It's absolute bedlam, but it sure is entertaining

John Fogarty

IT’S three days of absolute bedlam and in some ways lunacy but that’s not the say the Sigerson Cup doesn’t deliver entertainment.

The first day’s action was full of it. We had GAA’s version of Bloodgate, the University of Ulster Jordanstown management seemingly trying to pull a fast one on the referee by pulling off a midfielder claiming he was bleeding.

After consultation with his umpire, the referee deemed there was no blood lost and ordered him back on and his replacement off.

It was clearly a way of keeping players fresh as they face the prospect of three games in as many days but backfired spectacularly.

In the second game, we had David Moran, a man who lit up Croke Park on Saturday, stinking up UCD’s humble Castle Pitch on Thursday. Nothing but nothing went right for the Kerry midfielder as his UL side went down to NUI Maynooth.

His free-taking was dismal but he really knew it wasn’t going to be his day when he was harshly called for charging coming out with the ball late in the second-half.

He cut a disconsolate figure trudging off after the game. He’ll have better days, no doubt, and Jack O’Connor wouldn’t have been too unhappy seeing him, Anthony Maher and Jonathan Lyne not having to go through the mill over the weekend.

Likewise, he wouldn’t have too disappointed to hear Sean Armstrong damaged his hamstring in the same game for UL. The Galway man is now set to be out of Sunday’s week trip to Kerry and with that the Tribe’s slim chances have gone to nought.

On a more positive note, the Sigerson had earned a hashtag too. On Twitter, Dublin footballers extended their best wishes to those team-mates playing in UCD. Mossy Quinn made the salutation to DCU’s Bryan Cullen, who he jokingly claimed was playing in his 10th Sigerson finals.

Also tweeting, Bernard Brogan send his best wishes to Cullen or, as he referred to him, Benjamin Button. If the football stops working out, last year’s footballer of the year might try out on the stand-up circuit.

Sadly for Cullen, it ended as quickly as it started as 2010 champions DCU went out to UCC in their quarter-final. Cue a silent sigh of relief from Pat Gilroy, another manager who was praying his plethora of players representing the Glasnevin university came through the weekend unscathed.

There were plenty of other worried onlooking inter-county bosses in UCD. With 10 of his extended panel in action, Justin McNulty would have been concerned about his Laois players’ fitness as much as their form. To a lesser extent, so too were Offaly’s Tom Cribben and Kildare selector Aidan O’Rourke.

As Moran showed, the Sigerson Cup can a great leveller but it can also be a showcase. Monaghan’s Conor McManus’s star quality, which has been there for all to see in his county’s three Division 1 games this year, manifested itself in UCD as well.

With Conor Mortimer injured, UUJ will be relying heavily on McManus to shoot them to glory but there is that remarkable coolness about him even when riding the roughest tackles.

One of my favourite memories from my student days was of Tipperary’s Declan Browne kicking an outrageous point against my alma mater NUI Maynooth in the Kildare village in 2001.

With the scores level in extra-time, Browne had to ask the baying NUIM five-deep crowd on the sideline to make an opening for him so he could kick.

To say they did so reluctantly would be putting it mildly. Picture Tiger Woods attempting to clear a path  back to the fairway in a tournament in his ex-wife’s native Sweden – but without Steve Williams.

Browne, with little help from the linesman and to a chorus of boos and f***s, duly booted the ball over the crossbar. Turning to the crowd, he could only smile but his face said it all. How do you like them for ullas?

That’s the thing about the Sigerson. It’s not exactly where stars are born. More like, it’s where they are confirmed. How seriously you treat your football away from the stadiums and crowds and with your college buddies is a good a test as any of whether you’ve got the sand of a quality inter-county player.

Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/9Xxhw3HFoTY/post.aspx

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