Angry Fans
Angry fans raise serious, indeed hair raising, questions about crowd safety at Saturday’s Munster football replay between Cork and Kerry... and there’s lots more!
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SATURDAY’S HANDLING of the game at Páirc Uí Chaoimh was not something to be proud of. There was a severe shortage of stewards, the tickets were on sale from rickety old caravans and the crowds were allowed to vacate the terrace and come into the tunnel during the rain. There was a complete free for all for seats. Once again, the Cork County Board prove their incompetence.
AFTER THE CROWD problems down the Páirc with the Cork v Tipp match last year and the problems at the match on Saturday, I think it’s fair enough to say that there's a problem with stewarding and general organisation on big match days in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. The same teams with the same sets of supporters didn’t have the same problem down in Killarney last week. The same goes for the Cork v Tipp match in Thurles this year. So, the problem lies with Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
I KNOW IT’S been said before but those bloody seats in the covered stand in Páirc Uí Chaoimh are some disaster. There is no space at all between them, and you have knees driving into the back of you and then your knees are hopping off the poor fellow in front of you. Then, if someone needs to get out from the middle of a row, the whole lot has to get up. You wouldn’t want to be in hurry to make it to the toilet or anything!!
THIS IS A tough physical Cork football team that has the potential to win the All Ireland. There are two areas of concern. Firstly, they failed to hold on to a five point lead two weeks in a row. Secondly, two of the forwards are struggling with their form. On a positive note the squad appears to be much stronger this year. Word of caution Kerry beaten but nothing won as yet.
Something serious will have to be done soon about Páirc Uí Chaoimh. The real answer is that the place needs to be demolished and a properly-designed, safe, modern stadium built in its place. Since that’s not likely to happen anytime soon, the Munster Council needs to voluntarily limit the number of spectators and greatly increase the level of stewarding. Better to lose money in that way than to lose a single spectator’s life. At the moment, the venue dishonours the memory of the incomparable Padraig Ó Caoimh.
AN FEAR RUA IMAGINE this. I turn on RTÉ at 3.30 expecting the usual build up to the hurling game. However, I'm greeted with one of the worst football games in living memory. To make things worse, the match goes to extra time. I think to myself, sure that's fine, at least it won't be long till the hurling starts. But no, we miss almost the first ten minutes of the hurling match, which I would imagine the vast amount of people actually want to watch instead of extra time in this football dross.
It’s unbelievable in this day and age that the GAA can't schedule games so that TV coverage won't clash. Surely, it should have been obvious to all that extra time in the first game would cause this debacle. Would the same have happened if the first match had been a hurling match and the second a football match ? An incredibly irate....
AH YES! A GREAT decision by RTÉ. Show us the utter mess that was Westmeath against Wicklow in extra time rather than go to Thurles! Clueless in the extreme! There is little excuse to ever show a Leinster championship football game these days, let alone at the expense of what should have been a competitive hurling match. Leinster football is not good at the best of times and Dublin have had no competition for the last few years and it looks like that will continue.
THE HURLING IN Thurles should have been delayed by fifteen minutes. Or else a sufficient gap left between the two games to allow for extra time if needed. The teams would have known twenty minutes before throw in that there was a delay. While not ideal for their preparations, it’s better than when it’s delayed at the last minute like in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday or when the Dubs play in Croke Park. A delay might have cut short Cyril and Ger at the end but they talk for too long anyway.
THE HURLING WAS RTÉ’s main game on Sunday afternoon so they should have shown it in its entirety. They spent the entire ninety or so minutes sneering and slating how bad the football was. So, big deal if they left it early. The fact that the hurling turned out to be a showpiece of everything that is useless about Munster hurling is irrelevant. The very least they should have done was seen out the football and then shown the hurling deferred by fifteen minutes, starting from the throw-in.
PURE NONSENSE FROM RTÉ. They admit the Cork v Kerry replay was the best football game by far in this year's championship and yet they show only five minutes of it. Sunday’s hurling game was very poor but that is no excuse for RTÉ. They could just as easily have missed a couple of goals or a sending off by going over to it ten minutes late.
THANK GOD RTÉ stuck with the football. As bad as the two Mickey Mouse football teams were, it was still miles ahead of hurling. Only two points scored by Waterford in the second half? Holy Moses!
When I first tuned in on Sunday to the RTÉ coverage and saw Wickla’ and Westmeath footballers chasing each other around like demented mountain sheep, my Munster hurling snobbery started to kick in. How dare RTÉ delay us all from savouring every millisecond of an intense, scintillating, superlative display of Munster hurling? Then, I watched Waterford against Limerick and realised someone in RTÉ was trying to do us all a favour. By the way, Padjo get his Red card for being so unfair to Mickey Mouse.
I WANTED TO watch Antrim v Donegal on ‘The Sunday Game’. Yet, in the middle of the live afternoon coverage we were told about Antrim's great win. What a shambles.
I agree. In their rush to have snazzy new Star Trek studio sets and revamped signature tunes, RTÉ seem to have forgotten their basic job of entertaining the fans. Someone in the Montrose Hilton needs to put themselves in the place of the ordinary fans and ask themselves the question ‘What’s it like when you watch this stuff at home instead of from the Director’s perch?’
THIS YEAR MORE than ever, it has been conclusively proved that the current formats have destroyed the championship as we know it. It doesn't start until the qualifiers/knock out stages now. In an age when club calendars are being squeezed beyond measure it is time that this farce came to an end. The amount of wasted weekends for pointless games that even the players don't seem to care about is criminal.
I agree. Time to scrap the Qualifiers, back doors and all the other rigmaroles and make a good bonfire of them. Scrap the jaded provincial championships too, and let’s have a simple, open draw across the thirty counties. At least in football, anyway.
WHERE WAS YOUR Cork friend Ger Canning on Sunday week? The soccer guy Daragh Moloney was doing the Dublin/Meath tie while Marty Morrissey was the guy doing Cork/Kerry. Even though you allow people with agendas to lash him, An Fear Rua, Mr Canning is a much better commentator than either Mr Morrissey or Mr Moloney. Daragh should get his own style and try and catch up on Mr Canning, who leads the way on Television.
I think we’re fortunate to have a number of top class commentators and match analysts for major games and they include all three of the ‘misters’ you mention. They also include Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh on radio, while Raidio na Gaeltachta probably has two of the best commentators on any station – Gearóidín Nic an Iomaire and Mícheál Ó Sé.
THE CONTINUED DECLINE in the standard of the Cork Senior Club hurling Championship is a major concern. The county Board should look at setting up a hurling academy. With the lack of success with the minor and u21's urgent action is required. It’s time the G.A.A refocused and curb the threat of other sporting codes. Perhaps we could start by implementing the removal of other codes out of Croke Park in 2010?
I didn’t agree with opening up Croke Park to soccer or rugby but it’s done now and we have to make the best of it. I’m sure you’re right about the need for urgent measures to improve the standard of hurling in Cork. But I can’t see how turning back the clock on the opening of Croke Park will help you one tiny little bit.
LIMERICK AGAINST WATERFORD? A terrible game
I WISH WE were able to play hurling like that in Leinster!
A TRULY AWFUL game of hurling at Semple Stadium. Take Kilkenny out of Leinster and Tipperary out of Munster and any one could win a championship with the rest of them thrown in together.
I KNOW CONDITIONS were bad but what we saw in Thurles was truly shocking. Limerick had the winning of it ten times over but couldn't convert really simple chances. Two points from frees in the second half told two stories. The first is that Waterford are done and dusted, the second is about how dominant Limerick were in the second half at midfield and in their half back line, yet still they struggled for scores. The real Munster Final is next Sunday. The winner of that game will beat either of the two teams we saw on Sunday.
I WAS IN Thurles. Dear God, it was woeful. It was like watching two old drunks going at each other in a back alley. Neither team deserved to win, they were so bad
BAD AND ALL as the conditions were on Sunday, there is no excuse for that dreadful game of hurling. Basic mistakes, wrong options, bad striking, bunching, ball dropping short, failure to control the ball, it was bad! I just hope it’s better on Saturday evening!
A straight Red to Wex761 for mocking the afflicted. And another for Deise Dude for maligning drunks. The rest we agree with 100%.
SUNDAY WAS AN awful result for Donegal. They were lamentable to the point of being laughable. Antrim were well worth their win. Donegal hit eighteen wides to Antrim's six, so can have no complaints. John Joe Doherty made perhaps the most uninspired selection of a Donegal team that I can ever recall. He chose to keep faith with players who have failed to deliver for the county for many years, favouring them over and above new young players. The older guys are just stuck deep in a comfort zone and have forgotten that determination and drive are always crucial to championship success.
Donegal seem to have reached a low ebb in both football and hurling. Still, fair play to Antrim. Let’s hope they can progress further and take a few more scalps along the way.
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