THE LAST POINT: Traditions can bemuse and delight

Tradition is one of those loaded words when it comes to the area of sport. If you hail from Kerry or Kilkenny, tradition dictates that you have a great chance of seeing Sam Maguire or Liam McCarthy in your home over the winter at some stage, so tradition is something to be embraced and embellished, the concept burnishing self-belief and confidence.

The other side of tradition is that it is traditional for some teams to lose - we know that feeling all too well here in Leitrim with our standing in gaelic football but no matter how much we fight and scratch against the notion, tradition seeps into our marrow and combating the tradition of a club, a county or a country is often the most difficult and harrowing task any group can take on.

That’s what we automatically think about when we talk about tradition but there are other rituals of sport that sometimes we don’t even think about that cause wonder and bafflement in equal measure to those not exposed to them before.

Rugby’s tradition of the winning team clapping the losing team off the field before, in turn, being applauded off the pitch themselves is to me baffling, an anachronism that doesn’t seem to fit with the hype and hustle of modern day sport but in a completely different way, it works - a reminder that all sport is just a game and that decency and honour should play a significant role despite the mantra that winning is all that matters.

That mantra extends to all sports unfortunately - the old saying that second place is first loser is probably the most succinct and brutal summation of the philosophy but then, sports’ little traditions remind us that there are other things that matter.

THE LAST POINT: COMMODIFICATION OF SPORT IS A WORRY

One rugby tradition that baffles me how it has persisted is the All Blacks Haka - a pre-match exercise in intimidation and tone setting. Don't tell me it doesn't confer New Zealand with a psychological advantage and they are quite precious about protecting its aura but rugby folk love that particular tradition so who am I to argue.

Soccer has made a commodity out of their rituals - pre-match hand-shakes, anthems, fair play declarations and then anything goes out on the field! I’m not getting at soccer by any means, there are enough traditions and rituals in Gaelic games to fill an encyclopedia but the favourite is the quick handshake with your opponent at the start of a game before promptly giving them a dig!

If it were me, I’d do away with the tradition of captain’s speeches at the end of finals. Most of the time, they’ve descended into a laundry list of thank yous and mentions and the reason they’ve gotten so long is that the poor captain is terrified they’re going to cause offence by failing to mention someone in the background.

When they’re done well, nothing beats a good captain’s speech - the raw emotion in Aidan Flynn’s address to the crowd after this year’s Senior Final stood out, remembering not just the glory days the Village had enjoyed but some of the sad days the local community have endured in recent times. But most of the time, the captain's speeches aren’t the old statement of identity but a list of people to be thanked.

I’ve often felt that the three cheers for the defeated team grates, for both the winning and losing teams - it can come across as condescending or perfunctory but over the last few years, it has gravitated more towards a generous tribute and round of applause that has definitely veered away from the three cheers tradition.

Whatever about adult teams, certainly I’d do away with speeches for Juvenile teams as an unnecessary burden on young players not used to talking in public. I know TG4 don’t do post match interviews any more with players under the age of 18, although that might have to do more with a few inadvertent curse words slipping out from an overly excited recipient.

For every young lad or lass that can talk the ears off a deaf man after a match, there are three or four intimidated by the microphone or dictaphone thrust under the nose so I can only imagine the consternation that comes with standing in front of a crowd and you’re expected to deliver words of wisdom, gratitude and celebration so it is no wonder the odd mis-step occurs.

There are times I wonder if some traditions are confined to certain counties and there is one in Leitrim that has bemused and bewildered people from other counties and that is the tradition of the losing team popping in on the Monday to the victorious team’s celebrations, visiting en-masse to spend a few hours’ socialising with opponents you’d have gladly bet to hell and back the day before!

The Monday after the Senior Final, I was driving through Leitrim Village to collect Willie Donnellan ahead of a trip to Cloone for the Minor Division 2 Final and there was the sight of 30 or 40 Ballinamore lads heading back for the two buses that brought them to the new County Champions.

Willie told me a good friend of his from across the border couldn’t believe something like this would ever occur, it would never happen in Roscommon and anywhere else this well travelled footballing obsessive had wandered and the notion of Ballinamore players travelling to Leitrim Village or the Dromahair players arriving as they did in Drumshanbo the Monday after the Intermediate Final simply blew his mind.

I don’t know where this uniquely Leitrim tradition originated - I suspect it wasn’t when Aughawillan and Ballinamore used to meet regular as clockwork on County Final day although both did frequent Prior’s in Ballinamore, albeit in two very different areas of that establishment.

My first recollection of the practice was when Fenagh made the journey to Carrick in 1995, Paddy’s on the Monday the place to be and their example was adopted over the years by Kiltubrid, Mohill, St Mary’s and more than a few others, although there were a few years when hostilities on the field and fierce local rivalries meant it never came to pass.

It can’t have been easy for Ballinamore to travel to Leitrim, not because of any great rivalry with the Gaels, but rather the fact that they’ve lost back to back finals but travel they did, the all-time leaders of the Leitrim Roll of Honour reminding everyone that honour doesn’t just only come from what you achieve on the field but how you behave in moments of great despair and hurt.

I’m sure we’re going to spend lots of time over the next few months talking about tradition when it comes to the timing of the inter-county championship - returning the All-Irelands to August or September would suit me, it would mean a lot of more Sundays and even Saturdays where club games couldn’t go ahead because of clashes with televised inter-county fare and a more leisurely conclusion to the inter-county season.

THE LAST POINT: CONNACHT DAYS ONES TO SAVOUR

Who wants a return to Club Championship games on Sunday evenings? Remember those? Games at 5.30 and 7 pm on Sunday evening with players literally grabbing their gearbags and dashing for the car before the long trek to Dublin or Galway or Limerick or whatever part of the eastern seaboard they are based.

We have the same going on about the pre-season competitions and whatever about the McKenna Cup or the O’Byrne Cup, the FBD League only started in 1995 and we’ve had years where Army teams and college teams have taken part, we’ve even had Munster teams in it so what tradition exactly is being protected with that?

Like a lot of life, these things tend to come down to personal tastes but to be perfectly honest, tradition shouldn’t be allowed to dictate our lives just because it is the way it was always done? Did lifting Sam Maguire in July mean less to Armagh or Kerry because the game wasn’t held in September? The same for Tipperary and Liam McCarthy?

Tradition is what we make - the idea of teams visiting each other to socialise the day after a County Final didn’t exist in Leitrim before the early nineties, now it is embedded in the psyche of the Leitrim club scene. It may be alien to other counties, constrained by logistics as much as anything else, but new traditions can be just as meaningful as the old, whatever the sport, whatever the county.