Cathal Dervan, Editor
Ronnie Whelan could and maybe even should have been in the commentary box for RTE’s coverage of Ireland’s 1-1 draw with Israel in a home away from home game last night.
For reasons which we will no longer go into on these pages, the final game of the four match window was dumbed down by our national broadcaster.
Instead of Darragh Maloney and our Ronnie, we had to make do with the UEFA TV feed and a straight down the middle English commentator who lived up to his billing. As did the match feed with no sight of the half-time spitting incident.
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Giving their everything…
Fair enough, this was no ordinary game and whilst RTE had to cover it contractually, they were under no obligation to cover it as normal. That explains why almost straight after the final whistle, they cut to a Sunday night movie.
Not having control of the remote in my daughter’s house, I had to speculate what the big Sunday movie might be. Perfect Storm flashed across the credits but it turned out that was the name of one of the production companies and the movie in question was actually Fast and Furious 9.
Now I have to admit to having maybe seen one of the previous eight versions of Fast and Furious, definitely no more than that. And whilst events of the past three weeks may have been close to a perfect storm at times, there was little that was fast or furious in last night’s latest game of two halves.
And that’s part of the problem facing this Irish team right now as we look to secure a Pot Two seeding for the Euro qualifiers and a decent shot at qualifying for the Euro 28 finals we will jointly host.
Ireland could badly do with a Fast and Furious 9 as a strike option alongside Troy Parrott. A Fast and Furious 8 wouldn’t go amiss either. In fact, anyone with a bit of fast and furious about them would have been a Godsend in that poor second-half last night when this Irish side again faded badly, failing to protect a 1-0 lead this time around.
To make Pot Two for those qualifiers we will now need decent results away to Austria and home to Kosovo next month, simply because five points from this seemingly endless window exposed once again our lack of a Ronnie Whelan type creative talent in the midfield.
A Ronnie Whelan, a Liam Brady or a Johnny Giles type midfield playmaker would make a real difference to this current Ireland squad but we won’t find one overnight.
Instead, we must hope that there’s a kid out there waiting to burst onto the scene just like Brady did with Arsenal and Ronnie did with Liverpool.
Which brings me nicely to the inclusion of Ronnie Whelan in this quick summation of a draw and a win against Israel, a Dublin draw with Austria and a limp defeat to Kosovo over the course of this window.
Looking around for something to occupy the time in the absence of a Richard Sadlier pre-match masterclass last night, I came across the ‘It’s There’ podcast, co-hosted by the legendary George Hamilton and Connor Phillips.
There’s a link to the latest edition of ‘It’s There’ further down this page, a link to a Ronnie Whelan special which includes a wonderful story about how his dad, Ronnie Whelan of Home Farm and St Pat’s fame, repeatedly sent Junior out to hone his skills in the back garden of their Finglas home.
Dad would tell son to go out and stay out until he managed 10 keepy-ups with his right foot. When that was achieved, Senior would praise Junior then tell him to go back out and do it again - but this time with his left foot.
That endless work on his skills served Ronnie Whelan Jnr well with Ireland and with Liverpool in a great career but this, I suspect, is a story of its time.
I doubt many of those Irish players in action last night practised keepy-ups for hours in their back garden. I doubt many youngsters were out kicking a ball against a wall pre-match last night.
Let’s hope some were. Let’s hope some kid comes crashing through in the coming years, preferably before Euro 28, someone who can turn a decent Irish side into a great one, one that can recreate a Ronnie Whelan style moment from Euro ‘88.
As for this international window - thank God it’s over!
As the international window closes, Ireland legend Ronnie Whelan reflects on a great career with club and country in this conversation with George Hamilton and Connor Phillips for the 'It's There' podcast.
You can listen to all of our podcasts on our Spotify channel
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