(Updated below)
The clarion cry has gone up to save League of Ireland soccer in what should be one of its premier locations. According to WLR, an article in the News & Star this week has exhorted the plebs of the city and county to switch off Sky Sports, get off the couch and head down to the RSC in Kilbarry and watch Waterford United. At the time of writing, the fate of the Blues seems to be exercising the producers of Déise AM on WLR more than the total result for the area of Martin Cullen remaining in Brian Cowen’s new Cabinet.
As one of the splitters that are letting the Blues down by supporting Liverpool, do I feel bad? No. Should I be feeling bad? Perhaps, but it’s not difficult to rationalise away not supporting my local team. There’s no shortage of ‘soccer people’ in Waterford to follow the Blues yet they don’t seem to think they are worth following, so why should someone who has not a single soccer player anywhere in his family worry about the local League of Ireland team? Two work colleagues, neither from Carrick, went up to the RSC to watch Carrick United win the FAI Junior Cup. Neither ever darkens the door of the RSC when Waterford United are playing. If they don’t feel bad, why should a person from a GAA background feel bad?
Aha, to quote Alan Partridge, why should someone with no soccer background follow a team in England with such passion? Well, supporting Liverpool to begin with was an undemanding task. Many’s the time in the mid 1980’s that the first I’d know about Liverpool’s latest success (and it was nearly always success) was reading about it in the Sunday newspapers. It wasn’t a big deal in the way it is now, and I was almost as conversant with the goings on in Kilcohan Park as I was those at Anfield. Alfie Hale, Mick Bennett, Martin Reid, Terry Kearns, Kevin Power, Noel Sinnott, Vinny McCarthy – legends all.
Why then did the Blues and Reds follow such divergent paths in my life? My interest in the Reds only intensified as Liverpool slid from the top of the pile, so it wasn’t the lack of quality that did for any interest in the Blues. Discovering BBC Radio 2, which soon morphed into the dedicated sports channel Radio 5, definitely contributed to the onset of fanaticism as following their exploits in great detail became easier than falling off a log.
It’s a curious thing, when a sports team burrows its way into your psyche. It wouldn’t happen with the Waterford hurlers until 1998, and no, that wasn’t bandwagon jumping because I started going during the Oireachtas and South East League matches so I couldn’t have anticipated the storm that was about to break. Only the Waterford hurlers and Liverpool have succeeded in getting in there. There have been dalliances with Celtic, Munster, the Republic of Ireland soccer team and the Boston Red Sox (brought on my a brief period of free access to NASN in 2003; had the Red Sox reached the World Series that year I would have subscribed), but interest there wanes and waxes with the degree of success and / or notoriety.
Yes, that is bandwagon jumping.
So whither my relationship with the Blues? I have often wondered whether I could fall in love with them like I have with the hurlers or the Reds, if only I gave them a chance. Live sport didn’t seem that important back when I last watched the Blues in a 1-0 win over Bohemians at Dalymount, a match illuminated by the cult building up around the might of Dominic Iorfa, an obsession that might seem daft until one ponders how the likes of Erik Meijer can be spoken of with affection by Liverpool fans. This was a time when I spurned £3 schoolboy tickets to Six Nations matches at Lansdowne Road because I couldn’t be bothered going getting out of bed for it. Ninety seven Liverpool games later (I have counted), all of them enjoyable even in defeat because it’s always good to be there, my attitude to live sport has changed. The call to arms issued in the News & Star, allied with a rumoured cut in price to €10 – strange how a price cut which wouldn’t buy two bottles of real ale in the off licence might swing it; talk about price elasticity – might be enough to make me check it out. Tune in over the weekend to find out if the Waterford name can override any qualms.
Update: I thought that by putting this online it would shake me out of my torpor, that I’d have to go so as not to look like a fool. Alas, I did reckon on my wife inviting work colleagues to stay for the weekend. And while I’d cheerfully inflict the RSC on her, asking people from Wexford, Carlow and Longford to do that would be a bridge that would have made Arnhem look like a leisurely stroll. Next home game, promise . . .
