Heading to Pomeroy on Sunday evening from north Belfast I had two main route options – M1 or M2. Even though the latter was handier for me I chose the former, going for the familiar road as a Dungannon native.
Before I’d even got along the Antrim Road, though, I began to doubt my choice. Many of the supporters of the competing clubs, Dungannon Clarke’s and Donaghmore St Patrick’s would be heading in the same direction as me towards Plunkett Park…
I needn’t have worried about getting caught up in traffic, however. Not because the crowd wasn’t large, but rather due to the bulk of the match-goers already being at the venue early.
The curtain-raiser, the Intermediate Championship clash between Greencastle and Kildress, undoubtedly held some appeal for neutrals, and was a closer contest than the final scoreline might suggest.
“It was tough on my mum and dad. I knew I was self-destructing. And I also knew the next phase of that, if I had carried on, it was not being here. I was in a very dark place...” - the life and times of Caolan Mooney
‘If you’re still in it when the Christmas tree is up then you’re not going too badly’ - Tommy Coleman’s minors striving for more Clann Eireann success
Yet the major reason for early attendance was spectators not wishing to miss a moment of a limited product: only 15 Tyrone SFC games are guaranteed each season.
The first half was surprisingly one-sided, with Dungannon well on top, but from the moment Donaghmore netted the crowd was treated to classic championship combat.
It was a tight and tense ‘one score’ match throughout the second half, only decided in injury time with a penalty converted by Dungannon’s Paul Donaghy.
Three of the other seven first round matches ended up as one-point games – Carrickmore and Dromore, Loughmacrory and Omagh, and Clonoe and Coalisland.
The Tyrone championship isn’t necessarily ‘the best’, with others in Ulster consistently producing stronger sides, notably Derry – but it is the most entertaining and exciting.
The Tyrone SFC is a rarity now in retaining the traditional straight knockout format.
In other counties there are all sorts of increasingly convoluted formats, including winners’ and losers’ routes, group stages, and even the head-wrecking Cavan system which has been effectively adopted by soccer’s Champions League.
There’s money to be made in a few of those places if you’re prepared to roll up a few foregone conclusions into an accumulator.
Some people were even bold enough to do that in Tyrone. One man told me he’d placed £1000 on the combination of victories for Trillick and Errigal Ciaran.
The Trillick element was comfortable, the reigning champions eight-point winners over Eglish. However, there was some sweat over their predecessors, and last year’s beaten finalists, Errigal Ciaran, as they battled past Pomeroy Plunkett’s, before the profit of around £150 was realised.
Another attendee in Pomeroy then noted that big money doubles used to be a common thing in those seasons when the Leinster and Munster champions didn’t meet in the All-Ireland SFC semi-finals, especially when Dublin and Kerry were those provincial representatives.
The early Nineties put paid to that, with Ulster sides not only reaching five consecutive finals but winning the first four of those.
That power shift was a factor in ending the straight knockout system, but the calls for change to the football format were heard for decades before they were at last implemented in 2001.
The qualifier system – better known as ‘the back door’ – worked well for a few years, but it became apparent that there wasn’t the depth of quality to accommodate 30-odd teams in the same competition.
The demand from county players to have more championship matches was another factor in the drive for format changes.
So we’ve had the Super Eights and, more recently, the switch to two tiers with group stages, yet there remain too many foregone conclusions in the inter-county football championships.
The weekend announcement from Central Council that the All-Ireland senior football championship will retain the current group format for next season wasn’t just greeted with apathy but antagonism.
Many supporters are bored of the system which takes so many matches to eliminate only four teams from 16. Most people could correctly predict which four teams those would be.
There’ll probably never be a perfect system and the demands of the modern world mean it’s highly unlikely ever to revert to traditional knockout.
Tyrone have brought back the possibility of replays, rather than penalty shoot-outs, in the event of drawn games, but seem content to stick with the knockout format.
How long that continues to be the case remains to be seen though.
There’s quite an array of managerial talent deployed by Tyrone clubs, many of them with significant inter-county experience.
Sure, the league holds more importance in Tyrone than in most other counties, but clubs such as Coalisland, Dromore, and Omagh may wonder about all the effort expended for just one championship outing.
Another aspect is the quality of the grounds, which arguably deserve to host more major matches. Plenty of money has been invested in places such as Pomeroy’s Plunkett Park and clubs might welcome more chances to welcome in paying punters.
For now, although drama cannot be guaranteed, those heading to Tyrone championship matches still know they won’t be watching any sides settling for a narrow defeat, or perhaps even saving efforts (and players) for a more winnable encounter.
Players in particular might like more matches, but for now the appeal of classic championship clashes appears strong enough to withstand any demand for change.
