VIBRANT HURLING PUTTING FOOTBALL TO SHAME
Only one code is guaranteed to truly entertain us this year
HURLING IS in a good place. Just look at the last two All-Ireland finals. True spectacles. Epic affairs. Attendances are booming, too, as the latest set of accounts from Croke Park testify. Then compare that to football, which is all about defensive formations. I was at the All-Ireland final between Donegal and Kerry last September only to be accosted by a number of Donegal supporters. They had a right cut at me over criticisms I had made over their style of play. And then look at the type of final that was served up.
I lost count of the amount of bodies behind the ball in the first two rounds of the League. No wonder it’s being proposed that goalkeepers have to kick the ball past the 45-metre line to bring back some of the traditional skills. Or that one club is proposing to Congress later this month that a team has to kick the ball after two hand-passes.
Thankfully, I never see hurling going down the same route. And that’s what makes the opening weekend of the League so exciting.
There will always be tactical plays but for the most part, hurling is played on instinct. I can’t see it going down football’s path of obsessive planning.
If there is one issue that continues to be a hot topic in both codes, it is refereeing. I hope a separate referees committee for hurling comes into being – I see that as a good thing. Nothing against referees’ chairman Pat McEnaney. I’m not saying there is no hurling played in Monaghan, but the games are poles apart.
A goal and a point is worth the same, but that’s about as similar as they get. It’s time that is formally recognised.
It’s a big year for so many teams, including Cork. Finally winning silverware in Munster was great in 2014 but they fell dismally in the All-Ireland semi-final against Tipperary. They have to prove they are not one-hit wonders.
Look at Clare winning the All-Ireland two years ago – they too fell dismally in 2014. There is only one team who have done it year-in, year-out, and that’s Kilkenny.
I still think they’re slipping – as I suggested last year – but I didn’t think the pretenders to the crown stepped up. The talk on the street in Clare is that Davy Fitzgerald has his players up at 6.30am in the morning and he’s entitled to go at things his own way.
But I love the simplicity with which Kilkenny approach things. They play with a high tempo, a high workrate, and do the basics so well. I don’t think there’s too many hills in Kilkenny that the players are running up and down. Or that Brian Cody has them up for early starts.
IF THEY could bottle what they have up there and sell it, the Kilkenny County Board wouldn’t be short of money. Fitzgerald made it known that he could turn his hand to four or five different systems of play. But if it doesn’t work on any given day, then there is a tendency for players to blame the system. Clare will have to step up to the mark. Maybe there was a bit of a hangover there last summer from the year before.
The team is very young and they probably enjoyed the All-Ireland success, and rightly so.
But no team, apart from maybe Kilkenny, could afford to lose a player like Podge Collins and I think Fitzgerald should have been more flexible with dual players. If the Clare footballers don’t get an extended run in the Championship, I’ve a sneaking feeling he’ll be back.
Cody mentioned the word ‘transi- tion’ in relation to Kilkenny this week and there is a lot of truth to what he is saying.
While only JJ Delaney and Brian Hogan could be said to be regulars of the five who retired, there will be a huge void in terms of experience in the training sessions and in the dressing-room on match day.
Who are we to disagree with Cody? He doesn’t mince his words.
The Ballyhale lads are a huge loss due to their club commitments.
Eoin Larkin and Richie Power are big absentees, too, since they were ruled out due to injury.
And, irrespective of last night’s result against Cork, I think they could struggle in this competition.
The six-team groups in Division 1A has made the League very exciting in recent years.
Add in the fantastic finales to the All-Ireland finals and the game has hardly been in a better place.
Limerick are back as a force in Munster and Wexford are kicking on again in Leinster which is great to see.
The spring will no doubt prove that there is only a toss of a coin between so many of the top teams.