Good to be back, but where’s the razzmatazz?
Whetting my appetite was a game I saw last Sunday, a Harty Cup semi-final between Árd Scoil Rís and St Flannan’s. There were 43 scores in a brilliant game, without a dirty stroke, and great credit due to the two schools for that, to the players and management especially. Fair play to Árd Scoil Rís too for digging out the win, and on this evidence you’d have to say the future is bright for both Clare and Limerick.
That’s a positive from last week, but there is also a negative, also at schools level. Tipperary played Galway in the All-Ireland Vocational Schools semi-final which the Premier boys won 2-17 to 1-14. But lo and behold the result was challenged as Tipperary had underage players in their team! In my time we had a real problem, fellas playing overage, and the late, great Jimmy ‘Butler’ Coffey famously won an All-Ireland minor championship with Tipperary when he was 20, and — according to himself — ‘I wasn’t the oldest fella on the field either!’
What have we come to? Is this any way to promote hurling for youngsters? I know the same rule is there at underage club level, but it’s absolutely stupid — will someone please look at that again?
This week the big boys back on stage, and who bigger than Tipperary and Kilkenny, and what better stage than Semple Stadium on a Saturday night, under lights? There was always a great rivalry between these two but it has reached another peak in the last few years, so a super game is in prospect. Question though — where is the marketing for this game? And I ask the same question of last Sunday’s meeting of Cork and Kerry in the football — where is all the razzmatazz?
The GAA has been doing a lot right in recent years, and everyone should give them credit for that, but criticism too where it’s warranted, and it’s certainly warranted here.
The league has become a lot bigger in the last 10 years. Every manager is taking it seriously, even if only as a way of finding new players, of developing the team. Look at the number of teams who have won the league, then gone on to win the championship. Look at the number of teams — I’m thinking of Tipp here, a couple of years ago — who have used the league as a launch pad for a championship challenge. You’d wonder, could Galway go on this year, bring their game to the next level, having won the league last year?
The GAA are missing a great opportunity here. They have great ticket packages on offer but they should market the games a lot better. Look at the meeting of Clare and Limerick in Cusack Park. I know it’s in Division Two, but it’s a huge game for both teams and could well decide who’s going to be in pole position come playoff time.
There’s no doubt but that people have a huge appetite for hurling now, after the long break but the GAA should hype it up and let people know what’s happening.
We’ll go quickly to the games themselves. The first one, the big one, is the game in Thurles. Tipperary are under new management, and I think they might even be better this year than last — unfortunately for the supporters, that mightn’t happen until later in the season, so I’d say to them, be patient.
The changeover in management won’t have instant results but these are three quality men in charge, having taken over from three quality individuals. They are All-Ireland champions but they’re only just back from their holidays; this is an opportunity for the younger players to challenge for places, guys like John O’Neill, Timmy Hammersley, and should be looked at as such. The same applies to Kilkenny, they too won’t be at full strength. Nevertheless, a great game in prospect.
In the other Division One games, you’d fancy Cork and Galway to win, but Waterford/Dublin is a tough one to call; home advantage should swing it for Davy Fitzgerald’s side. In Division Two, Clare and Limerick is match-of-the-day. Limerick have more experience, but most of those players didn’t play last year, which might work to Clare’s advantage.
