BY RONAN SCOTT

r.scott@gaeliclife.com

The only team to win on Ulster soil in this year's National League was Dublin. Fact.

That's quite the record for the nine Ulster teams plying their trade in the competition and one that reinforces the notion that home advantage is paramount to success, in this province at least.

Even teams such as Armagh and Tyrone, who are apparently under-performing this season, have still maintained dominance in their own back yard.

Of the 19 games played in Ulster, Cavan were the only team to succumb to their opponents, Monaghan and Dublin.

However, the rest of the teams have either won or drawn their games.

To be fair, the same is not always the case in the championship where form and strength often buck the home advantage trend. But in the league, where teams play against sides of similar strength, winning home games are more important than doing well away.

In most sports, particularly soccer, success at home is predicated by motivation to defend the honour of your ground. That type of thinking sits well with features writers who can wax lyrical about home grounds being fortresses and metaphors about lions and their dens. Yet it is a situation that was perhaps better suited to soccer teams of a bygone era when all the players were living in close proximity to the ground and there was an emotional link between the ground, the fans and the players. But these days with so many soccer players from foreign countries fielding for teams that romantic ideal of teams playing for the love of the club is little more than a relic of a bygone age.

However, it is still very much the norm in the GAA. The amateur ethos behind the sport means that players are playing for the love of the county. Furthermore, fielding for the senior team means that the players will be playing at a venue that they will have been to many times before as supporters.

Therefore they have a personal connection to the ground and, as a result, should play harder.

That's not always the case though. While that opinion seems to be sound on paper, the reality is that love of your county doesn't put the ball over the bar.

So why then have the vast majority of Ulster teams been defending their fortresses successfully in this year's national league?

Armagh boss Peter McDonnell is in his first year in charge of the senior county team. He has worked at minor and under 21 level in the county and being from Mullaghbawn, a GAA heartland in south Armagh, he understands the importance of maintaining home advantage. However, even though Armagh's two wins have both been at home, McDonnell was quick to point out that it was that was not a priority before he began his campaign.

"We had a close run against Cavan at home but winning at home was not particularly important during our preparations," he said.

"Apparently home games are easier won than away games. I saw statistics recently that proved that."

McDonnell's unwillingness to suggest that teams play better at home stems from the fact that if that was the case then it means that his players were not properly prepared for their away games.

"What I would say is that any team that is just going out to fulfil fixtures will never amount to much. If you are serious about improving then it is an absolute necessity that you go out and win every game, whether they are home or away," he said.

However, that doesn't solve the riddle as to why teams like Armagh, who are languishing in mid division 2 have maintained a winning streak at home. Similarly Tyrone are in danger of facing relegation yet they have not lost at Healy Park in Omagh.

The answer appears to be less to do with the home team, but more to do with the visiting sides.

McDonnell admitted that it is only when a team sees its fixture list for the current year that it knows where the easy and hard games are. In his opinion hard games are determined by the relative distance that the team has to travel. "We were fairly lucky this year because we have only had to go as far as Mullingar," he said.

A glance a the home successes so far show that tough opponents are perhaps softened up by the long trek north.

Take Donegal's win over Kerry for example. The one point heroes defeated the All-Ireland champions with a last gasp goal from Eamon McGee. Would they have achieved the same result in Tralee or Killarney? Derry certainly didn't. They ran Kerry close but perhaps the long trek down to the Kingdom on Saturday left them off the pace. But at the same time they were fresh against Mayo and Kildare in Celtic Park as both sides succumbed to a fine Derry team.

"When a team has to travel there is an entirely different preparation to undertake. You are talking about a days travelling, different training, different beds, different food. It is hugely different undertaking and can massively affect a teams importance," McDonnell said.

The one factor that does aid a team when they are playing at home is the fans. When teams travel they will rarely get the same support they would get at a home game. McDonnell agrees that when there are more people at a game then that can be a positive influence.

"I think that it is a mutual thing. If a team is doing well then the supporters respond. At the same time a team will respond to the supporters. Where I am from is a Gaelic football area in capital letters. There isn't a house that hasn't been touched by football. Support of the teams would be expected almost. Even in the dark days when Armagh weren't doing well there was still that feeling that you had to go out and put your shoulder to the wheel and support the team," he said.

The effect that that support had on the team cannot be underestimated, but nor can it been accurately quantified as we can't know if Armagh would have scored any less points if their supporters hadn't bothered going.

That being said, the results show that teams visiting Ulster are at a big disadvantage, unless they're in Breffni Park that is. And for McDonnell at least he hopes that that continues when Armagh play host to Dublin on Sunday.