Hurling’s stodge is soccer’s gain
Where are we at? This query narrows a fair few eyes. There is plenty dissatisfaction with the current championship. To quite a few observers, it will seem strange that this many counties are left, given the absence of drama, barring the NHL’s last three games.
The week’s main hurling news was the qualifier draw, which threw up decent talking points. Is Clare getting Laois at home an omen that we are looking at 2013 all over again? Not so likely, if only for the not so simple reason that 2013 has already happened.
Despite the raft of natural talent on board, Clare have become predictable in their play when it counts. Everyone has taken a flinty look at Clare.
They are good enough, in principle, to go all the way and will beat Laois. Beyond is another question. To win this All-Ireland, Clare must find a means of once more becoming unpredictable, same as 2013, different than 2013.
Although Limerick in all likelihood will beat Westmeath, their performance against Tipperary last weekend counts as severe setback. They could have absorbed being beaten. Far more of a bolus is the manner in which they operated right around the pitch.
Much of Limerick’s play spun like a 45 rpm record turntabled at 33 rpm. They were that slow and glitchy.
Item: the opening two Tipperary goals derived from basic failures in defending a sideline cut. For the first one, Michael Breen was allowed a clean run inside because too many Limerick backs went to the sideline’s drop. A version of the same mistake returned for the second one, which was daft.
Cork and Dublin is a toss-up. Home draw offers the former whatever measure of advantage lies to hand. Ger Cunningham badly needs a win to solidify his position as Dublin manager, where he has fine young talent at his disposal. Cork need to strip everything back and start again on 2016.
Although drawn away to Wexford, Offaly own a nice chance of progress. The county was boosted by their U17s win last Saturday in the Division One Final of the Celtic Challenge Cup. There might even be a lick of tempered optimism around, so low had expectations fallen in recent times.
Wexford’s showing against Dublin in their Leinster quarter-final five weeks ago was replete with similar errors to the ones Limerick exhibited against Tipperary.
Item: Darragh O’Connell’s run not being tracked before he scored Dublin’s second (and decisive) goal.
Wiser watchers than me will wonder how panels can train so much and learn so little. Why get together three or four times a week and end up beaten, six months later, on foot of such basic errors? Something is just not adding up, across the board.
The reality is that Clare, Cork, Dublin, Laois, Limerick, and Wexford are mired in various levels of underperformance. Include Antrim, needless to add, in this group.
The only counties operating at anything like their potential are Kilkenny, Tipperary, Waterford, and Westmeath. As ever, Galway remain an enigma wrapped in a mystery clasped in a paradox.
If the Liam MacCarthy Cup were to be awarded this weekend, it would be going to Thurles for a homecoming. That Tipperary have been going admirably well has been obscured somewhat by the poor weather conditions for both their championship outings, along with the paucity of the Cork and the Limerick challenges on the day.
Tipperary possess a solid platform from midfield back. Candidates are operating in a natural position and the team is better shaped.
Even remembering those caveats about June form, Tipp have been impressive. Current showing is Saab to other seasons’ Subaru.
Meanwhile, soccer’s French connection might be making GAA people a small bit nervous. Is summer ground being ceded due to stodgefests in hurling and football?
There is now the possibility that Ireland (Republic of) could play England (Brexit?) in the Euro quarter-finals. Although France next Sunday will probably be a step too high in standard, you never know. Last Wednesday, the Irish team was sound value for its success over Italy and should have won 3-0.
I am not entirely digressing. Although this facet is not widely flagged, the main reason headquarters is not keen to hold hurling and Gaelic football All-Ireland finals in August, thereby unclogging club schedules, centres on a related topic. Croke Park feels that removing those occasions from September would cede too much autumn ground to rugby and soccer.
Another day’s topic: if Gaelic games are in that much competition with other sports, does it ultimately make sense to facilitate Ireland hosting the Rugby World Cup in 2023? Should GAA stadiums be made available? How much money would compensate the GAA for granting so much exposure to a competitor?
You would wonder. The Rule 42 ‘debate’ of the early 2000s left the GAA sphere in a concussion yet to lift. A proper debate, this time round, would be laudable progress.
By the by, there should have been no headline intercounty hurling this weekend. The refixed Christy Ring Cup Final between Antrim and Meath, set for tomorrow in Croke Park, changed that scenario. Seeing a win for an impressive underdog voided because of scoreboard and referee error lends an unfortunate tinge of GUBU to the season.
I hope Meath win. The obvious reason, yes: sympathy for Meath hurling’s understandable joy curdling into disappointment, through no fault of their own.
But why halt there? Only a jolt of this magnitude might make Antrim hurling look at itself with the necessary severity. Nobody can help the county until it starts to help itself.
Hurling badly needs a few crackers in the qualifiers and two excellent provincial finals. This aim is realisable. But seeing is believing, whether on the couch or in the top of the stand or while waving a giant tricoloured plastic hammer over in France.
We live in Hope, the eternal townland.
