This is hurling’s moment, let’s make the most of it...
THE esteemed Sports Illustrated tipped its hat to Limerick goalkeeper Nickie Quaid. On a weekend of world sporting action, the publication decided the combination of timing, precision and bravery to flick the ball away from Cork’s Séamus Harnedy — as he looked to pull the trigger to settle the All-Ireland semifinal — merited the accolade of ‘Highlight of the Weekend’.
A player-turned-model from the Offaly hurling heartland of Birr featured on the pages of Vogue
Paris, nonchalantly posing in boy-meets-girl scene with a hurley and helmet in hand. The beautifully crafted series The
Game screened on RTÉ — a threepart love letter to the ancient, warrior game, this gift from the hurling gods. It was timed perfectly to fit the hyperbolic narrative of the summer and what is currently occupying the status of greatest hurling championship ever. What next? All that’s left is for Time magazine to clear a space on its front cover and just feature a hurley. After all, the signature edition can be taken up with not just a person or group but ‘an idea or object’ that has influenced the year.
A single curved stick of ash would do the trick nicely.
IN KICKING down heaven’s door, Limerick provided the perfect postscript. Kyle Hayes reimagined himself as a modern day Cú Chulainn, the boy turned man in the space of a single afternoon. Declan Hannon stepped out of the long shadow cast by Éamonn Grimes and into the dizzying, bright light that goes with being a Limerick All-Ireland winning captain. Cian Lynch, approached the field as a blank canvas and attacked it with all the colour and dash of an impressionist painter. The game’s original freestyle hurler.
This, truly, is hurling’s moment. Never has the game been so widely shared, so widely celebrated and enjoyed.
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visited Ireland on honeymoon, the royal couple took in Croke Park as part of their short tour. Watch the clip of them marvelling as Joe Canning put on a personal exhibition of the sideline cut just for their delectation. No doubt, they sat in on Sunday to watch the Hurler of the Year bury a 20-metre free to the net in added time and almost change the course of hurling history.
Rugby referee Nigel Owens provided his own glowing account of Limerick’s achievement: ‘What a game. The All Ireland Hurling Final was full of passion, commitment, speed, excitement, physicality & it seemed not many rules either lol. Really enjoyed it... Brilliant viewing,’ he tweeted.
The question now — how does hurling harness all of that? Never has the game been in such a prime position in the sporting market.
The skill level of the players is off the charts, the depth and quality of competition is pitch perfect, and the new round-robin series in Leinster and Munster feeding into the All-Ireland series has liberated the players. It all means the record books are being obliterated — for chances created, points scored in a single match and matches played en route to the final.
Right now, hurling evokes the old Olympic motto: ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’ — ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’.
Peter Duggan’s mesmerising solo point for Clare in the drawn semifinal against Galway at Croke Park was another moment perfectly suited to Sports Illustrated. The art of goalkeeping has evolved now to a point where Eoin Murphy of Kilkenny will have to sit still for a portrait to go with the one of legendary Kilkenny goalkeeper Ollie Walsh which hangs in the upstairs room of the county board offices at Nowlan Park. Take the one-handed bounce. Once a training ground party trick; it is now perfected as a means of creating more time for players on the ball in full flight. They’re all at it now. Likewise, the chop pick-up that is Cian Lynch’s trademark. At the Hurling for Cancer charity game last Tuesday night at St Conleth’s Park, a staggering total of 5,523 people turned up. They lapped up the light-hearted exhibition match where comedy duo The 2 Johnnies were living out their ‘Junior B All-Star’ dreams, strutting their stuff on a pitch with Richie Hogan and Conor McDonald. It was a night which saw Paul McGrath in the dug-out, Stephen Hunt scoring goals and Ireland prop Tadhg Furlong taking puck-outs. A half-hour after the final whistle, there were three main pockets of autograph hunters and selfie-seekers still going: around Kilkenny’s TJ Reid, Wexford’s Lee Chin and Cork’s Anna Geary, camogie clearly surfing the wave of the summer success story.
AT Citywest Hotel yesterday, Limerick manager John Kiely spoke of the impact on the next generation of kids this AllIreland triumph will surely have.
He was sure of its lasting legacy as tens of thousands turned out for the homecoming and the parading of the Liam MacCarthy Cup at the Gaelic Grounds.
And therein lies the biggest challenge for a game that has belonged to a core group of just 10 counties at the highest level.
Take the single wins of Kerry, Laois and London off the All-Ireland roll of honour (all dating back over a century), and what’s left is a traditional carve-up between Kilkenny (36 titles), Cork (30) and Tipperary (27). Fourth in the list is Limerick with eight.
The entire combination of Limerick, Dublin (6), Wexford (6), Galway (5), Offaly (4), Clare (4) and Waterford (2) is still one shy of what a single county, Kilkenny, have amassed.
The inaugural Joe McDonagh Cup has been well received and hurling’s tiered championships have served the game well. But in too many counties the game is either a poor relation, an afterthought, or not a thought at all.
Outside of featuring in Vogue, hurling has become fashionable to the extent that the old Cooper helmet — an 80s hockey headguard – is now the fashion item of choice on the field for young and old. The same model that Cian Lynch wore on Sunday.
This is hurling’s moment. Now comes the challenge of translating the revolution into boots on the ground.