that those that turn up for their day's work on Jones' Road are a bit sniffy about the title, 'Super 8s.' Fair enough. The phrase was first coined by Dick Clerkin and used as shorthand for the system during a media interview.

 

It grabbed the popular imagination and even though officially the GAA aren't giving it their blessing - presumably they leave themselves open to accusations of elitism if they endorse it (the fact that every sporting competition is designed to determine elitism and the best seems lost in all of this) - it still has made its' way into public discourse enough for Ulster Council President Michael Hasson to use it in his post-Ulster final speech.

 

While these group stages are just part of the All-Ireland Championship, how hard would it have been to dream up a snappy title for these games, rather than what is their official title; 'The GAA football quarter finals, phase one'?

 

In fact, the lack of hype around the opening weekend was noticeable. Back in 2002, with the stadium just opened and the bubble-wrap still gently peeling off, Armagh and Sligo along with Kerry and Galway, played a double header that attracted 59,252 to Croke Park. The novelty of this new, modern stadium, the envy of Europe, no less, was strong back then. Hubris was everywhere. Every single county has played there in the meantime. There is no novelty and the presentation of games on matchday was become a little wearing. From the moment you walk in you are assaulted by products pushed in your face, unnecessary music blaring through the speakers, and all the Hector you could ever wish for, which, I am betting, is little enough.

 

Another little thing that rankles is that 16 years on from the opening of Croke Park, the GAA have made virtually no dent at all on the thriving tourist industry in Dublin. Go into any guesthouse in Dublin and the hallway will be choked with pamphlets for the Viking Splash and Guinness Storehouse. And yet, there will be nothing from the GAA, or a guide of how to get to see some indigenous sport. I mean, even bullfighting gets an audience when you wrap it in enough 'tradition'!

 

Neutral Venues? Moving on, top of the List Of Things They Can Improve Upon for next year, will be to alter the first round of games being in Croke Park, to 'neutral venue.' They will have to do that anyway to remove the inbuilt advantage Dublin possess now anyway and save us from visiting every library and Wikipedia page to insert an asterix beside any Dublin All-Irelands won under the present system. The way to make something appear desirable, is to give it a sheen of exclusivity. A Donegal-Dublin fixture played in Clones next year would make it a hell of a lot more appetising.

 

Neck and neck with that point has to be to ask how in God's name a ticketing scheme for your teams' three games in the series was not devised. The cost of taking a family to a game is becoming prohibitive, but when your county has three games in four weeks, it should be about enticing people rather than deterring them.

 

It will take time to bed in and people's expectations of what the Super 8s are, or can be, may need to be tempered. The truth is, that if Donegal and Dublin were playing a straight knockout All-Ireland quarter-final they would be targeting a full house, not the 53,501 they got for Saturday's double-header. That's something that perhaps the GAA themselves were not prepared for, but it is beginning to dawn slowly, especially after the Clare Wexford hurling game just about broke five figures, that the games are not selling themselves any more and people will not endure ludicrous distances to watch matches in half-full stadiums.

 

This weekend is when football comes home though, with four home venues set to crackle in the July air. It's a week late, but I think we can welcome the Super 8s now properly.