Enda McEvoy: The great hurling men of the nation aren't happy unless they are angry
Hurling man will rush to point out the many flaws of the modern game: ‘Too many points. Not enough goals. The rules changing while we were sleeping and without anyone having the decency to inform us. Refs blowing too frequently for fouls. Refs blowing too frequently for non-fouls. Too many games that became glorified freetaking contests.’
can come out from behind the sofa now. It’s almost over. By teatime tomorrow the giant primal scream therapy session that masqueraded as the 2021 National Hurling League will have ended, give or take a final that - aptly for a competition which only half-existed in the first place – may or not be held. Life will be sane again. Phew.
We know what loves about hurling. He loves everything that makes the sport beautiful, the whole stern naked grandeur stuff. The additional importance of the collegiality and community of it all was well captured by Derek McGrath on RTÉ last Sunday night.
“A game that’s laced with and underpinned by integrity, honesty, savagery, love, courage. An intangible link between supporters, management, players, and you want that passion to be just part of everything we do.”
Perfectly expressed.
But much and all as he’s an enthusiast, - the minor issue of whether any hurling men exist who are not in fact great is a discussion for another day – isn’t above the occasional whinge. He’s hard to please. He’s high maintenance. He can be precious and prissy. What’s more, though he’ll never admit it, deep down he’s rarely happier than when he’s having a good old grouse about the game’s impending demise.
As such he’s had a ball these past few weeks.
The great hurling men of the nation have been taut and tense and ratty, and we’re not just talking about John Kiely in Salthill. The rap sheet they’re brandishing scarcely requires rehashing.
Too many points. Not enough goals. The rules changing while we were sleeping and without anyone having the decency to inform us. Refs blowing too frequently for fouls. Refs blowing too frequently for non-fouls. Too many games that became glorified freetaking contests. And then a game like last Sunday’s meeting of Galway and Waterford which, far from being a glorified freetaking contest, had too many scores (7-39 out of 7-51) from play.
Now if matches with too many scores from frees are bad, then matches with very few scores from frees must – a la George Constanza and his instincts in Seinfeld - by definition be good, right?
Not so this one, which by common consent was harmless in the extreme, the clockwork scoring created by the contestants’ tacit non-aggression pact. No protein, no roughage, no fibre. As evidenced by last year’s Limerick/Clare championship encounter, with its 60 scores and barely a stick broken, afternoons with a plethora of scores come with their own health warning.
Even during the last few days Pete Finnerty and Eoin Larkin added their tuppenceworth, Finnerty declaring that in his day defenders were required to defend, not flounce around picking off points from all angles, and Larkin forecasting a “boring championship”.
The existence of almost as many vehicles for opinions as of opinions themselves inevitably leads to sensory overload. Further amplification has been provided by RTÉ’s Sunday night highlights show. Filling two hours on a non-football weekend requires a considerable amount of chat, for which of late read complaints about referees, rules, sliotars and the rest of it.
Thank goodness for Davy Fitz, then. Afternoon handbags on the sideline in Belfast, banishment to the stand, a two-game ban and no apologies for any of it. Pantomime fun amid the gloom. Consistency in a world gone cranky.
We sometimes forget the extent to which certain boundaries in hurling have been broken not while we were sleeping but while we were watching. In his teenage days Eoin Kelly once hit 1-18 for Mullinahone in some south Tipp fixture. (Whether it was senior or underage not even the man himself is sure at this stage.) When word did the rounds there was much furrow-browed discussion of this stupendous feat, not to mention the occasional question as to its veracity.
Had he really scored that much? Was it actually physically possible for a human being, even one of Kelly’s majesty, to score that many points in the space of an hour? How come his arm hadn’t fallen off before the end?
What seemed wondrous 20 years ago is commonplace now. TJ Reid 1-18. Tony Kelly 0-20. Donal Burke 0-18.
With the putative league final pitting Kilkenny against Tipp, or maybe against Galway, or perhaps against Cork, or very possibly against nobody, one lesson from 2021 that will be doubtless taken on board by the GAA is to never again formulate a league structure that does not make provision for a definite winner. Journeys require destinations.
A league final is the perfect amuse bouche for the championship. It needs to be primed and primped and pimped. Wexford, without a title in the competition since 1973, would have loved one to aim for. Ditto Cork, without a title since 1998, and Waterford, who’ve contested six national finals since 2015 and won just the one of them. Not everyone can win the All Ireland but most teams can win the league.
You’ve read here ad nauseam over the years that most hurling issues are coaching issues. In a bracing piece on the GAA website, by turns trenchant and thoughtful, Martin Fogarty argues that the current problem is one of “systematic fouling”. Let the referees enforce the rules, he declares, and let coaches coach defenders to defend properly.
Incidentally, if you wondered about the changing shape of hurlers, as though some shadowy contemporary Sarumans have been busy breeding a new strain of Uruk Hai, you’re not the only one. “Are we looking,” Fogarty muses, “at prop forward-type hurlers being the future?” The article can be found on gaa.ie. Read and ponder.
The championship starts in a fortnight, for which may the Lord make us truly thankful. There will be games. There will be goals. There will be Davy. There may even be blood. There undoubtedly will be controversies.
will have so much to occupy him he won’t have time to complain
