Poor fare on offer for a championship weekend

Early July and you would expect the championship season to move up a notch with the first provincial finals but instead we have one of the least anticipated weekends of the championship calendar.
In hurling the Leinster final is a foregone conclusion, Kilkenny to win with the only interest in the Cats' performance as we all hope to get some sort of a gauge on where their three in a row ambitions are sitting.
The Leinster final is now an non event, I'd rather watch a Tommy Murphy Cup game, no that's a lie but the Leinster hurling championship is right down there at the moment.
This week's qualifiers promise nothing better.
Antrim and Laois will feel like it is raining on them if the Galway and Waterford forward lines go out to prove to their respective managers Clare men Ger Loughnane and Davy Fitzgerald that they want to be in the side for the tougher tests which lie ahead.
It will be real men against boys stuff and wouldn't be allowed in boxing.
Unfortunately for everyone involved other than walking off the field in protest at the brutality of the beating (wonder has anyone consulted the Cork players on that one as they are the experts in these matters?) the players will just have to grin and bear it, ok if you're a sado masochist but just torture for the average GAA player, fan and referee.
I wonder do referees get counselling after a match like these as it must be traumatic to watch?
The only interest in these games will be if the Waterford players give any indication that they mean business after their dressing room coup which saw the end of Justin McCarthy.
The football doesn't get much better with the Munster Football final, yes they still have a Munster championship in football which all six counties enter but which is still only contested by two.
Those two Cork and Kerry play for this year's honours, yet again.
Kerry will win at a canter even though the Kingdom don't usually break sweat in Munster and have even been known to let a few provincial titles slip to the Rebels as they warm up the engine in preparation for the annual bad beating of the Cork men at Croke Park when it matters later in the season.
However, the only thing rebellious about the current Cork side is when they are on strike and they are poor enough to endure a bad beating earlier in the season than usual even though Kerry too will have a few players out to injury.
All in all not a lot to get excited over and I look forward to next week's fare which might just bring us a couple of real games!

Two reasons not to bet on Galway

I enjoyed the Galway Leitrim game yesterday and especially the performance of former All Star Padraig Joyce.
Joyce is simply a class act, a player who always played with some grace, intelligence and skill.
He had it all including speed off the mark and his quick thinking unlocked many a defence over the years.
However, Padraig in my view was last a great player three to four seasons back and his best work in a Galway jersey goes back for me to the great side of '98 to '01.
He has been one of the best forwards in the country over the last ten years but Galway's continued dependence on Joyce to produce the goods is one of two reasons why I won't be rushing out to the bookies to put what's left of the equity on the house on the Tribesmen.
Joyce has lost a little of the pace which made him the scourge of defences up and down the country but he still knows where the onion is and he gave a masterclass in finishing against Leitrim in yesterday's Connacht semi final.
However, Leitrim are not one of the country's top sides, they're not even near it and yet most of what was good about the Tribesmen's attack came through Joyce.
The other reason why Galway won't win the Sam Maguire is that their defence leaks like a sieve.
That's ok in Connacht although Mayo may have other ideas. However, Galway's cavalier style, no matter how pleasing on the eye, won't cut it in the latter stages of the championship, not because there's anything wrong with the attack mindedness of Liam Sammons' team but because they can't defend for shite.
I wonder is Sammon playing the old double bluff that his team are going to play pretty because they believe in it and they will then review their tactics when they come up against better opposition later in the season.
I hope so as I am a fan of the way Tribesmen play but if they are to get back to the top table they will have to plug the gaps in defence.

Bergin's absence casts shadow over Galway win

Earlier in the season I said that the loss of midfielder Joe Bergin could have a massive impact on Galway's chances in this season's All Ireland.
I am more convinced of that today after Galway's defeat of Roscommon.
While the Tribesman totally outplayed an inept Roscommon in the second half and tagged on an impressive score to run out winners by 16 points they struggled in the first half after Roscommon pulled Karol Mannion back to the middle and he provided a platform for the Rossies to fight back in the run-up to half time.
However, when Roscommon had a player set off early in the second half Galway used the space well and simply punched holes in the opposition defence.
Padraig Joyce's passing and movement in the second half was a treat to watch but at times Galway seemed to be playing almost a training game and they were not stretched other than in the second quarter of the game.
However, I feel that Bergin's absence will cost them dearly if they come up against the Kerry midfield or Derry's Fergal Doherty.
Roscommon have a mountain to climb to get off the floor after this one, I think the best they can hope for is to give some of their promising young players a run out in the qualifiers, they are as bad as they have been for long many a day.
We didn't learn too much about the Tribesmen, they are great to watch and it's how I like to see football played but I can't help but feeling that they will come up well short in a tough game which is a pity.
Padraig Joyce is one of the best footballers of the last 25 years but I think his move to centre half forward is a sign of weakness in the Tribesmen's game plan.
Ageing footballers are usually moved forward or further back late in their career, it's not usual to bring them out to positions where more not less movement is required and good a footballer as Padraig Joyce is I believe he will struggle against top centre backs as the season progresses.
The Tribesmen move on to face Leitrim but Liam Sammon will be hoping that Bergin may be around to play some part in the season cos when Sam's handed out there are no prizes for the nicest team to watch.

Roscommon game a stroll in the park

Have they opened a book yet on the score of the Galway Roscommon game this week.
I expect Roscommon to go out and play with a pride that had obviously deserted them under John Maughan and a lot of men should have a point to prove.
But I love the talk that Galway shouldn't take them for granted.
Of course they won't they'll just go out and run them into the ground and they will win without having to produce much other than the ability to do a job they're expected to do.
If they can't do that against Roscommon then they shouldn't be one of the favourites for the Connacht title or fancied to be in the shake-up at the end of the season.
Roscommon are cat, they are one of the worst sides the county has produced in living memory and they have had plenty of competition for that unwanted honour.
Sunday's game should be a stroll in the park for the Tribesmen.

Change in the air at the top table

The GAA should be happy on every front today after the National Hurling League final.
Firstly a larger than usual crowd weighed in, boosted no doubt by the fact that the two counties involved have been starved of success in recent seasons.
Secondly the standard of play was top class for this time of the season and both Galway and Tipp have now sounded out a warning to the country that they are genuine contenders for this year's Liam McCarthy.
I have said it before, we need someone to challenge the Cork Kilkenny monopoly on the All-Ireland title.
There is no doubt that public interest in hurling rises whenever another side or two come in to the mix and the All-Ireland becomes a little more unpredictable.
Tipp and Galway have now set us up for what should be a good season's hurling.
There will be a backlash from the Big Two after last week's results, their pride will be hurt but that will only add an edge to a season where Kilkenny are attempting the three in a row.
With today's finalists looking like being in the mix for the Liam McCarthy, we can only look forward to the All Ireland in the hope that at last change might be in the air.

League final promises greater things

Really looking forward to tomorrow's league decider in the hurling between Galway and Tipp.
Part of the attraction is that the Big two will be sitting this one out while two of the sides who have a realistic chance of challenging the established order get the chance to show their credentials at Gaelic Park.
Tipp have a new manager Liam Sheedy while Galway's Ger Loughnane is already a legend in the game and not always for the right reasons.
Loughnane is particularly disliked in Tipp since the era when his Clare side mercilessly put Tipp to the sword during the hurling revolution of the '90s, beating them in a Munster final and then the All-Ireland final of 1997, when Sheedy played on the losing team.
Tipp people regarded the then Clare boss and his side as arrogant bullies.
Yes Clare did play with some swagger at that time and they were among the most pumped-up sides in the country, but that was natural enough after years of enduring hidings at the hands of Cork and Tipp as they didn't get to play Kilkenny in the championship then as they couldn't get out of Munster.
However, despite the local rivalry I was shocked in a pub in Tipp in 1998 to hear the locals cheer Offaly on against Clare in the famous third encounter between the sides in the 1998 All-Ireland semi final.
Being an Ulsterman it has always been our tradition, apart from the Tyrone and Derry people I believe where there is no love lost for each other, to cheer on the Ulster champions once they left the province to take on the southern hordes.
So when I asked people there what was the craic, the one answer again and again for the support for Offaly was that "b******d Loughnane".
So there is no doubt that the Tipp people will want their team to put one over the upstart from Feakle who dared to challenge the 'natural order' of hurling.
And in fairness Tipp have improved this season, they are a hard working side for a start and maybe at last some of the underage talent they have produced in recent seasons is beginning to bloom. Shane McGrath has been outstanding in midfield and while Eoin Kelly still continues to produce the goods up front he has had a little more support with a better spread of the scores.
Galway on the other hand have come on in leaps and bounds. For around ten years I wondered were they incapable of producing big physically strong forwards but they look a lot more imposing and of course the country awaits to see can Joe Canning build on his great start to inter-county hurling.
In Richie Murray and Kevin Hynes they have two hard working midfielders.
The other thing I see going Galway's way is the fact that it is Tipp they are facing and the Tribesmen don't have the same fear or inferiority complex about the Premier men as they have had traditionally with Kilkenny and Cork.
I think it will be a great joust, I think the title might just go west and I hope that this is more than another false dawn where Galway and Tipp have promised much but flattered to deceive.

Bergin loss a big blow

The loss of midfielder Joe Bergin for at least what could be a National League football final in two weeks time and even the start of the Connacht championship is a huge blow to Galway.
Bergin has been in great form this season for the Tribesmen and has been one of the main reasons why the Galway men have been able to play a great brand of free-flowing football as he has won a lot of ball in the middle and has been at his best when driving forward at pace and with power.
Hope the big man makes it back early in the championship as a Galway team in full flow can light up the season even if they come up short.
The good news is that if he does miss a game it will be the first round match against Roscommon who wouldn't beat the Galway camogs on current form.