Football in its purest form Summer may well be in its infancy but by the close of the May bank holiday we had witnessed a game of football of such high quality, it may not be surpassed by September's end. The All Ireland College's football final remains one of the sports best fixtures and over the years it rarely fails to excite. This year's final between St. Pats from Navan and Abbey CBS from Newry is a contender for the 'best of all time' final. After 80 minutes (extra time was needed to find a winner) of scores, speed, skill and style the northern boys went up the steps to collect the Hogan Cup. They might just as easily found themselves pitch side peering up at the Meath boys-it really was that close. And if ever a fixture did not deserve to have a loser (I prefer runner-up in this particular instance) then this was it. The game produced a sustained quality of goal and point scoring, tackling and covering, running and catching. And as usual a few stars of the future underlined their ability-we already knew they had arrived after exploits in previous rounds and indeed previous campaigns. The purity of college ball remains and thankfully the cynicism that in a few short years will seep into their approach is absent. We don't get the late hits, the pulling and dragging and the blocked runner. Just an abandon of imagination and trickery, passing and weaving that leads to a contest that swings one way and then another. The goalkeeping was tremendous but still the best players stuck in four goals, each one better than the other. O'Rourke the Younger threatened to dominate and indeed had many moments of dominance-his kicking is close to perfect with timing and accuracy and array of executions available to him. On the Abbey side have you noted a better colleges player in the recent past than Kevin Dyas from Armagh - I thought he was sensational and any day you hit 2 goals and 1 point from CHB is a special day. Throw in Sheridan and Keating from Navan and Murdock from Abbey and one had the makings of a real contest. All these special players made their assets clear early on-rated their teams best all round footballers, they did little or nothing to call that designation into question. I think Pat's Navan won this game at least twice but nobody told Abbey and they just kept coming back for more until a last minute goal from the afore-mentioned Dyas got them a draw. Even in ET they came again and eventually the pocket rocket at full forward-young Sean Murdock-swung over two beauties to finally wrestle the title from Navan. Murdock's points deserve analysis; they were bent over the bar as he approached from the left lane and by using the outside of his right foot. It is a difficult skill ordinarily but with a couple of minutes left in a nail biting All Ireland final, it's execution takes nerve and great skill for this rare skill is almost impossible to get right at speed. Murdock hit two from two down the stretch. This game will live long in the memory-for those involved they might never reach such dizzy heights again. But, for that one-day, for that one-hour plus, the participants can all look back to a day when they really were kings. Certainly, don't look back in anger. What was learned from the league? As the NFL rolls on over the spring, we often think it is of utmost importance to what happens in the summer. And doubtlessly, it is a serious league and an excellent vehicle to get the vessel ship shape for the angry seas ahead. And yet and yet …….. Kerry are the latest champions and only a week wearing their new crown, but already the footage is headed for archives and the league is air-brushed in preparation for the championship. Croke Park launches the BoI Football All Ireland and away we go-full steam from now until September. So, what did happen in the league and did it really matter to any of the teams? The column decided to check out the numbers first and see what can be deducted from those. Mayo, despite a reputation for poor forward play ended up the top scorers in Division 1 (5-95 is fair togging and represents a match return of almost 16 points, enough to win many a game this summer coming). Cork ended up the division's best defenders and this augers well for the championship, as you must first of all learn to defend if you want to win anything. They conceded just 1-71 in 7 games and that is mean by any standards. Why did they not progress then? Truth is they could do little better the other end with 3-55 as their total. Scoring on average 10 points and conceding about the same means you might just survive-they did. An interesting aside is the fate of last year's winners and runners up. Armagh just avoided relegation but Wexford went down. Indeed Wexford (7-64) and Armagh (6-89) had the two worst defensive records in the top tier-big turnaround in twelve months and possibly the beginning of the slide for both outfits. London ended up with zero points and Wicklow have imploded with just a 3-point return from a team we felt was on the up. The big winners are Louth-Division 2 champions and promoted of course. It sets them up beautifully for Meath in the early rounds of Leinster Other winners might include: Dublin (beat Tyrone, Mayo and drew with Kerry); Galway with their late burst but spoiled the progress a little with the reality check defeat to Kerry; Monaghan will be pleased as they beat the Dubs and performed really well against Kerry and Tyrone. Not winners and not losers will be made up of: Laois (have to develop a kicking element to their game); Mayo (more leadership and steel required). Losers include Wexford (end of the road?) and Meath (big time as they needed to stay up for team building purposes next year). Quite a few teams tucked into the middle of the peleton and we will wait out to see how they get on in a few weeks. Those in the middle ground are Offaly, Roscommon, Derry, Westmeath, Donegal and Limerick. The rest? Squeaky bum time ……..here come the Qualifiers! A few months ago we went crystal balling and it appears the league has not fatally wounded any of our hopefuls. For the record the column went for Tyrone in Ulster and Mayo in Connaught. We had Kerry in Munster and Dublin in Leinster. We added Galway, Cork, Armagh and Laois for the last eight and if some of these teams can avoid each other at qualifier stage they might yet make it to the quarterfinals. Tweet

Most Read Stories