5 WEEKEND TAKEAWAYS
Another hurling instalment which had shocks, sendings off, dramatic endings and thrills aplenty
1 DON’T BLAME THE REF CORK’S MUNSTER FAILINGS ARE ON CORK
IN what was a bonkers finish to another wild ride of a Munster Hurling Championship fixture, it was a bit surreal listening to the vocal home support at Páirc Uí Chaoimh jeering referee James Owens. Rarely has a match official who has just disallowed an opposition goal been targeted in such a manner.
‘He’s fouled surely?’ said GAAGO commentator David McIntyre, as Clare’s David Reidy was swung around by Mark Coleman as he cut in along the endline and played the last pass to Aron Shanagher who batted to the net — and was fouled as he scored. Owens pinged him for steps when he could so easily have blown for the Reidy free.
In a frenetic endgame that produced a flurry of goals, points and yellow cards, another crucial moment came when Clare corner-back Adam Hogan tackled Alan Connolly as the Cork attacker gained possession with four minutes of normal time remaining. The Clare corner-back did so well to stand him up and shepherd him sideways as Connolly tried to drop the shoulder and burrow through on goal.
It’s likely James Owens whistled him for wrapping the Cork attacker up with his two arms but it was a debatable call — so much in what Hogan was doing was textbook in trying to legitimately stop an opponent. Add in the fact that Connolly took roughly eight steps as Hogan tackled him the first time, before taking a touch and going again.
The Clare corner-back was incensed. Rightly so.
From that free Horgan billowed the net at a time when Clare led by 3-23 to 1-23, suddenly turning it into a one-score game.
For Horgan’s batted goal effort in the first half which produced a diving flick away to safety from Éibhear Quilligan, Horgan’s steps were up at double-digit level.
If Cork supporters want to jeer, they need to look closer to home. The cards flashed by Owens — 14 in total, 10 of those to Cork — was as much down to indiscipline.
Manager Pat Ryan admitted as much: ‘Our discipline probably left us down a bit.’
He also praised the character, pride, fight, and honesty of effort from his players after the ‘abysmal’ first-round showing against Waterford — and rightly so after they contributed so much to a cracking contest.
But Ryan also refused to hide behind blaming the main match official.
This is on Cork. When David Reidy dribbled the sliotar out of play in the corner, substitute Mark Coleman came in needlessly for afters and then it all spilled out into a messy flashpoint that ran down the clock — exactly what Cork didn’t need with two minutes of normal time left and chasing the game.
Same again when Horgan stood over a free in the 73rd minute that spiralled into a long delay. This is about simple ingame smarts — another area for Cork to improve.
Because there were enough positives to suggest turning over Limerick at home in a do-or-die game in less than a fortnight is within them.
2 ANTRIM EARN THEIR MOMENT IN THE SUN COURTESY OF LEINSTER
IN previewing the weekend, RTÉ analyst Dónal Óg Cusack engaged in the usual score-settling, having a go at the GAA and Leinster for the predictability and lack of competition in Leinster, particularly compared to Munster.
That conveniently overlooked how Leinster has played a crucial role in the broader development of the game. While there has been a level of arrogance in Munster in locking Kerry out of their own province to preserve the status quo, Antrim’s historic victory over Wexford — their first home win in Leinster since the round robin was introduced — was down to Leinster’s willingness to open its borders, taking on the likes of Galway as well. And while it has diluted the level of jeopardy somewhat, expanding to six teams was designed to avoid the yo-yo effect of promotion/relegation so the likes of Antrim could build towards such a result.
3 GALWAY FLATTER TO DECEIVE ONCE MORE
KILKENNY lost three of their best players in the build-up — All-Star goalkeeper Eoin Murphy and top attackers Adrian Mullen and Eoin Cody. Galway had home advantage at Pearse Stadium and all the motivation required to settle a score after last season’s cruel Leinster final defeat.
And still Henry Shefflin’s team couldn’t produce a win against a Kilkenny side that played with more cohesion, more belief and a clearer sense of what they were trying to do.
4 HURLING STILL NEEDS BETTER PROMOTION
FUNNY how quickly the world moves on. This season, there has been no sign of an over-the-top Liveline special on the GAA using their streaming platform GAAGO to showcase certain big hurling matches.
When such a vocal critic last year as Anthony Daly is admitting that he now has no issue – ‘It is a fine service. The production has really improved. There is far greater accessibility now. It is great value for the Championship package’ – it shows how it has bedded in and improved.
But he’s also right – and not alone – in describing the scheduling as infuriating and looking for more to be done to promote hurling.
An extra week or two to allow the provincial series breathe would be invaluable.
And greater flexibility, so the box-office pick of the Leinster round-robin, Galway versus Kilkenny, doesn’t clash with Cork-Clare, which proved to be an absolute belter.
Carlow, too, deserve better than an 80-second segment on The Sunday Game.
Last year’s Joe McDonagh Cup champions threatened to match Antrim with a historic win over Dublin in the round-robin series — yet got too little airtime.
As Carlow’s Paul Coady put it, there is an irony in facilitating discussions about how to grow the game and then not showing a proper highlights package that would help to do just that.
Not even listing the line-outs or flashing up the players’ names — even for a second — is such a slight.
5 WHEN A SIDELINE CUT IS THE DEEPEST
CLARE’S Mark Rodgers wowed the crowd in Cork with his sideline cut over the bar in the first half but nothing could match the winner from Antrim’s Gerard Walsh.
There is something about such a piece of skill that really strikes a chord with spectators and his late cut to edge his side in front against Wexford was sublime.
That it came with the emotional backstory of wearing the helmet of Ryan Straney, the Lámh Dhearg player killed in a road accident in Australia, added another layer to the result of the Championship so far.