Hurling set-up just not cricket

For the sake of hurling we have to bring to an end once and for all mismatches like the Galway Antrim game on Saturday.
They wouldn't allow a match like this in boxing never mind let the manager throw the towel in.
Even in the great imperialist game of cricket the winning team can declare to spare the blushes of weaker opposition.
In hurling however, it's just murder for the two teams involved, the supporters and the officials when one team is simply running away with the game.
And it's not that we don't know that the gap between Antrim and Galway is a chasm.
The 'reward' for the Tribesmen is to go through this same ritualistic killing next weekend when they go to the Midlands to slaughter the O'Moore county men of Laois.
Not that this even benefits the Tribesmen who have endured weeks of inaction as the hurlers of Munster cut lumps out of each other for local honours and the hurlers of Leinster apart from the Gods of Kilkenny at least have had a decent rattle at each other.
But for Ger Loughnane's team these games are fraught with danger as the only thing they can get out of them is the risk of injury to a top player.
No good player gets any better playing against poor opposition and if anything they can pick up bad habits, through having extra yards and time on the sliotar.
For the Antrim lads it is purely reinforcement of what they already know that they are not good enough to be at the top table and that they are on an annual hiding to nothing.
There is a need for an intermediate championship which could include Dublin, Wexford, Offaly, Antrim, Laois and either Westmeath, Down or Kerry.
The provincial championships should be scrapped. Ulster is meaningless and gets mediocre a bad name. Leinster is a side show with only Munster providing any thrills.
But can we go on with the championship charade simply because Munster still has something to offer in terms of crowds and local bragging rights, can it not be played outside the championship structure if it still means so much?
Realistically there are only seven sides in the country in the top grade, the five top Munster sides, Kilkenny and Galway, all of whom outside of Waterford have featured in All-Ireland finals in this decade and the Decies have a National League and three Munsters to their credit since 2002.
Let the others fight for the last place and then play two groups of four for the right to contest the semis.
It might not be the solution but can anyone defend a system which allows teams to be slaughtered physically and psychologically like Saturday's 'game' at Casement.
It's just not cricket!

Disappointment but Galway can get better

Galway came up just short in today's National Hurling League final but they made progress despite not lifting the title.
John Lee (above) had a great game at centre half while up front Damian Hayes had a great first half.
Joe Canning only began to get into the game just before the half time break when his sheer strength set up the first Galway goal. He was the pick of the Galway attack in the second half with a great solo goal which hauled his side back into the game.
However, if there was one thing which sums up the extra threat Canning brings to the Galway attack it was the pass inside for the second goal.
He was boxed in, tightly marked and yet he managed in a flash to pick out a team mate breaking inside, showing great vision and composure.
Kevin Hynes battled hard in the middle but Richie Murray despite one fantastic point in the first half was AWOL.
Iarla Tannion who has been one of the scoring heroes for the Tribesmen so far this season had a howler and was lucky not to be substituted in the first half.
Ger Loughnane will be worried about his full back line, they struggled for much of the game, too often second to the blistering pace of Corbett or not tight enough on Eoin Kelly.
However, the Clare man will look forward to the return of Ollie Canning to the defence and despite being shaded by Tipp he won't be too unhappy on the trip home.

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.

Fire back in Ger's belly

Great to see Ger Loughnane back with a bit of fire in his belly.
The 'great' man seems to be enjoying life as manager of his neighbouring county and he reckons he now is beginning to see leaders emerge in his team.
At times last season Loughnane looked like he could take the job or leave it, I felt that his passion was missing.
Maybe it's because this year he has had an opportunity to work with the team right through the winter, but he looks up for it once more.
However, it's wonderful what a little success can do for a team's confidence.
If the Tribesmen can lift the league title there is no better man than Loughnane to exploit it in an effort to transform them into an unstoppable force.
Galway have lacked leaders in recent years in the tough games when it was vital to hang in there, if Loughnane feels that some of his men can now bring that to the table we might have a better season than we could have hoped for.

Canning's debut doesn't disappoint

Ger Loughnane’s Galway hurlers put in a great performance to reach the League final beating Cork by four points.
The Rebels came storming back in the second half despite being 14 points down at the break but Loughnane’s team will take great heart out of this victory over the Rebels as Galway sides have traditionally found it hard to grind out any sort of win against the Leesiders.
Cork will take something out of the manner of their fight back.
They really ate into the Tribesmen’s lead and all their key players, Ó hAilpin. Curran and Gardiner piled the pressure on as the game wore on.
Ben O’Connor put in another great performance in but it was noticeable that almost all Cork’s top players were on the field when the game began to swing their way and I think this is a problem for the Rebels.
They have tried to give a lot of players game time during the league but I think it said a lot that they only seriously started to make headway when Ronan Curran, Joe Deane and Pa Cronin came on.
This could tell against them in the championship as it seems to indicate that their bench may not be up to the task of winning the Liam McCarthy.
Galway have a lot to be hopeful about. Ger Farragher has looked like the player of a couple of seasons ago in patches during the league.
Kevin Hynes and Richie Murray work hard in midfield but it was Portumna’s Joe Canning playing in his first senior game who lit up the afternoon.
He displayed power, great skill and awareness and played like a veteran.
His colleagues reaped rich awards from him and his point from a sideline cut in the second half was a very special effort.
It’s much too early to say whether the young man can reproduce this form in the white heat of the championship but it’s been a while since any young player made such an impact on his much-awaited debut.
It remains to be seen whether the Tribesmen can go on to build on this performance.
For after they play next week’s final they will be without a competitive game for more than six weeks as the Leinster and Munster sides slug it out in the championship.
This has to be a huge disadvantage and I think it has told against Galway sides in the last decade in the latter stages of big championship games.
However, should the Tribesmen go on to lift the league the psychological lift could make genuine contenders of them yet.

I blame it on Joe Kernan

There are some things in the GAA which have changed beyond all recognition in the last years as teams become more professional in their approach to the game.
The club or county trip is only one example of how tradition has been stood on its head as teams strive for perfection.
It used to be that trips anywhere were all about male bonding, heavy drinking and chasing and normally included at least one game played in the haze of a hangover or bent over looking at the remnants of the previous night's Chinese takeaway consumed after a skinful.
A ferry crossing from Dún Laoghaire to Holyhead followed by a nine hour bus journey through the night to Milton Keynes was about as exotic as it got in our club until the camogs headed off to the States last season to allow us all to get to know our children better.
Now it's all training and focus and physios and shrinks as our top county sides sacrifice a week's work to jet off for some summer sun.
I blame it on Joe Kernan myself.
Before Joe took his All-Ireland winning side of 2002 to Malaga for a week's preparation early that season, All-Ireland winning captains had to ask the county board and headquarters in their victory speech was there any chance of a week off.
Once Joe's Armagh side did the business and while they were at it looking so focussed and mean that they must have practised scowling in the house at their children then everybody had to do it, after all didn't Armagh win an All-Ireland and all they needed to do was go on a package holiday for a week to Malaga.
If only it was that easy, I'd send Antrim for a month, the lot of them, hurlers, footballers, camogs and the handballers and I'd even check to see could we win the rounders while we were at it.
It's tough I suppose but now as players begin to write about the modern era I can't see any of us shaking our heads in awe at players sipping tequila slammers in a faraway land for the cause the way we winced when we read of a gut busting Ger Loughnane training session on a beach in County Clare in the dead of winter when he was convincing a bunch of perennial losers that they were going to rule Ireland.