Eimear Ryan: The danger of leaving a hurling match early
SURROUNDED: Gearod O'Connor of Tipperary is surrounded by several Cork players during the Co-Op Superstores Munster Hurling League Final at Páirc Ui Rinn in Cork. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
It was only when the Cork fans started leaving Páirc Uí Rinn that I began to feel worried. This was last Sunday afternoon, at the Munster senior hurling league final, and I was sitting in the front row of the covered part of the stand, just in out of the persistent drizzle. Tipp were comfortably cruising, five points up with five minutes of normal time to go. Cork had looked extremely dangerous at times, especially in the first twenty minutes, but had also gone long stretches without a score. Some of the Cork fans had decided to vote with their feet, making for the exit and passing directly in front of me. They had seen enough, it seemed.
Until then, I’d assumed that Tipp would keep happily tagging on points and that Noel McGrath, brought on for the last ten minutes, would get in some trophy-lifting practice. But the departing fans’ certainty about the outcome stoked my doubt. Five points is a grand lead heading down the final straight of a match, but who among us hasn’t seen a margin like that go up in smoke, either as a spectator or a player? A couple of goals and it can look like a very flimsy lead indeed.
This is the danger of leaving a hurling match early – even a pre-season, drizzly, January hurling match. You never know what you might miss.
Cork should be deservedly thrilled with their resilience and with that great final push, outscoring Tipp 1-4 to 0-1 in the last five minutes. Jack O’Connor, wearing number 6 in place of the Australia-bound Mark Keane, did superbly well with his chances, nabbing 1-1 in the closing minutes. Barrs dual star Brian Hayes was effective too when he came in, batting the goal that signalled the start of the Cork comeback. Patrick Horgan was reassuringly Patrick Horgan-esque.
And it was a good fact-finding mission for Tipp as well. Brian McGrath was excellent, from his efficient first point moments after the ball was thrown in, to his display of high fielding, to his general liveliness and commitment. Jason Forde was equally good from placed balls and play; his brace of points early in the second half, having dropped deep, were especially assertive. Bonner was a heartening presence; John McGrath is back fit. And Sean Ryan’s one-two with Conor Stakelum for Tipp’s lone goal was a delight.
Across the board, players looked fit and fast, but first touch was understandably off. It’s such an odd time of year. You can’t read anything into what happens in the Munster league and yet, just as the teams can only beat what’s in front of them, we hacks can only write about what’s in front of us.
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Last Sunday, a clip from a Women’s Super League fixture between Chelsea and Liverpool went viral on Twitter – though the match had only lasted six minutes before being abandoned. The Twitter account @FranKirbyDaily (a fan account for the accomplished Chelsea and England player) posted a 30-second video of multiple players slipping and falling on the pitch, complete with jaunty circus music. Sometimes the players were on the ball and lost their footing; sometimes they were just trying to change direction or increase their pace, and they went flying. The pitch – Kingsmeadow in Wimbledon, the home venue of Chelsea Women – was essentially an ice rink.
How had the grounds been deemed playable in the first place? Hard to say. Liverpool manager Matt Beard and Chelsea manager Emma Hayes both expressed their frustration beforehand that the fixture was going ahead. Liverpool captain Niamh Fahey also voiced her concerns about the playability of the pitch before kickoff, but the match went ahead regardless – until the players’ struggles made it clear that continuing was folly. It was a lucky break that no one was seriously injured.
There was speculation that the decision to proceed with the match was made because the game was to be broadcast live on BBC2. Perhaps this is what gave the decisionmakers the grim resolve that the show must go on – to call it off would be to forgo the one weekly slot that the BBC allots to live women’s soccer.
The expansion of women’s professional soccer has been so accelerated over the last few years that perhaps there is a sense that you can’t let the side down. In an attempt to make the pitch playable, it was tented all morning, with heaters and leaf-blowers employed to try to get rid of the ice on the playing surface. But it clearly wasn’t enough.
Afterwards, players like Chelsea’s Erin Cuthbert – who had a heavy fall in the abandoned game – took to social media to apologise to disappointed fans, who could have saved themselves the journey. Though clearly not the players’ fault, they felt that the whole unfortunate situation reflected badly on them and on the league as a whole. This doesn’t happen in top-flight men’s soccer because their grounds are all equipped with undersoil heating. Is it another case of women’s sports facilities having to level up to keep pace with the quality and ambition of the players themselves?
Somewhere that does have undersoil heating is Croke Park. But even the playing surface of GAA headquarters has been criticised in recent days, with stadium director Peter McKenna conceding that the pitch ‘looked tired’ after the weekend of All-Ireland club final action. I love this phrasing, as if Croker were an old Ikea sofa that has seen better days. (McKenna insisted it was merely an aesthetic issue, and certainly nothing to do with the five Garth Brooks concerts that were held in September.) The stadium will get another workout on Sunday with Dublin’s opening match against Kildare in the national league, but will then have a month to recover before Dublin next play host. It’s a fright to think that in the new GAA calendar, even the pitches are approaching burnout.
