The scoreboard does not measure beauty
THERE is truly none as blind as those who cannot see. Last Sunday was one of the most enjoyable, illuminating and invigorating afternoons I have spent watching hurling, but apparently not everyone shared that view.
It was an afternoon which reminded us just how much our game has expanded in terms of style, while at the same time reminding that the core fundamentals are still what make our game different and great.
There was no issue with regards to the Munster final with everyone in agreement that this was a wonderful feast of fluent, entertaining hurling, full of verve, movement and great scores.
It was the Leinster final, though, which reminded us how our game has really changed, or rather how the perspective of those who watch, commentate and write about it has.
Even though Kilkenny and Galway drew, I heard the game being referred to as being dull, boring and of poor quality.
I should know enough at this stage not to be surprised but I was left stunned by such critique because I had found the Kilkenny/Galway game, if anything, even more compelling than the Cork/Clare match.
There are a couple of reasons, though, as to why not everyone shared my level of appreciation.
The first is technology based; we live in an age where the thrills must come ferociously fast and packaged, even if that comes at the price of context.
In recent years, Sky’s viewing figures of the Premiership has dropped spectacularly with one of the main reasons that people no longer have the concentration — and I accept it takes some powers of concentration to sit through Watford v Huddersfield — to watch a full 90-minutes.
There is also no need as now you get the goals sent to your smartphone as they happen, so why sit through the boring bits?
So in the end you get the result, you get to see the goals but you get to know nothing else about what you have seen.
Every time I sit down and watch the Sunday Game highlights show, it feels like I am swiping my way through a smartphone rather than seeing an actual game.
All we see are the scores because nothing else really matters. But instant gratification becomes an issue when it blinds those who get to see the whole thing, and leaves them unable to tell the difference between what is good and what is not.
Brains have become dulled to nuance. This is how it works now, scores equals entertainment, entertainment equals good, the more scores, the more entertainment, the greater the game.
I am sorry but that just does not work for me. The measuring tape as to what constitutes a good game of hurling will never be based on how many scores a game produces.
More than anything, because I believe hurling is a visceral feast we should all enjoy, it depresses me that some people could only see a scoreboard which turned too slowly for their liking, rather than seeing the intensity which fuelled a game of physical splendour.
When I started out many years ago I imported my blueprint from rugby. The All-Blacks specifically, and not just because they executed style and skill, but because they engaged their physical intensity to provide them with the platform to do that in the first place.
It is the basis of how good wellcoached hurling teams work as well.
If it was just about subtle wrists and fine china first touch, we would pay in at the door of the circus tent to watch hurling, but instead we pay at the gate of what we hope will be a battle field.
Kilkenny and Galway was an uncompromising, physical exhibition of hurling, a feast to my eyes and sugar to my soul.
I am hoping for more of the same tomorrow because these two teams know no other way.
They both embrace the game’s warrior instincts, enjoy playing that way and, oddly enough for those slaves to the tactical whiteboard, are quite successful because of that.
To be fair, one of the reasons I got such a kick out of the Cork/ Clare game was watching the Rebels up the physical stakes in the second-half.
They accepted Clare’s invite, well John Conlon’s principally, to a physical battle and Seamus Harnedy took them up on it with spectacular results.
That is real hurling and that is exactly what we are going to see tomorrow.
Who will win? I will stick with Galway. They should take more from last week because whatever residue of complacency — and it would be hard to believe it was not there given how they are continuously referred to as champions-in-waiting — existed is now banished.
More importantly, they have better players and more of them.
That is particularly true in terms of their attack where the breadth of their menace is something to be enjoyed and contrasts with the weight of responsibility heaped on TJ Reid’s shoulders.
So, yes, Galway will win but do yourself a favour, watch how they do it.
Because therein lies the glory and the beauty of our game.