Two more classics from a great game that keeps on giving

HURLING, THE game that keeps on giving. That should be the new catch phrase for the marketing people in Croke Park. After two unbelievable contests over the weekend, the players once again came up with the goods and produced the most amazing spectacles of sporting courage and gallantry you are likely to see, and left fans salivating for more.

I know G.A.A. people always spinning the line that these are amateur players who have to get up and go to work the next day. Well, it’s not spin, it’s the truth.

Eighty gladiators took to the Croke Park arena over two days and produced the greatest sporting entertainment you will see this year, and possibly are ever likely to see.

Both games had everything you could ask for in a game: some of the most amazing scores under pressure, bone-shuddering tackles, individual touches of brilliance, point-blank saves, heroic defending, effective teamwork, and sheer guts.

It was great to see young men having the belief and courage in their own ability to execute their skills on the big stage, in a big game, when it mattered.

They have trained all their sporting lives to get to this point and it must have been special for the coaches who brought them up through the ranks to see them perform to such high levels.

The players from the four counties involved deserve the greatest of credit for the entertainment they provided to the 54,000 that attended on Saturday and the 71,000 on Sunday, and the hundreds of thousands that watched and listened on television and radio.

Wexford referee James Owens deserves a special mention for the part he played in the entertainment on Saturday.

His performance was at the highest level and cemented his place as one of the top referees in the country.

His style allowed the players to display their skills while playing on the edge but within the rules.

His umpires were also on top form as, each time they called on ‘Hawkeye’, the decision was proven too close to make a call with the naked eye.

Their calls were justified, so well done to all as mistakes in such tight games can be devastating to a team.

Roll on the replay and the All-Ireland final as the entertainment just seems to get better and better.

Over the weekend I read an article about how we were recently treated to one of the greatest soccer World Cup tournaments in decades.

I watched a fair amount of games and, granted, we did have a few exciting games, with some outstanding individual performances by a couple of players and a few shock results.

I think it was deemed great more because of the facilities, the organisation and the friendliness of the Russians, rather than by the quality of the games.

By all accounts the hosting qualities of the Russian nation were the complete opposite to what was expected in advance, based on past experiences, so maybe this judgement was clouded by the hospitality on offer.

Now, if that same journalist followed this year’s hurling championships, I think he would have run out of superlatives to describe what entertainment we have witnessed.

Next Saturday our own under-age heroes travel to Nowlan Park to take on Cork in the Under-21 semi-final.

Cork are overwhelming favourites, but, as we have seen across many sports recently, this tag can be a burden on teams and work against them.

After their dramatic extra-time defeat to Galway, the Wexford team won’t be lacking motivation or belief and, with the experienced Senior panel members on our team, I believe they can overturn the bookies’ choice.

Best of luck to all involved.