In hurling, the ‘weak’ are getting stronger
To an eight or nine-year-old this seems peculiarly out of sync with the “enjoy the game, you’ll make great friends out of it” type of spiel. But you get used to it.
You get used to not talking to your opponent and you just get on with the game and talk away when the game is over. You come to the realisation that by talking you’re taking your eye off the ball (metaphorically).
This embargo on talking lasts a lifetime for some, not so for others. By 15 or 16 some realise the power of the spoken word — the power of so called ‘trash talking’, intimidation etc. It has been thrust into the media spotlight recently with the Dublin footballers on the end of an official double-barrel. The Dublin footballers countered by saying that the practice of verbal intimidation, gestures and trash talking was not confined to the Dublin players but was widespread. And how right they were.
Not alone is it not their problem, it’s not even confined to players.
This week Leinster Council chairman Liam O’Neill seemed to engage in the practice himself in his condemnation of RTÉ’s refusal to cover the Christy Ring semi-finals last weekend and an all out attack on the presentation of the channel’s flagship ‘The Sunday Game’. He is obviously a very witty chap and some of his comments were humorous. For instance his claim that presenter Pat Spillane looks like he’s shouting into the camera, “as if there’s a gale force wind blowing in the studio” is colourful to say the least. I daresay even Pat himself had a little titter at that particular image.
But the key question here is, should a top ranking GAA Official with designs on the Presidency be engaging in such wilful ranting? In lambasting the absence of the Christy Ring semi-finals from the terrestrial channel he stated that “All RTÉ had on was a crap film.”
Is this ‘trash talking’? It wasn’t in the middle of a high-intensity match with 70,000 people baying at him or an opponent who just buried him with a shoulder. Whatever about players having red mist excuses, Liam has much less of an excuse.
But there was another insult in his statement, an inadvertent one that didn’t raise so much as an eyebrow.
Referring to the Christy Ring semi-finalists (Kildare, Westmeath, Carlow and Meath) he said that RTÉ “had missed an opportunity to show the weaker counties”. That phrase “the weaker counties” has been in the GAA lexicon for decades and is undoubtedly a self-fulfilling prophecy.
To a man, playing hurling in a county outside the big ten, giving a good or even great commitment, the idea that the GAA hierarchy and the GAA community in general is blithely referring to them as “weaker”, however benignly, can hardly be interpreted as other than insulting.
Why does the GAA persist with the term “weaker counties”? Does the (important) hue and cry about extending the boundaries of hurling not lead us all to conclude that the throwaway term “weaker hurling county” is terribly insulting.
Weaker is a highly emotive term to a red blooded hurler. Surely the phrase “developing hurling county” is far less insulting and far more accurate as this is literally what counties like Kildare and Westmeath (who play in the Christy Ring final) are doing — developing hurling, and in many cases, making great strides.
In 1989, on the aforementioned Sunday Game, as Kilkenny ‘hockeyed’ Westmeath, analyst Peter Finnerty pointed out that one of the Westmeath subs was smoking at half time whilst sitting on top of the dugout with his feet dangling in front of the faces of the other subs. This comic-book scene wouldn’t happen today. Westmeath hurling, in common with many other counties, is on an upward spiral of improvement, supported up by hard work. Last year they beat Dublin in the Leinster championship before performing respectably against Kilkenny later on in the championship. They are now in the Christy Ring cup final in Croke Park and favourites.
Continue to call them weak and they might just decide that you are right.
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