Have media taken eye off the ball?

ARE we becoming too critical of hurling? Last Saturday in this paper, Waterford manager Justin McCarthy reckoned that “too many people are knocking hurling”.

“There are too many past players getting on the bandwagon, looking for the ideal exhibition every Sunday.

“Teams go out to play as well as they can. There’s too much doom and gloom about hurling; we should be more positive and bring it with us; maybe a few fellas need to get off their asses and help teams and club and counties rather than having their own agenda.”

Then, last Saturday afternoon, after Kilkenny’s win over Galway in the All-Ireland quarter-final, your own particular eejit in this column opened his after-match interrogation of Kilkenny manager Brian Cody by asserting that neither Cork nor Kilkenny had looked very impressive in their wins, that perhaps Kilkenny’s fine start may have been down to Galway’s ineptitude.

Well lads, all I can say is that in front of a scrum of my betters in this journalism business, I got a bit of a dressing-down from Brian.

“I wasn’t concerned with the first game, our game was everything to us. I’m very, very happy, even if we were very, very poor,” he said, but he was just warming up.

“A man down weakens any team, especially against a wind (Kilkenny had a man sent off in the second half). We had played very well for a long time, and you don’t sustain that. But I’m glad ye think we were brutal again, to be honest. I’ll tell ye one thing, I’d hate to have ye as the manager of the team, ye have some high bloody standards, and I mean that.

Jesus Christ, how many of ye ever hurled? Do ye know what it’s like out there? I don’t know how many of ye ever played but it’s tough out there.”

Attempting to placate him (toady that I am), I asked if the move of Henry Shefflin from full forward to wing forward, onto struggling Galway rookie wing back Ger Mahon, was deliberate (Henry thrived in the changed position, destroyed the youngster), a master tactic. I didn’t even get a chance to finish the question.

“It was nothing deliberate; Henry plays full forward, wing forward, corner forward, every day of the bloody week, Henry just plays very good hurling, Henry is a super player, Henry plays phenomenal hurling in the game, how long can he do it?”

But Brian, I persisted, he played very well on the wing, was it not a deliberate move? “Diarmuid, Diarmuid,” he said, and looked at me kindly, “I’ll have a one-on-one with you sometime, because I’ll tell ye lads, I thought that was a fabulous game, I really did. The last day wasn’t a great game (Leinster final), but tonight I thought — the (media) lads will be happy anyway, but ye’re slaughtering me here, and I mean that.”

We’re not, I insisted, everyone agrees Kilkenny looked fantastic for the first 45 minutes, but it was when they came under pressure…

“It’s the All-Ireland quarter-final,” said Brian, “There are no backdoors anymore, it’s do or die; if we won by only two points to one we’d be thrilled, ye’d be disgusted. That’s the game Diarmuid; you claim to have played it, and you should know that.”

By now, Brian had had enough of us. “Hold on there lads, hold on a sec, I don’t feel intimidated. I said the last day, this is an on-the-day game, it goes from day to day, it goes from match to match. There was some outstanding hurling out there, some phenomenal scores, some brilliant defending, phenomenal excitement; everyone got their money’s worth except the boys here in front of me who got in for nothing, who got paid for it.”

I’m not recording the above so that anyone will feel sorry for or upset for either Brian or myself. We’re two grown man, well able to look after ourselves, and that little tête-à-tête wouldn’t worry either one of us.

I’m putting it out here for comment. Have we, the guys who write about these games, become too critical, too demanding? Because I’ll tell ye, we were all moaning about the quality of hurling after the two games in Thurles, critical of all four teams.

Limerick put up a valiant display, but were over the top physically, downright dirty, thought some. Cork were arrogant, overdid the short-passing game in their own half, especially when they were six points up, when they should have been getting the ball as far upfield as possible.

Galway were abysmal in the opening half, badly selected, badly aligned, not up to the pace required; Kilkenny lost the plot in the final 25 minutes, had no answer when Galway started running at them, extra man or not.

But, are we wrong?

Have we become impossible to please, satisfied only — as Justin implied — by the perfect game?

Why couldn’t we, as Brian suggested, look at all the positives in those four games?

Limerick were fantastic, did exactly what was needed, challenged Cork physically. Cork showed tremendous character yet again, never panicked, stuck to their game-plan, withstood a tremendous test, survived and won where lesser teams would have fallen.

Galway regrouped brilliantly, almost came back to win a game that was out of sight by the break, might indeed have won had not a marginal square-ball call gone against them for a late disallowed goal. Kilkenny were magnificent in that first 45 minutes with text-book points and Henry in unstoppable form.

You know what, I think Brian and Justin are right. Personally anyway, I have become too critical, the pursuit of objectivity taking me away from what should be the bigger quest, enjoyment of life and all its offerings.

Hurling, for me — playing, spectating, coaching when I had the time — has always been a central part of that enjoyment. Should I forsake this professionalism stuff, go back to that?