Great day's action ahead

Looking forward to another great day's championship action with the final round of the hurling qualifiers and the Ulster football final replay.
The hurling season has stuttered along so far but last weekend was really the start of us getting down to serious business.
Cork shocked, I know it's a strong word given that they have one of the top two sides in the country for the last six season, all of us with the quality of their performance last weekend against Galway and their sheer guts and determination in the second half against the wind with a man down.
They defeated the Tribesmen in a game where we saw one of the great individual performances by a teenage Joe Canning.
When you see a young man put in a game like that you just have wonder how good he can be.
If he keeps his feet on the ground and remains injury free, which will be difficult given that he puts his body on the line to create space, he has the potential to become an all-time great.
However, the Cork half back line of Gardiner, Curran and O hAilpin looked like men on a mission and with Joe Deane on fire up front Cork looked irresistible.
Clare on the other hand have also a lot to prove after a fairly poor performance in the Munster final and they should at least not be as dependent on one player to do the damage for them as were Galway.
In the end I think Cork will edge it just because they take their scores easier than Clare but if the Banner can find the Cork net the way they breached the Waterford and Limerick defences early in the season then it could be quite a contest.
I fancy Waterford to overcome Wexford despite their over reliance on Eoin Kelly to beat Offaly last week.
I still think there is a big game in Waterford and it's now die dog or shite the licence.
Wexford are a poor side, their league form and their efforts in Leinster tell us that.
The gap between the rest in Leinster, Cats apart, and Munster isn't as big as some suggest, but the Decies know this is the last throw of the dice and I would expect some of them to begin to perform as they can.
I wouldn't even dream of calling Ulster. Prevailing wisdom that Fermanagh had their chance and that they will be eaten up by Armagh in the replay isn't going to happen.
Fermanagh are much too fit and physically strong to roll over for anyone. They know they had the game by the throat for the last 25 minutes and they will take great heart from that but they must do something about the free taking.
Armagh are methodical, clever and slick in full flight but McGrane is no longer a 70 minute player, he tired last week and the team suffered.
They are a little too pedestrian at times in the build-up and it was a tactical error bringing in Oisin McConville left the field.
The old Armagh disease of the two Brians era of not pushing on when they had a big lead cost them dearly and unless they address the issue of pace in their side they will be found out by better sides than Fermanagh no matter what Curran and McDonnell can conjure up.
I think we are in for another great battle as winning is everything in this one as the losers will find it very tough lifting themselves for the qualifers.

Codology of the highest order

Kilkenny manager Brian Cody is something else.
He has been at the helm of one of the most successful hurling teams in history and for ten of the last eleven years they have just sailed through Leinster.
Cody never puts a foot wrong in media when it comes to showing respect to the opposition no matter how poor but I wish just once that he would!
Yesterday he claimed after his team had just destroyed Wexford by 19 points that the Cats had been tested twice in Leinster this year against Offaly and Wexford!
That's Brian's codology at its best.
His team never had to get out of third gear at any stage of the game and when they upped their work rate they just blew the Model men away.
The current set-up allows the Cats to prepare for the All-Ireland series, a bit like Kerry do in Munster football, and they have hardly had to stretch themselves to make the All-Ireland semi finals.
Cody to his credit just gets on with it but it almost insults our intelligence to listen to the great man telling us his team had been tested, and yea pigs might fly!
The great thing about this Cats' team however, is that no matter what the system they would be in there at the death anyway as they are that good.

Kill off the Leinster championship

The half time break in the Leinster hurling championship should carry a health warning that the second 35 minutes is for over 18s only given the slaughter Kilkenny inflicted on Wexford.
There was a time when the Leinster final was a contest for around 50 minutes before the Cats began to pull away but from the moment Eddie Brennan scored early in the second half it was murder.
The game became a turkey shoot as Wexford's hurlers remembered all the other recent bad beatings they have suffered at the Cats' hands in recent seasons and reached for their crash helmets.
Surely someone in Croke Park is looking at the attendances in what has become a meaningless fixture.
There is little or no atmosphere given that the game is still being played in Croke Park which is more than two thirds empty.
Leinster is on the verge of dying of lack of interest let's kill it off now before it becomes too frightening to watch.

Shefflin still top Cat

Delighted that Henry Shefflin looks likely to continue his comeback from a cruciate ligament injury on Sunday against Wexford in the Leinster final.
Shefflin is a great player and brings something to every game he plays in.
There was a bit of speculation that an injury unrelated to the cruciate setback he suffered might keep him out but thankfully he will be there.
It won't make much difference to the result however, except that you might be looking for more than ten-point advantage for the Cats with Henry in full flight.
Wonder is Paddy Power still even taking bets on a margin less than a ten-point win for the champs?

Leinster should have made the move

The Leinster Council has admitted that it considered moving this Sunday's hurling final out of Croke Park.
The council says it expects little more than 25,000 for the Wexford Kilkenny clash and they looked at moving the final out of headquarters to a ground in the province which might have retained some of the atmosphere at the provincial showpiece.
The expected 25,000 will look sparse at Croke Park downgrading what is a very poor championship even further.
Even at its best the Leinster showpiece attracted crowds of only between 35,000 and 40,000 but given that the final has become an annual outing for the Cats to show just how far ahead of the posse they are it is rarely even a spectacle.
Wexford don't have a snowball's this Sunday and the world and its ma knows it, it's a surprise given the hidings the Cats have dished out to the Modle men in recent seasons that 25,000 would even bother to make the trip up to Dublin.
It's a pity therefore that the game can't be played in a ground where at least the punters can get value for money from the atmosphere even if the match becomes the usual non event.

No All Ireland in Caffrey's Dubs

Back from a few days away in Donegal but the shadow boxing in the championship has all but come to an end and at last we are getting a clearer picture of who will be in the mix come the end of the season.
Watched the Dubs with great interest yesterday and it's clear that they are struggling despite pulling the game out of the fire against Westmeath in the second half.
I think if anything Dublin have gone backwards this season.
Paul Caffrey should have called it a day at the start of the year and on the evidence of everything I have seen so far I still believe he made the wrong decision to give it one more year.
The Dublin defence is there for the taking by any good attack.
Westmeath were almost totally reliant on Dessie Dolan and Denis Glennon to do the damage and if they had have had a little more composure in the team they would have seen Dublin off.
For all the hype about Bryan Cullen's performance yesterday I wasn't over impressed with his defending and he is not the answer at centre half back.
The full back line were almost taken to the cleaners in the first 20 minutes and midfield is still a weakness. Neither Whelan or Shane Ryan have a 70 minute game in them, and Eamon Fennell has promise but not much more.
Up front Alan Brogan was exposed as being very limited by the tight marking of John Keane and while Brogan will always give you 100 per cent it's not enough at the top level, I think he is hugely over rated.
Jayo still shows the odd flash of brilliance but he's not capable of conducting the orchestra from centre three quarters, he couldn't do it when he was younger and fitter and he can't do it now at the top level.
He should at this stage of his career be an impact sub or be playing as close to goal as possible where his intelligence and craft can still unlock a defence.
Mossie Quinn and Colm Keaney are average players and struggle against packed defences and for the life of me I just don't see an All Ireland in this team.
And as for Caffrey himself he seems to lack the tactical nous of the top managers and you get the feeling with Dublin that unless they run all over the top of with you with strength and fitness that there isn't an awful lot more.
They should still win Leinster but Wexford will give them a run for their money.

Forde a role Model

Matty Forde's performance on Sunday should be an inspiration to young forwards all over the country.
Forde has been one of the best forwards in the country for a number of years now and if he had played on a more successful team he would be right up there with the very best.
He can score with either foot, is brave and his movement makes him a difficult man to mark.
However, like anyone else he has his off days and by his very high standards he was having a tough time on Sunday.
He missed chances he would normally have taken in his sleep, the wind played its part in some of the misses but some of them were just poorly struck from poor positions.
At one point early in the second half Forde had one point and six wides but he kept trying to do the right thing and shooting when he had the opportunity and eventually it came good for him.
Forde ended up with six points the winning margin between the two sides, including two 45s.
Forde never let his head drop even when it wasn't going his way and it's that ability to continue to try to do the right thing which marks the really good players out from the pack.
Forde's performance was inspirational despite his early misses and his presence alone makes space for those around him.
I thought Redmond Barry was outstanding on Sunday but Forde still remains the go to guy when Wexford need a score.
Wexford will be underdogs no matter who they play in the Leinster final but only a fool would write them off.

Season hots up in the provinces

Looking forward to tomorrow's games after another great football match in Ulster tonight.
I have really enjoyed this season so far and we are only getting to the crucial stages of the provincial championships and we still have the qualifiers to come.
I'm going to have a quick punt on tomorrow's games, should be the kiss of death for any side tipped but here goes.
I think that Mayo will see Sligo off fairly comfortably.
Sligo's win in Connacht last year was one of the fairy tales of the season but Sligo came back down to earth with a bump in the quarter finals and they haven't really recovered.
Under new management they have had a disastrous league campaign and I can't see them rising to the same heights again.
Despite the squander mania of last week I expect the Dublin hurlers to put Wexford away this week.
The Dubs threw the Model men a lifeline last week and may have encouraged a little self belief among the southern side that they can at least progress to the annual whipping by Kilkenny but I think the Dubs have what it takes.
Wexford and Laois should be another good game in the football.
Laois has had the upper hand over the Model footballers in recent years but look well short of the sort of form they showed under Micko earlier in the decade.
I think Wexford might just shed this one but there won't be much in it.
The game of the day has to be the Munster hurling semi final between last year's All-Ireland finalists Limerick and Clare.
Limerick have struggled to produce the goods this season and Clare will be boosted by their win against a poor Waterford side.
However, the confidence gained in that win might stand to the Banner tomorrow but one way or another we are guaranteed a new winner in Munster.
I think Clare might sneak through but their defence has to improve.

Laois take back seat to TV rights

I wrote earlier this year that TV scheduling would increasingly have an impact on when and where games would be played and that the GAA would lose some of its control over fixtures.
There have already been a number of games played at ungodly hours on a Sunday night so that they would not clash with other TV fare.
However, one of the best examples to date of the power of the new TV deal hammered out by the GAA for this season sees Laois and Wexford play this Sunday despite a request for a week's grace from Laois.
The Laois request was not designed to influence the game in any way it was simply a response to the fact that Laois along with Offaly are hosting the All-Ireland Féile na nGael championships.
On another year their request may have had a favourable hearing.
This year however, the Leinster Council simply couldn't grant the request because the rights to televise the game are contracted out to TV3.
What I hope would happen in future is that when the deals are being done about the games that the GAA takes on board the GAA calendar of events for the season to ensure that no major events will clash with each other.
Although in this week's case Laois will be disappointed the TV deal may have the effect of ensuring in the future that the Association's planning for the year is much more professional.

Dubs need to get monkey off their back

The Dublin Wexford clash ending up being an exciting match as the Model men almost stole a game which Dublin shot themselves out of.
However, the exciting finish could not disguise the mediocrity of much of the hurling on display.
The Dubs shot 19 wides and some of the misses when the pressure was building on them in the second half were unforgivable.
Wexford scored one point in the whole of the first half, in injury time, and it was no accident as they really were that bad, out played in every part of the field.
I noticed Kilkenny boss Brian Cody watching the game and he must have thought at that stage that he could probably field half the county's camogs and still come out on top against the pick of the two sides on show!
Dublin need to get over the psychological barrier of beating Wexford in the championship if they are to get up to the next level and they need to do it soon otherwise it will end up as a monkey on their back.
And lets's be honest this is the poorest Wexford team since the Model men started to come back on the national landscape in the early '90s.
The Dubs will feel that they played well enough to win and if they can sharpen up in front of the posts then they may at least book their first Leinster final place since '91.
They are hard working but the first touch at times isn't good enough to match any of the current top sides.
Too many players need a second bite at the cherry and the full back line's defending of the two goals was painful.
The Wexford fightback and the fact Dublin then lost their nerve when they had chances to again put the game beyond Wexford shows that the Dubs are lacking the mental toughness and experience required to put a bad team to the sword.
I just don't know where Wexford go from here. Their season has been a horror picture so far and they have Division 2 to look forward to next season.
Rory Jacobs remains their best forward and I saw nothing in their young players to suggest that the county will be competitive again in the near future.

Hurling set-up attracting poor crowds

The hurling championships are supposed to move up another gear this weekend with the semi finals in Leinster and the Ulster final.
The hurling public however, are voting with their feet on the current set-up.
By the time all three games are played, including the first outing of the All-Ireland champions Kilkenny, there will be fewer people at the three games this weekend than were in Cork last week for the Munster game between Cork and Tipp.
The GAA will not face any inquiries after this weekend's games about too many people trying to get into the ground!
Despite the much-awaited Dublin revival in hurling half of Nowlan Park was empty for today's game against Wexford.
It will be the same tomorrow when the Cats face Offaly and Antrim take on Down.
Tomorrow's games have a real air of predictability about them.
In the first we will be interested only in how long Offaly can live with the champions.
In Ulster even if Down win they won't have a place in this year's Liam McCarthy with Antrim already set to face Galway in a fortnight's time.
Outside of Munster the games lack any real meaning and I thought that today's crowd at what should be the only competitive hurling match of the weekend said it all about what the public think about the status quo.
This uneven and unfair build-up to the latter stages isn't doing anything to promote hurling, do we have to wait until the hurlers are playing in empty venues before this malaise is dealt with?

Wexford light up championship

Wexford lit up the football championship today with their amazing comeback to beat Meath by a point.
The Model men were absolutely cavalier in the second half throwing caution to the wind as they steamed forward to overturn a ten-point deficit.
The game looked over just before half time when Graham Geraghty was class personified to finish Meath's second goal.
However, Jason Ryan's team just never gave up even when Meath cancelled out Wexford's good start to the second half.
The other impressive thing about this Wexford effort was the fact that the scores were well spread out.
The Model men have relied heavily on Mattie Forde to come up with the goods in their recent campaigns but Lyng, Redmond Barry and PJ Banville all got big scores.
Wexford had a good league campaign and the confidence gained from that stood them in good stead today but what can you say about Forde.
Cometh the hour cometh the man and in the dying moments he scored two points which were out of the top drawer.
The first, the equaliser, was from a free from distance and the winner was another great strike.
Great players produce when the pressure is on and Forde did that in spades today.
The Leinster football championship continues to be the most open and entertaining in the country, it is a treat to watch but until their sides also learn to win ugly they will still fall in the latter stages of the All Ireland.

Brawl comes back to haunt Meath

I wrote a few weeks ago that the brawl at Parnell Park during the league could come back to haunt Dublin and Meath in the Leinster championship and today the chickens came home to roost.
Meath minus the five suspended players were edged out by just one point after a great second half fightback by Wexford.
This is a game which should never have got away from Meath who were leading by ten points half through the second half.
However, as Wexford steamed forward Meath became increasingly ragged and they seemed bereft of ideas of how to close out the game apart from some very cycnical fouls.
Mark Ward's sending off was pure stupidity dragging down a man when he was on a run when he was already on a yellow.
However, his midfield colleague Meade can count himself very lucky not to join him for a terrible foul when he elbowed a Wexford player in the face.
I don't think there is any doubt that Meath would have progressed to the semi finals with their full contingent but the indiscipline at Parnell Park robbed Colm Coyle of options when the tide turned against them.
Meath now head for the qualifiers and although they will have a full squad by the time they are back in action the Royals will be disappointed at blowing the chance to meet great rivals Dublin in the Leinster final.
With Monaghan and now Donegal also in the qualifiers there are a lot of banana skins there and it's a notoriously difficult route to rebuild your challenge.

Dubs fail to convince

The Dubs did the business in the Leinster hurling championship but despite their big win they will have to up their game dramatically against Wexford in the semi final.
In some ways Dublin couldn't win today, they had to win and they had to win convincingly if they were to be taken as serious contenders in the province.
They did the business but Westmeath made it tight for them for the first half before the city side put them to the sword.
Dublin need to improve and there is a lot of pressure on them to do the business against the Model County.
Wexford have always been capable of one big performance in the championship, they will throw the kitchen sink at the Dubs to retain their place in the province's pecking order so it will at least add a little interest to what remains a very weak championship.

Kirby one of the greats

Watched Gary Kirby on Laochra Gael tonight and have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Great sympathy for the Limerick side of the '90s in particular for Kirby and Ciaran Carey who would have graced any era of hurling.
Kirby was an artist, I have to say he always looked typical of the hurler of a bygone era, he always looked slightly overweight, the type of bloke who would have preferred a Chinese to a training session but he must have worked hard to develop his natural ability for he was deadly accurate and his stick work would have been first class in any era.
There was at least one All-Ireland in that Limerick side of the '90s.
They came good just when the hurling revolution arrived and were probably its biggest casualty.
I'm sure Kirby was almost preparing the victory speech in '94 when the Offaly blitz of 2-5 turned a game round which Limerick had dominated.
It was cruel on a side which had waited so long for Munster success but I think we all thought at the time that their day would come.
It didn't although I believe they denied Clare three in a row when they beat them in Munster by a point in '96 in a great battle.
It did them no favours playing Antrim in the semi final as I remember they just blew us away with Frankie Carroll scoring for fun and almost performing circus tricks with the sliotar.
I think that Limerick went in to the All-Ireland final a little too over confident and struggled all day to find their form.
Wexford were by that stage battle hardened after years of fighting to displace Offaly and the Cats and they just fought like maniacs to hold out.
We didn't know it then but Limerick's best was gone, first Clare and then Cork were to dominate in Munster and it wasn't until last year that Limerick even got back among the contenders.
Gary Kirby is one of the greatest hurlers never to have won an All Ireland but I have to say that he had a great attitude to his career and he's definitely a man who sees the glass as half full.

McCarthy retirement another blow to the Model

All-Ireland medal winner Rory McCarthy has confirmed that he won't be coming back to the Wexford side for the championship after sitting out the National League.
Two other stalwarts of the Model County's hurling side Declan Ruth and Mitch Jordan had already confirmed that they had retired from the inter-county scene but the loss of the experienced McCarthy will be another body blow to John Meyler's efforts to get relegated Wexford back into contention with the big powers.
Richie Kehoe also elected to head off to the US for the summer and with a host of young players also refusing to join the senior panel Wexford's chances in this year's Leinster championship look poorer than they have been for a long time and it's hard to see anyone in the province even give the Cats a good game.
A weakened Wexford, given also the state of play in Offaly, is not good for hurling in Leinster and despite the improvement in the fortunes of Dublin it has become way too predictable.

League final latest victim of TV schedules

The National League final has become the latest casualty of the TV schedulers with a 2.15pm throw-in for the Division One decider between Kerry and Derry.
This early start isn't actually too bad but the earlier start of 12.30 for the Division 3 decider at Parnell Park between Wexford and Fermanagh is tough on the supporters of the two sides.
Both sets of fans have around a two-hour trip to the match and the timing of the fixture does put the 'importance' of the game in context because at the end of the day it is a meaningless game as no one will ever remember the year Fermanagh or Wexford played in the Division 3 final.
I find the Divisional play-offs an utter nonsense unless it involves a promotion issue.
For Wexford it will be a reminder that only three to four years ago, told you I can't even remember what year it was despite being at the game, they were in the league final with Armagh, quite a come down.
So despite my reservations about the GAA switching the times of its games to suit the TV stations, I think that the decision in this case is entirely sensible.
Many GAA people will want to see how Munster fare in the European semi final and I think the decision to bring the league finals forward is recognition that we are an integral part of Irish sporting life but we are not an island.
I would be watching the league final regardless but I will now enjoy I hope the Munster game while we are at it.

Managerial problems in Wexford?

So what is going on in Wexford? Manager John Meyler is angry that half back Richie Kehoe has decided to spend the summer in Boston instead of playing with the county squad in the championship.
It seems to me that there are big problems in the Model County's squad.
Around 20 young players have turned down the chance to join the squad this season while four veterans have also called it a day.
Is it just defeatism that spurred Kehoe to decide to spend the summer in the States, that the best this season will offer the relegated Wexford men is another crushing defeat at the hands of Kilkenny?
All those big losing margins of the last ten years may have finally taken their toll on the county's self belief that it can again compete with Ireland's best.
Or is there a problem in the county with the management team? I find it hard to believe that so many people have turned down the chance to play for their county otherwise.
Anyone any views on this one?