I can’t say if it’s the best football championship ever. But I’m certain about the two-pointer

The 2004 Munster hurling final had just ended. Fourteen-man Waterford had beaten Cork in an epic contest and the late Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh stuck his head into the press box to ask a question: “Was it the best ever?”

Typical of his enthusiasm for events and contests, the implicit judgment was uncontrived but instant. When you think about these things, who knows? There had been more than 100 Munster finals by that stage, all of which nobody alive 22 years ago could have seen.

I am impressed by the certitude with which some can pronounce on the competing merits of teams and players from different eras, even if they have had the chance to watch them in person.

For instance, at the turn of the century, a correspondent from Wicklow – originally Kerry – wrote to dispute a reference to Mick O’Dwyer’s team of the 1970s and 80s being the best of all time. He had seen both and believed Kerry’s four-in-a-row players from 1929-32 were superior.

A sincere belief and one grounded in personal experience, but did it take into account context and the prevailing competition? At the other end of the scale is the modern tendency to elevate contemporary performers, often without consideration for advances in sports science, preparation and equipment.

So, when the conversation broke out on Sunday about whether we are living through the greatest football championship in history, I was reticent. For a start, what are the metrics? Are breakthrough successes a cause for celebration – an acknowledgment that perseverance is being rewarded – or a sign that standards at the top have slipped?

Then again, elite excellence doesn’t really define great championships. Even if two teams peak in roughly the same era, the number of genuinely memorable matches tends to be limited. Take Dublin and Kerry. Everyone talks about the 1977 All-Ireland semi-final as one of the greatest ever, but it was also the only genuinely gripping match between the counties in that era.

How resonant was it for the country at large? I remember rhapsodising about the late and unexpected renewal of the rivalry in 2023 when a friend from neither county said his local conversations were with people unable to get that worked up about the 32nd championship meeting of the counties.

Framed another way, is this championship one of the most open and unpredictable? Undoubtedly.

It is impossible to decouple what has happened in the past two years from the work of the Football Review Committee (FRC) and its profound reshaping of the game.

When the two-pointer was being trialled and during the laboratory stage of last year’s National League, the concern was that it would stretch the distance between teams of contrasting skill levels – a fear of thrashings that ultimately did for the idea of a four-point goal.

Yet the impact has, counterintuitively, been to assist the tightening of matches. In the past, a team slipping six, seven, eight points behind knew that this erosion of their chances on the scoreboard had no remedy because goals could be prevented by mass defending. And if that was the only route back into contention, it was easily blocked.

Two-pointers are different. They can defuse the impact of a goal. In the club final earlier this year, the air went out of St Brigid’s tyres after they had scored what looked like a consequential goal, because Dingle went straight back up the field and Dylan Geaney kicked a two-pointer.

Teams now trailing in matches keep the faith a lot more tenaciously because they know there is way of recovering. What’s more, it’s an outlet for skilful kickers of the ball, so even if a county is under pressure from an apparently superior collective, it takes one accomplished marksman to keep them in touch.

Look at Cork on Saturday and the way Steven Sherlock – whose kicking exploits with St Finbarr’s was the talk of the club championship – kept them afloat in a first half when they were under intense pressure from Donegal. He landed two two-pointers to keep the Rebels in touch at half-time in Ballybofey.

Their surge for the line was fuelled by the spectacular two-pointers shot by Luke Fahy and Tommy Walsh in the last five minutes.

Monaghan have also been beneficiaries, with Rory Beggan’s preternatural kicking skills assisting them through to the last 12 of the championship.

That empowering of an individual talent can help any team lucky enough to have one available. Previously they could be double-teamed and stifled. Now, a two-point free is a potent survival tool, as is the ability to work an opening on the cusp of the arc.

Westmeath outscored Dublin on two-pointers in the Leinster final and did the same against Galway on Sunday, as their impressive rally whittled away the deficit but couldn’t quite close it.

Louth are an exemplar. Sam Mulroy wasn’t having his best game in last year’s Leinster final, but from somewhere he dredged up the conviction to rifle over a two-point free, which turned the match against Meath for the last time.

At the same time, it’s not simply an underdogs’ charter. Kerry hardly bothered with two-pointers in last year’s league, but by the time they got to Croke Park the talents of David Clifford and Seán O’Shea helped turn the county into brand leaders of the enhanced score.

Good footballers and good conditions on a good pitch – who’d have thought?

There have been results that would have been deemed impossible in the pre-FRC days. A year ago, Meath tanking Kerry by nine looked to be the last rites for Jack O’Connor’s team, but they recovered.

There was further sensation at the weekend, nowhere more so than in Inniskeen where Ulster champions and All-Ireland frontrunners Armagh bit the dust in the face of the oldest act of deliverance – a chaotic goal just as time runs out.

The four provinces are represented in the quarter-finals but not by the provincial champions. And of the four already qualified, only Galway played Division One football this spring.

Best championship ever? Who cares? Just enjoy it.

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