Tyrone and Dublin’s meeting will be an unexpected relegation battle… what has happened to the big beasts of Gaelic football?

Declan Bogue

Mystery: Michael Fitzsimons after Dublin’s defeat by Kildare

©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Mystery: Michael Fitzsimons after Dublin’s defeat by Kildare

March 02 2022 08:55 AM

What has happened to Tyrone? What has happened to the Limerick hurlers? Indeed, what’s going on in Dublin football right now?

How the big beasts have to varying degrees flopped is a curiosity of this league campaign.

On Saturday night, Tyrone fell to their second league defeat and the optimism that was growing after a workmanlike win over Kildare the week before is beginning to deflate.

The following day, it was a remarkable scoreline when Cork hurlers came to play Limerick in a replay of the All-Ireland final hammering. It finished 2-19 to 1-13 in Cork’s favour.

Having said that Cork ‘destroyed’ Limerick in this game, the League Sunday analyst Donal Óg Cusack qualified the remark when asked what this will count for in Championship hurling when Cork revisit the Gaelic Grounds.

He said: “I’m not that sure when it comes to the Championship that it will have that much of an impact on the outcome.

“What I am sure of is that there will be a different animal in Cork coming to Limerick.”

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While Limerick made no secret of the fact they aren’t motivated by thriving in this league, nobody would have expected three straight defeats.

Tyrone’s situation is more complex. They are struggling to wear the crown of champions, but they can point to the absences of Matthew Donnelly, Peter Harte, Michael O’Neill and Ronan McNamee, while Cathal McShane is gingerly coming back through substitute appearances.

A couple of years back, Donegal had been seen as dark horses to win an All-Ireland. They were playing Tyrone on Saturday without Michael Murphy and Michael Langan, and will be encouraged by the players who were deputising on the night.

Dublin’s run of form is the most puzzling. It’s as if their game plan has become easy to work out and in frustration, players are doing things that they wouldn’t have considered while under Jim Gavin.

The break this weekend is coming at a good time for Tyrone and Dublin.

When action resumes, the two will meet in Omagh on March 13. It will be a relegation battle that nobody foresaw.

There will be some run of tickets that week.