Dublinâs unbeaten run. A classic Saturday night league game in Tralee to secure the record - caveat - this was behind a paywall.
Kerryâs revenge in a brilliant League final.
Davy lighting a fire under Wexford hurling. A thumping win in Galway in February set the tone. The hope finally returned to Wexford and they beat Kilkenny in Leinster.
Down swaggering past Monaghan in the Ulster semi-final.
Cork coming to Thurles and unleashing a load of mushrooms on Tipp. The Cork bandwagon rolled.
Galway edging Mayo in Connacht before Kevin McStayâs Roscommon unleashed hell on them in Salthill in the final.
Kildare v Armagh was box office on this forum. @Nembo_Kid humbled @caoimhaoin that night.
Waterford finally finding it within themselves to put the stake through the heart of Codyâs Kilkenny.
But really that summer was all about Mayoâs meandering magical mystery tour. It was shambolic, constipated, infuriating, powerful, primal. It was life affirming. A team that could plumb depths and fly to uncharted heights. Both the greatest and worst GAA team to support that ever was. A team that was an attention magnet for an entire nation. BOX OFFICE. Those were days of days.
The Mayo v Kerry replay in 2017 was a very underrated game to attend. It felt like Jimmy White getting back to another final against Stephen Hendry, or Munster getting back to another Heino final when they beat Leinster in 2006. Returning one more time. The sun shone at Croke Park that day and the 53,000 there that day felt like a lot more. There was a feeling of deliverance and destiny about it and you knew that this time the sun was going to shine for the final.
As far as Iâm concerned Iâve never seen Croke Park or Dublin City heave like it did for the 2017 final. There was something in the air. The sun was burning in the sky. A real feeling of finality about it.
Maybe the whole thing was doomed after that day anyway but my god theyâve done some job to destroy it since.
Would a hurling where the 3rd place teams donât qualify and itâs just the Munster final winner v Leinster loser etc two weeks after the provincial finals be better?
More dead rubbers at the round robin phase I guess.
The sun did not burn in the sky in 2017 in the same way it did in 2013. But I think that was appropriate. 2013 was a furnace, it was like Greece in July. Itâs the only time I have ever attended an All-Ireland final wearing shorts. It was uncomfortable and the Hill was wedged. 2017 was beautiful, just perfect, it had that slight haze and a beautiful benign autumnality to it. It had the best of summer and the best of autumn. Utterly perfect conditions, perfect for the occasion, for the time of year, for that special Sunday. I got the 5:45am bus from Galway to Dublin that morning. I was late booking and all the later buses were booked out. It was either that or I wasnât getting to Dublin. The rising sun in the east as the bus meandered past Tyrellspass, Rochfortbridge, Kinnegad and in was some sight. I was listening to Big Sky by Kate Bush on repeat, looking at the sun rising through the beautiful trees that line the left side of the M4. By the time I arrived at Heuston Station the sun was flooding the Quays and the water between them. It was 8:15am and the anticipation was as high for a match as it had ever been. You could feel it in the still largely empty streets. By jaysus it delivered. Gillâs beforehand was chaos. There was panic everywhere on the streets of Dublin. Forged tickets were floating around, somebody over from America bought hurling final tickets for 180 quid each. There were more people looking than I have ever seen. I second hand commentated Con OâCallaghanâs goal to a man I was talking to at the junction as I listened to Darragh Maloney with one earphone in. It was the only time in 27 attempts I failed to secure the prized golden ticket for a final. But that did not stop me getting into the stadium. You get in if you have to. The Clonliffe beer garden after the game was primal. I spent half an hour talking to a Mayo man. Then Graingers on the Malahide Road, then I donât know what. I think we got a taxi to the Gravediggers. I remember that night after midnight I started to feel cold walking on Dame Street. That was appropriate too. In the Con Houlihan sense of the phrase, it was the ceremonial first night of winter.
Waterford 2010s were never BOX OFFICE in the way Waterford 2000s had been. There were a couple of reasons for that. They didnât have as many characters as the 2000s team. They played a sweeper system.
Another reason was that over the years Waterford had blotted their copybook against Kilkenny and Tipperary - who were the teams they ran into most frequently in big games in the 2015-17 period, to such an extent that it basically bankrupted the viability of those pairings as crowd pullers.
After 2008, people refused to go to Kilkenny-Waterford games in numbers because of what had happened in 2008. The mental scarring was too much. Only with the 2016 replay did Waterford people even dare to think the mental scarring might be even slightly receding.
Tipp v Waterford had happened over and over and over again in the 2009-2016 period and every time it was a turkey. It was a pairing that relentlessly disappointed. People refused to go to in numbers especially because of what had happened in 2011 when Waterford conceded seven (7) goals. Also this pairing contains too much blue and white and is visually unappealing to look at. And Munster final day 2016 was pissing wet. And it was in Limerick.
The Cork-Waterford pairing by contrast never encountered such a calamitous, reputation-destroying mismatch over this time and that pairing continued to excite.
Dragging Waterford to Limerick for a Munster Final as they did in 2016 was never going to attract much of a Waterford crowd. Waterford just donât travel to Limerick.
I think you need the 3rd place game to keep round robin interesting.
Maybe have the 2 3rd place teams play each other the weekend of the provincial finals and have that winner and jmcd winner play the loosing provincials in the 1/4 final.
Remember the furnace of 2013. Cycled into St Stephenâs Green to meet the family that morning. Never experienced heat like it before in late September. But youâre spot on about the 2017 game. There was something about Dublin that morning.
The nonsense of a split season was far from our thoughts that morning. A beautiful morning weather wise. Met the auld fella, who is a died in the wool Mayo man and tried to get him to eat something. But it was futile, he was way too nervous. He kept talking about hoping theyâd avoid a hammering. I was trying to give his head a wobble. Couldnât get tickets myself that day, but I wasnât bothered. I had finally seen my beloved Galway hurlers reach the top of Everest two weeks previously. I was on the porter for two weeks solid at that point. Life was great. I cycled into Mulligans around lunchtime, and met the brother there. We were the only lads from west of the Shannon in the place. Got plenty of jibes from coddle munchers who were old enough to know better (I made a point to go back there on Saturday night) What followed was one of the greatest games Iâve ever seen. A game that was so many imperfections, that it was actually perfect. The early autumn light, the temperature, the sense of occasion around Dublin that day. So many talking points afterwards. Everything.
Met the auld fella and his brother afterwards, they were both fighting back tears. He told me that he punched the wall in disgust when he was leaving Croke Park. He knew, that was the one.
I remember even after the game walking back to The Palace and Iâve never seen so many broken people like the Mayo folk were that evening. They were absolutely gutted.
But as Tom Parsons i think said, days like that are what living is all about.
Got absolutely soaked before the game and had to face the longest train journey home ever after. School the following morning was absolutely grim.
The fact you were staring down the barrel of a bleak grim winter just made it mean more and nothing the split season zealots ever do is going to change that.
It doesnt fit the narrative. Have you had a conversation about the split season or drop in attendance due to it in real life? Ive only seen it here and a few old farts writing it in the media.
In real life moving All-Ireland finals to July is a very hot topic and Iâve yet to speak to a person who thinks the GAA hasnât made an absolute bollix of the whole thing.
The spilt season zealots exist in an online echo chamber of company men.