Anthony Daly: Ennis delivered an old-school throwback to a different kind of hurling

Clare v Kilkenny was loaded with man-on-man stuff.

OLD SCHOOL THROWBACK: It was loaded with old-school, man-on-man stuff. What really made it a throwback for me was the amount of long sideline cuts that were taken. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

I was above in Montrose yesterday with RTÉ for last night’s ‘League Sunday’ but I’d love to have been in Cusack Park. Despite getting a volley of texts from lads telling me that I wasn’t missing much, that it was a poor game, that the atmosphere was flat and the quality was way below par, I didn’t agree. To me, it was a throwback to the 1990s. Hard-hitting. Ferocious. A savage battle.

That’s modern hurling in a nutshell – except it isn’t. Of course there were plenty of short puckouts, short passing and loads of handpassing but there was nowhere near the amount of space, or space creation, you normally see in the modern game. It was loaded with old-school, man-on-man stuff. What really made it a throwback for me was the amount of long sideline cuts that were taken. There was none of these little pop-cuts to lads four or five yards away – just lorry it down the field and take it from there.