TONY CONSIDINE: Forget sideline saga, the rumours, just bring on the action
Well, if I were Liam I wouldn’t be focusing my attention on how many people he allows through the gate onto the field, I’d be worried about how many people come through the turnstiles into the terraces and stands.
Attendances were well down last year and this is what should have been on the minds of the top brass in the GAA this week – what kind of incentives and packages they can offer to entice people to the games. Instead they’ve focused on sorting a problem that was never there in the first place.
In all my time on the sideline, club and county, I never saw trouble between mentors. A few choice words yes, but this is a passionate sport. You expect that. Yes, there have been a few high-profile incidents lately but this is cracking a walnut with a sledgehammer. Why prevent a doctor or a physio from doing his or her job? Why prevent selectors and the manager from conferring, being able to do their jobs? And don’t talk to me about soccer or rugby, or even gaelic football – you can’t compare hurling to any other field sport in the world.
It’s not too late for O’Neill and Croke Park to change this directive. It’s wrong, unnecessary and works against hurling. Not too late either for them to work on getting people through the stiles.
Having said all that, I hope the fans do come because it looks like we’re going to have a very competitive Allianz Hurling League again this year.
Cork and Tipperary this evening in Cork, under lights. Isn’t that going to be a great spectacle, a game hurling fans always like to see? Even if it was only pitch and toss there would be an edge here.
Look at Kilkenny heading for Galway, a repeat of the All-Ireland final. Who wouldn’t want to see that?
In Ennis we have Clare and Waterford, another juicy one. There’s a massive rivalry built up there over the last number of years. In Dublin it’s Offaly visiting Parnell Park, again under lights. This is a huge year for Dublin, given the problems they had last year but no-one should be writing off Offaly. Ollie Baker has to plan this evening without the Kilcormac Killoughey players, but this is still a good hurling team.
Then you have Limerick and Antrim, a chance for the Treaty supporters to come and see if they’re maintaining the progress under John Allen. There’s pressure there this year and it starts on Sunday. Finally you have a new-look Wexford taking on Carlow with their manager Liam Dunne under pressure to start producing the goods.
A sequence of good games then, though I’ll say again, I’d love to have seen all those teams in one group, but that’s another story and is going to happen next year anyway.
There’s been a lot of talk about trouble in the Cork camp, about all the guys who have gone from hurling to football. Eoin Cadogan, Damien Cahalane and Aidan Walsh are better at football than hurling, simple as that. Didn’t Cork lose Darren Sweetnam also, to rugby? Didn’t they lose Setanta Ó hAilpín to Aussie Rules a few years ago? Tomás O’Leary to rugby? How much talk was there about things being wrong in the camp then?
I have great time for Jimmy Barry-Murphy and I say now – let him manage. He made a decision about Donal Óg Cusack. Let it go. Donal Óg has been a fantastic servant to Cork but did it slip people’s minds that Anthony Nash is currently rated the number one goalkeeper in Ireland, that he’s the current All Star? Have they missed Darren McCarthy, how good he is?
Those guys are the future of Cork and it’s time they got their chance. You watch, new leaders are going to emerge on that team this year.
There were rumours in Tipperary as well. Why is it that we seem to get more rumours from those two counties every year in hurling, than anywhere else? Do they just have more begrudgers, more people who love to just stir things up? Where are those people when Cork and Tipperary are winning?
To me, Tipperary have just one big problem to address – softness. They need to get harder. They need to have a few hurlers who are prepared to hurt and – more important – to get hurt.
Anyway, rumours or not, here we go and I’m really looking forward to it.
