It's dark and wet on the way home from work tonight, the bus smells like soggy dog. The Champions League is back for group games next Tuesday. Winter is officially here. They can lie to us about an Indian Summer and the temperature might creep over 20 again once or twice more but really we're done here. All of which means the summer ended from a sporting perspective last Sunday. The All Ireland Football final has a lot to live up to.
And yet, the potential for one final signature game exists.
The press nights for Down and Cork are over. Both managers will have trotted out their clichés in the hope of avoiding anything that might be useful motivation for the other. Wee James apparently rolled his eyes when asked to explain the value of Marty Clarke and urged the hacks to play the tapes of the previous press night before the semi-final to find the answer, then swiftly apologized, smiled and waxed lyrical.
Eoin Cadogan should surely be forced to mark Marty. He’s possibly the only footballer in Ireland now that Ricey isn’t at the full peak of his powers capable of dealing with the Joe Montana that is Clarke. I incorrectly used Dan Marino as my go-to-quarterback when looking for a way of explaining Marty to anyone yet to see him in the flesh when I was jabbering on about it on the radio last week. It sounded jarring to me but I momentarily couldn’t remember if Marino was a leftie too. He isn’t. So I thought Clarke was Joe Montana in my head, only crossed with a running back. His shuffling feet, tiny turning circle and loping style delivering the ball into the precise point that the onrushing player is arriving to at full pace. Only it turns out Joe Montana isn’t a leftie either. Steve Young, so far as I know, concussioned out of professional football is the guy in my head. Comparing Gaelic Footballers with American Footballers is a sure sign of madness.
For Clarke’s sake alone I want Down to win. I do want to see what happens if they put Cadogan on him though.
Maybe a bit of this? (I think Xavier pointed out here before that the haunting theme tune half way through is what makes this video special, although it did leave me convinced by sheer weight of video evidence).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqYgQp9IXfs[/youtube]
