Great to see Tipperary’s recent excellent work at underage coming to fruition
WHAT a brilliant result for the Tipperary footballers last Sunday. I was away in Galway last weekend and didn’t get to see much of the quarter-finals.
I did, however, sneak away for a short look live at the first twenty five minutes of the Tipp/ Galway game.
Despite Tipperary lording it I was worried that they were missing too many chances and felt that Galway would regroup and find some form to turn the game around.
Thankfully I was wrong and Tipperary went on to win and fully deserved to record an historic victory which incredibly now sees them into the last four of the All-Ireland series. Brilliant!
It is great to see Tipperary’s recent excellent underage work coming to fruition. They are an example to all counties as to what can be achieved with the proper structures, application and belief.
It is well documented the quality players they were missing this year. It has to be said some are missing for genuine reasons but others not so and I wonder how they are feeling now?
Probably the biggest obstacle for the footballers in Tipperary is competing with the hurling fraternity both at club and county board level.
The footballers on this excellent run have struggled to attract supporters in any great numbers especially compared the hurlers.
It will be interesting to see, following their brilliant win over Galway, what amount of Tipp supporters will turn up at the football semi-final.
With the considerable profile of the hurlers it is no surprise, and probably understandable, that any young talented dual player in Tipperary would lean towards the hurlers.
This year two very good young footballers threw their lot in with the county Senior hurlers. It would be an absolute fairy tale for Tipperary to go on and lift Sam Maguire and I for one, despite my Dublin affiliations, will be hoping they do.
The announcement by the GAA and GPA of a new deal worth a staggering €6.2 million certainly caught the headlines.
I welcome this announcement and the benefits it will bring to the game and to the most important stakeholders of the Association i.e. the players.
The GPA representing the players now also have a mechanism to improve their input on behalf of their players into matters of GAA policy that are important and which affect their players.
This is an important change as there has been little proof to date that the GAA have addressed the GPA’s concerns regarding many of their issues especially when it came to changing the format of competitions.
We as an organisation, whether we like it or not, are now on the verge of professionalism especially at the elite end of our game.
I am sure many of the Association’s founders are turning in their graves with this news but like everything else time moves on and things change.
I believe the huge effort put in by all inter-county players should in some way be financially rewarded.
It is crazy that on All-Ireland final days that over 82,000 people pay big money to watch these super talented athletes and that everyone working in the grounds is being paid while the players are not.
These young players put their lives on hold for long periods of the year and are fully entitled to be rewarded.
The increase in the petrol allowance is most welcome as the old rate has not changed for well over 10 years and previously no account of a car’s depreciation was taken into consideration.
You can just imagine the mileage an inter-county player can rack up when driving from Dublin to all parts of the country at least two or three times a week.
The fact also that the increase will not be met by struggling County Boards is, I believe, important also. I welcome the contribution of €200,000 yearly to cover surgical procedures required by former inter-county players.
The number of players who require hip and knee replacements is a worry and this funding should benefit some of the retired players who now find themselves needing such an operation.
Hopefully the benefits of this new deal will cover all inter-county teams equally.
I sincerely hope strict guidelines on accountability will be put in place regarding how these substantial funds will be dispensed across the counties.
The often forgotten about Junior hurling championships take centre stage this weekend with the two Junior ‘A’ semi-finals down for decision.
First up will be Arklow Rock Parnells against St. Pat’s which takes place this Friday in Pearse’s Park. St. Pat’s who recently won the league section will be slight favourites to advance to the final; however, they are fully aware they will be in for fierce battle against hurling traditionalists, the Rocks.
The Rocks can call on the vastly talented ex-county players such as T.J. Byrne, Gerry Byrne and Trevor Mellon and the hugely impressive up and coming stars such as Tyrone Byrne and Orlaigh Redmond.
St Pat’s will be looking for strong performances from the likes of Gerry Connors, Andrew Conway, Terry Healy and their young players the two Christy Moorehouses. This will be a battle right to the end with the decision going to the wire.
In the other semi-final we have two of the hurling strongholds in the county, Carnew and Kiltegan, both well accustomed to winning titles at all grades.
Carnew pushed St. Pat’s right to the edge in the league and will start as favourites to reach yet another final. Carnew have a team laden with SHC winners such as Diarmuid Doran, Nick Skelton, Thomas Collins and the hugely impressive Jody Byrne and Dan Nolan.
Kiltegan will also have plenty of SHC winners on view such as John and Christy O’Toole, Denis Hayes and Jonathan Tallon.
This also promises to be great game and I won’t be surprised with either team coming out on top but I give a slender vote to Carnew to advance.