HURLING CONTINUES TO HIT THE HEIGHTS
THE OLD adage tells us what’s rare is wonderful, but if this year’s hurling championship has taught us anything, its that what’s commonplace is even more glorious, as we’ve been treated to a succession of spectacular games this summer.
I’ve spoken to a few long in the tooth hurling purists who have watched more games than I could fathom that are adamant that the ball is too light these days, making scoring points as easy as plucking blackcurrants from a bush, but to hell with that kind of talk; you just have to sit back and enjoy the score-fests, and if you can’t drool over Peter Duggan’s mesmerising skill against Galway, sport is almost certainly not for you.
In these days of instant gratification, we can all be guilty of living too much in the present and you’re bound to hear the phrase ‘best game of hurling ever’ spouted out nonchalantly a couple of times every year.
There’s always been hurling games that have lit up the summer, like Cork v. Wexford in the drawn All-Ireland semi-final in 2003, Clare v. Cork in the All-Ireland final in 2013, which also finished all square, or Galway v. Tipperary in the 2015 semi-final, which the westerners won by the minimum.
Those are just a few examples off the top of my head, but the difference this year is that there’s just so many bona fide classics.
The robin robin system produced some cracking games in Munster and the odd one in Leinster.
Then after Limerick got a real monkey off their back when they ousted Kilkenny in their quarter-final, they again produced the goods to bravely see off Cork in a titanic tussle in the final four, while in the other semi-final Galway and Clare played out an absolute humdinger and the replay promises to be equally as dramatic.
Whichever side emerges from next weekend’s match to face Limerick in this year’s showpiece, it’s sure to be a game for the ages, given what we’ve witnessed so far this year.
Aficionados of Gaelic football, on the other hand, are left to lick their wounds as, in the main, the games continue to fail to ignite.
Complete mismatches in the early stages of the championship would obviously turn most casual observers off the big ball game, but of course it could be argued that if Kilkenny faced the likes of Westmeath and Cork faced off against Kerry regularly in the hurling championship, that code would be blighted by the same problems.
That’s why some sort of tiered system needs to be introduced in football before it all ends up in tears.
Admittedly the current system in hurling is seriously flawed, with Carlow getting little or no recognition for their Joe McDonagh Cup success, but at least they had something tangible to play for, although it will be difficult for them to leave any sort of mark when they step up to Leinster championship level next year.
Another major issue that continues to blight football at the moment is the ultra defensive set-ups deployed by many teams, making it an extremely tough watch, forcing neutrals to turn away in their droves.
In the recent Dublin versus Donegal game in Croke Park, the Ulster champions still wouldn’t come out of their shell even when they were chasing the game, allowing the Dubs to play keep ball in the middle third.
Predictably the Dubs were pilloried for resting on their laurels and not trying to add to their tally when they had a four- or five-point cushion with time running out.
However, if Donegal had got more in their faces they wouldn’t have been able to spray the ball around so easily.
Even when they needed to push forward to try to rescue the game with time against them, they couldn’t break from the defensive mindset that almost has teams paralysed with the fear of being left exposed at the back.
The Super 8s haven’t really provided the fizz that the powersthat-be would have hoped for, although at least the attacking intent in the first-half of the Kildare versus Galway clash showed that we shouldn’t administer the last rites to the game just yet.
The final big problem is the utter dominance of Dublin, especially when you consider that instead of trying to out-fox the champions, the wannabes seem to want to drag them down to their level.
It might be clutching at straws, but the last couple of football championships were saved by decent All-Ireland finals, so who knows, maybe Galway or somebody else can step up to the plate and do a Mayo this year, and at least give Dublin a decent game in the Croke Park decider.
If ever Gaelic football needed an all-singing, all-dancing finale to a campaign to save its skin, this is the year.
Hurling, on the other hand, is riding on the crest of a wave.