Hurling has been my life, get it right Davy!
IWAS shocked that Davy Fitzgerald saw fit to have a go at me after his Wexford team went out of the Championship yesterday.
Is he really that concerned about the media and what’s being said about him?
As a player for 15 years with Offaly, I was never bothered by comments directed at me, good, bad or indifferent.
I got some praise at times but my fair share of criticism too. That comes with the territory and I didn’t need anybody to tell me if I’d played well or otherwise.
That’s not the point here though. He’s saying that RTÉ should get analysts who have been on the sideline.
Well, I can tell Davy that I did manage Meath for a couple of years, and I coached Offaly in 2004, alongside then manager Mike McNamara.
I felt I made a fairly positive contribution too but I took a back seat after that for a long number of years, for personal reasons.
I was asked to manage the Offaly team on a number of occasions but my wife Edel lost her battle with cancer and the kids were so small at the time.
It just wasn’t feasible to take up the Offaly role, although I would have felt I had something to offer.
I’d also point out that I’ve been involved for the last 13 years in coaching kids.
Last year, Ballinamere/Durrow, a tiny club, won a county minor A championship in Offaly.
They’d never won a minor title before but it was one of my proudest days in coaching.
I had two sons involved — Seán was captain and Brian was the youngest player on the team.
And so, I’d totally refute Davy’s comments and I’d encourage him to grow up at this stage.
If he can’t take an opinion from somebody who’s been involved for all his life in hurling, he really needs to take a hard look at himself.
I tweeted the following at halftime in the Wexford-Waterford game: ‘Sweepers should be outlawed! Not the game I love. Coach players to tackle and to use their heads instead of using extra backs to compensate!’
When I checked last before 8 o’clock last night, it was retweeted almost 100 times and liked by over 400 people, including former Wexford player Mick Jacob and TJ Reid, one of the finest players in the modern game.
And besides, why would Davy be so aware and concerned about tweets from myself and Henry Shefflin within a few minutes of losing an All-Ireland quarter-final?
Look, I can understand why teams go with this system but does it really show an ambition to win anything?
You might limit the number of goal-scoring chances on offer to the opposition but it’s also hinting at a total lack of trust in your defenders.
A big part of hurling is to coach the art of defending. You won’t always manage it because there are good forwards out there who are difficult to pin down but you can be disciplined, try not to foul, make attackers work for their scores.
Imagine being an inside forward on a team playing like that?
Waterford’s Shane Bennett and Jake Dillon have worked so hard and sacrificed their own games for the cause and if they win the All-Ireland, the system will be justified.
But look at how the top teams have managed to adapt to it. Tipperary destroyed Waterford in the Munster final last year, and Cork also found a way to dismantle them earlier this summer.
Galway love coming up against sweepers too, because they have such good hurlers and, in Aidan Harte, have such an outstanding natural hurler who can play that role himself at the other end.
Galway work the ball through the lines up the field and pick you off from distance, running up huge scores in the process.
I know that nowadays the game is much faster, the ball is lighter and travels farther and that puts big pressure on defences but Cork have shown how you can adapt.
Last year, Tipp picked their sweeper system apart but now the Rebels are Munster champions and All-Ireland contenders.
They just started to attack the ball and trust each other.
The sweeper is a cop-out and I don’t believe there’s any way that you can win the All-Ireland playing like that.
And Waterford certainly won’t win it if their sweeper, Tadhg de Búrca, is suspended for the AllIreland semi-final.
That incident was inconclusive on TV. To me, it looked like he was trying to shake off his man but if he did catch Harry Kehoe’s faceguard, that’s a red card and will rule him out.
There did appear to be very minimal contact, however, and I’m sure we’ll have an appeal from Waterford.
I’d encourage him to grow up at this stage