Display of respect as two great rivals act in the proper spirit

AND they say lightning never strikes twice! Three times this year Waterford and Cork have met in championship hurling, three times they’ve served up magnificent matches, games that will live long in the memory.

One of those games was a draw, just a goal separated them in the other two, each time to Waterford’s advantage, yet in each of those games Cork too had their chance for glory. On the scoreboard the difference between them is marginal but the scoreboard, even in close games, doesn’t lie. This year, Waterford are the better team, and hats off to them.

What was really heartening to see yesterday, however, was the scene on the pitch at the end. From one end of the field to the other opponents embraced, long handshakes, a very obvious mutual respect.

In an interview last week Seán Óg Ó hAilpín had spoken of just that, of playing the game in the proper spirit, of having respect for your opponent, accepting victory and defeat with equal good grace.

Cork understand that they were beaten by one hell of a team; Waterford understand the magnitude of their achievement in beating a Cork side that could stand shoulder to shoulder with any team that ever represented that renowned hurling county.

While we’re on this happy note, a word of praise also to Peter McKenna and the Croke Park team who have got the pitch in such magnificent shape. Last year we slated them over the condition of the surface, and justifiably so – it was terrible.

They couldn’t do a thing about it at the time but early this year they moved, and how they’ve moved. Six games in Croke Park over the Saturday and Sunday, six big games, each fiercely contested, a solid 16 hours rain in between; the sod stood up magnificently, in perfect condition even for the final game of that six, the Waterford/Cork classic.

Not so well done, however, to those who decreed that Waterford and Cork should have had to travel to Dublin again last Sunday. That game could have been played in Thurles, and if there had been any consideration at all, even the least consideration, for the supporters of both teams, it should have been played in Thurles.

Then the GAA could have charged the €35 maximum that applies for All-Ireland quarter-finals, then too the fans would have had a shorter and more pleasant journey, a more reasonable outlay. The treatment of the Cork fans by the GAA fixture gurus is especially disappointing – surely the weekend scenario could have been envisaged, surely it could have been arranged that Cork would play both games on the same day, saving the fans a considerable sum?

And finally, I can’t understand why there isn’t a much bigger outcry over what’s happening in this year’s senior championship, over what’s planned for next year. Earlier in the season we had certain teams who had come within an ace of the play-offs in the league yet still found themselves in a relegation battle, state that they hadn’t really looked at the ramifications of what might (and did) happen, before the league commenced – they had just started playing their games, and watched as the situation developed.

Much the same thing has happened in the championship; no-one seemed to be prepared for the fact that what we’ve now got, a repeat of the Leinster and Munster finals in the All-Ireland semi-finals, was always possible.

In fact where Waterford are concerned we have a repeat of the whole Munster championship; twice they’ve had to beat Cork , twice now they’ll have to beat Limerick, all of those games fiercely competitive.

Limerick, meanwhile, took three games to get past Tipp, then lost to Waterford, beat neighbours Clare in another battle. The Munster teams beating hell out of each other, while Kilkenny have an armchair ride to the final, their only real test coming against Galway.

Next year, it’s even more of a farce. At least this year Kilkenny did have that half-decent quarter-final test, against Galway; next year, after they’ve won yet another Leinster title, it will be straight to the All-Ireland semi-finals for them. This is not an anti-Kilkenny rant, this is a rant against injustice, a rant against the destruction of the All-Ireland senior hurling championship as a fair competition.

GAA president Nicky Brennan has something to say on most everything that’s happening in and around the GAA – what does he have to say on this, on the equity of the current year’s championship, the respective passages of Kilkenny and whoever eventually joins them in the All-Ireland final, on the sense of giving Kilkenny (who will be Leinster champions, bet on it now) straight passage to the All-Ireland semi-final?

Hurling needs four quarter-finals, all knockout games, to keep pace with gaelic football, and it can sustain four quarter-finals; they should be retained.