Dublin's players were not the only ones thumped before a rather soggy Church and General Allianz squelched to its Christmas break.

Fists flew far too often, red cards flashed and there was a great deal of tut tutting and talk of taking video evidence punishing the miscreants.

However, when the dust has settled andsuspensions have been handed out we will still be left with the root cause of the problem, the tackle and the inherent belief that gaelic football is a mans game, so a few thumps administered in the heat of battle don't do a lot of harm.

But of course they do and unless things are tidied up, there is a real danger that the football end of the game will be swamped in mediocrity and mauling.

That will, of course, be poor consolation to the Dublin fans who saw their favourites well and truly beaten by Offaly in Tullamore. Two games, two defeats, not good.

Offaly won because they were hungrier, focussed and pretty well organised. Dublin looked neat enough at times but they don't have a general on the field, someone to take the game by the scruff of the neck and direct operations.

Tommy Carr an ex army man himself knows there is little point in producing the finest plans unless he has general in the field to make sure they are implemented. If Dublin don't get it right against Roscommon after Christmas, Carr could be in trouble.

But for Tyrone everything has been plain sailing. Having beaten Dublin with fourteen men, they thrashed Kerry and then with Peter Canavan back in action, won comfortably against Roscommon to top Division 1 A with full points.

Whether they can maintain that momentum in up coming games against Donegal and Galway remains to be seen but they have certainly set a smart pace.

However losing All Ireland finalists Galway are unbeaten and with a side still short some of their regulars at that. But from goalkeeper Padraig Lally out, they have gone about their league business with commendable enthusiasm and may yet be the dominant team.

Apart from Donegal, also unbeaten, the rest of the top division sides have been unimpressive, even Offaly have only that single win against Dublin to their credit.

League champions Derry have yet to show real Championship form and paid the price for fielding a weak team against Clare, losing by a goal, that scored Des Mulhone six minutes into the second half .

But at least they have a game in hand but that being against Mayo could bring them more bad news, after all Mayo made it two wins in two games when they beat Laois by 1-11 to 0-11 in Portlaoise.

Donegal made it three from three by beating Louth in Ballybofey quite comfortably but no marks to either side for behaviour with three men sent off.

Mark Stanfield and Stephen Melia from Louth and Donegal's Johnny McCaffrey got their marching orders in a real toughie.

But if Derry have been disappointing, Sligo have exceeded their own expectations with a hat trick of wins even if their shock win against Cavan was more than they deserved.

What a pity that what was, otherwise, a cracking game in difficult conditions was rather spoiled by the punch up near the end. Des Sloyan grabbed the all-important goal for Sligo but watch out for this Cavan side.
Dublin born team boss Val Andrews has them playing with great self confidence,producing a very attractive brand of open quick moving football. They will ,I fancy,be back on top pretty soon.

Striker Stephen Mguire has already been picked out by team boss John Maughan as the player most likely to lift them to glory in the Ulster Championship.Fermanagh eventually only had a point to spare over the Meath boys but they had raced into a 2-2 to zero lead within flfteen minutes and set the home side a tough target.
To their credit Meath did level the game but the sending off of Mark O'Reilly did not help their cause. It was Fermanagh's first win after defeats by Sligo and Mayo but it may not be their last.

Cork, Leitrim and Westmeath were the big winners in Division 2 A with Westmeath romping home agaisnt Wicklow, Leitrim hammering London by 4-21 to two points and Cork cruising home against Limerick by a massive 4-16 Antrim and London, both pointless are worse off.

Proud Leinster Champions Kildare are still suffering from a bit of a hangover following their Championship defeat by Galway and having opened with a training spin win over Tipperary have been beaten by both Monaghan and Down.

But with such class players as Karl O'Dwyer, Tadg Finnan,Dermot Earley and Anthony Rainbow still in their ranks, they will surely finish a lot nearer the top oDivision 2 B,each having won three times.

However for me the most encouraging thing about the League so far is that we have seen so many quality games in awful conditions. But no marks to the alleged hard men or to those counties, like All Ireland Champions Kerry who have treated the competition with contempt.

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© Tom Keogh 2001

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