I don’t like Mondays

It was long ago and far away: August 31, 1969, when I attended my first senior club championship final. It was played in O’Neill Park in Dungannon, a fabulous venue often used for major club and county games, before everything was moved en masse to Omagh.

I was all of nine summers and our team Coalisland played Carrickmore, two sides with great championship tradition. I was excited, so was our boy, while Da was just… himself.

The Fianna was looking good, five points ahead as the sides hit the home straight before Carmen peppered a few overs and Fr Peter Paul Kerr delivered the last rites with a late goal… 1-10 to 1-9. It was a devastating defeat. In an interview last year, the disappointment of that loss could still be heard in the voice of stalwart John L Corr.

Those men were heroes to us kids… Aidan McMahon, John Early, Tommy Woods… club is community. Just last week I chatted with the keeper in ‘69, Brendan Hampsey, on our way into a local store to get the papers. Coalisland didn’t win the championship for another 20 years, the six-year-old boy beside me that day, was centre half back, our Conor. Brendan was manager.

We talked championship of course, mostly about tonight’s game between the same two clubs: Coalisland v Carrickmore… on a Monday night, yikes! Now read on…

Freddie Mercury could have been referring to the championship when he sang,’One dream, one soul, one prize, one goal, one golden glance of what should be – it’s a kind of magic’.

Championship reduces men and women to tears while taking the victors to dreamland. My daughter has been to All-Ireland football and hurling finals, rugby internationals, a few Premiership games… her favourite memory, was when she was eight and Coalisland beat Carrickmore (I told you, we’re great rivals!) in the 2010 county final and the fireworks went into the air at Fr Peter Campbell Park when the O’Neill Cup arrived home on the team bus that evening.

The very word ‘championship’ rises the sap. When college student Patrick was asked by his Dad whether he wanted to go to the US for the summer, he replied, “No – the championship.” Nothing more needed said.

Marriage dates are arranged around the championship, players fly home for the championship and the lame miraculously pull on their boots again. The Tyrone championship, that is drawing more and more spectators from other counties, is enthralling. Eight or nine teams are in the mix, maybe more, and it is not diluted by a nonsensical round-robin series of games… straight knock-out, yer only man! The draw was mouth-watering.

There is just one game left in the first round after the weekend’s fare. Tonight’s game throws in at 7.30pm.

The GAA is a fantastic organisation but there are times the powers drop the ball. Last year, the final was on a cold Sunday night in the middle of November under lights which meant supporters waited about all day while sun light shone on Healy Park.

Apparently a marketing guru suggested it made good business sense. There was furore when the price was hiked for Tyrone GAA TV coverage. It cost more in the US to watch the Tyrone final than the All-Ireland final that featured Tyrone. TG4 called to cover the game and were chased from the door. Children were charged an admission fee. The competing clubs stepped in to pay for the kids. It was a PR disaster for Tyrone GAA that got negative publicity far beyond the county boundary.

There is wonderful footage of a soccer fan after a midweek game, who when asked by the SKY Sport reporter, “How do you feel about having to travel here on a Monday night”, quick as a flash replied, “That’s because of you!”

Children love these games indeed some of the players are fathers.

A local mother (we’ll call her friend Fiona) said, “Many families won’t go and really it isn’t fair on the kids. Crazy is an understatement, by the time kids get in from school have dinner, do their homework then to drive to Omagh for that time and back, it’s a total ‘hanlin’. It’s not fair on the kids who love the football. I’ve one boy coming ten and I take my nephew of 13 who is crazy about it. They’d be wrecked by the time they get home, at least 10pm with all that rushing and then have to get up early Tuesday morning. So would I! It’s a long way to the weekend!”

If the game goes to extra time and penalties, we can add on at least an hour.

There are also students playing, who are expected to return to college after the weekend, come home on Monday night and go back again to Belfast or wherever they are based.

Frank McGuigan has a few championship medals. He has lambasted the timing of the game under lights stating he would have refused to play.

“Some players work in construction and if a plasterer or a brickie is working in, for example, Belfast, then how can he be expected to leave home at 7am, do a day’s hard work, come home, travel to Omagh and then give 100 per-cent” said the King. We should listen to our legends who have been there and worn the jersey.