Angry Fans
As usual, players and managements of losing teams come in for criticism. Welcome
to the Summer 2009 'Angry Fans' exclusive club to Dublin, Donegal and Limerick
footballers!The controversy rumbles on about how the national anthem should
be honoured before games, with the old 'pipes v brass' clash emerging once again.
And there's criticism of the low standard of hurling in this year's championship.
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I WAS SHOCKED at the poor state of the playing surface in Croke Park
on Sunday. There were brown patches and ruts and you could clearly see where different
strips were joined up like a poorly fitted carpet. It was just about alright for
playing football. There appears to be a media and officialdom conspiracy to 'talk
up' the surface but I shudder to think if good quality hurling could be played
on it next Sunday. If it rains any way heavily before then it could become very
muddy and slippery out the field. What a shame if potentially a great All Ireland
hurling semi final is ruined because of Bono and U2?
THERE
WERE NO complaints about the Croke Park pitch from any of the teams but I'm sure
I spotted a few occasions where the ball took strange bounces. It did it once
with Brian Dooher and another time when about four players went one way and the
ball went the other. It could be a bit of a disaster for the hurling alright.
A lot of work is going to have to be put in between now and next Sunday
if that surface is going to be up to a decent game of hurling. The grass is from
Scunthorpe, the sand underneath is from Ardboe in county Tyrone - neither of them
hurling strongholds.
YELLOW CARD THE TYPE OF mismatch we saw on Sunday
between Cork and Donegal should not happen at an All Ireland quarter final stage.
It was a very poor game played at a snail's pace and Cork even missed a bag load
of goal chances. They were not even out of third gear. It was pathetic stuff from
Donegal.
This is a seriously good
Cork team, led by a shrewd manager in Conor Counihan. They have pace, power, strength,
skill and lots of options on the bench. They play a lovely direct brand of football
and they give away few fouls. Donegal were poor but as Brian Cody might say 'Cork
can only play what's put in front of them.' Cork will be hard to stop this year.
Based on their respective performances on Sunday, I'd tip them to beat Tyrone
with a few points to spare.
RED CARD DUBLIN SHOULD APPLY to be let into
the Munster or Ulster football championships. The poor standard in the Leinster
championship is messing them up. It's the same old story for the Dubs. They always
believe their own hype! Kerry played some football. It was a joy to watch.
YELLOW CARD BIG HEADS AND overhyping from the media is messing
Dublin up. They still haven't beaten a big team in the championship this decade.
You can't blame the championship format
over even the poor old 'meeja' for what happened to Dublin on Sunday. They just
ran into one of the most awesome displays of football ever, not just at Croke
Park, but at any venue. Enough said. Hats off to a superb Kerry panel and backroom.
RED
CARD I DON'T WISH to rub salt into the Dublin wounds but the question has to be
asked as to what some Dublin players have to do to get sent off? It's interesting
that Meath is the only Leinster team still standing. Not since the 1930s has there
has been a decade without a team from Leinster lifting the Sam Maguire Cup. Can
it happen this year?
AFR'S SHOUT: Trust a Meath
man to have a 'go' at the poor Dubs while they're at their lowest ebb. I'll be
surprised if Meath are still 'standing' after Mayo deal with them next Sunday.
TICK
IN THE BOOK THE GAA'S DECISION not to open up Hill16 on Sunday was less than impressive.
It cut out a lot of fans who can't afford the steep prices for the stands now.
Overall, I thought the attendance was poor -12,500 people per county, if you divide
it out
At around 50,000 fans,
the Sunday attendance at Croke Park was just about acceptable, given there were
four counties involved. Remember, though, Cork and Donegal fans have the longest
drives to the capital and that may have deflated the numbers a bit. When fans
from BĂ©ara get half way to Croke Park they're still within the borders
of Cork!
FAIR PLAY TO Pat Spillane. He is better and more informative now
that he's relieved of presentation duties. The stilted, wooden delivery was gone
on Sunday night and all three pundits contributed much to the programme. It's
only a matter of time before he gets back to telling us about the granny's bad
knee.
Good to see the 'Sunday Game'
team being praised here for a change. Spillane is getting back to top form as
evidenced by his comment that Donegal's tactics were about as effective as trying
to empty a bath with a fork!
RTÉ MIGHT HAVE done better if they had
left the cameras on the studio for the second half of the Dubs v Kingdom match.
It looked like Spillane and Brolly were finally coming to blows! Joe was getting
thick with Pat. Do they intentionally just to give us great TV?
All three RTÉ football pundits are passionate about their football,
so it's inevitable a few sparks will fly from time to time. Still, they excelled
over the weekend and I suspect that, whatever their 'on air' differences, they
go for a beer after every match and are best of buds.
AFTER THE GUT-WRENCHING
disappointment against Meath in the football qualifiers, what is the future for
Limerick football? Surely, it is time for Mickey Ned to consider his position
and make way for another Kerry 'Mick', by the name of O'Dwyer?
MICKY NED SAID 'everything was a bonus after the Munster
final'. Is this a mindset ingrained in Limerick football? They have come agonisingly
close and should have beaten Cork and Kerry over the last decade more than just
one victory in 2003. The disappointment of losing Munster seems to carry through
to the qualifiers as a hangover. Meath are poor enough, and barring last year
against the Royals, Limerick always seem to leave their best form in Munster.
I hope they win a Munster title, as it seems they put every focus on it and losing
the final seems to have affected them again.
Mickey Ned didn't sound like someone on the move after Saturday night's
game. And why should he? He has brought Limerick football out of the doldrums
and onto a par with the county's hurlers. That is some achievement, but the Treaty
Men are misfortunate to share a province with the likes of Kerry and Cork. An
Open Draw, not an O'Dwyer, might be a better solution.
WHAT WERE THE
powers that be in the GAA thinking of when they wanted last year to get rid of
the Under 21 Championships? The unbridled joy on the faces of the Clare team and
supporters last Wednesday night after their defeat of Waterford in the Munster
Under 21 Hurling Championship Final should be enough to ensure that this great
competition should never again be spoken of as a grade to be got rid of.
Some
of the greatest games of hurling over the last forty years have been at Under
21 level, as witnessed by this year's Munster and Leinster finals.
Clare's
starting fifteen on Wednesday night last contained five players from the Clonlara
club who are the current Clare Senior Hurling Champions but none of them are deemed
good enough by Clare manager Mike McNamara to be part of the Senior Panel, except
John Conlon who was used as a sub on a few occasions this year. Nicky O'Connell
is arguably the best hurler in Clare at present, and hopefully Clonlara will be
well represented on the Clare senior team next year.
Well put, Seamus. No one could disagree with a word of
that!
TICK IN THE BOOK WHAT IS HAPPENING about bands on big match occasions
at Semple Stadium? At the recent hurling quarter finals in Thurles there was no
anthem played before the first game and only a recording played before the second
one. I've spoken since to a number of Limerick fans about this omission and all
are united in wanting to get the Seán Treacy pipe band back for the big
occasion.
I'd be more of
a brass fan myself, so a little tick in the black book for favouring the swirling
of the pipes. Why can't the GAA get the playing of anthems before games right?
The renowned Monaghan born poet and Inniskeen Rovers goalie, Patrick Kavanagh,
once described the national anthem 'As nothing more than a bit of an oul ditty
written by Brendan Behan's uncle'. But it deserves better than the offhand treatment
it's been getting at venues outside Croke Park these past few years.
HURLING
IS IN trouble. This is the poorest championship I've ever seen. Many of the top
hurling counties are in decline. There is too much emphasis on fitness to the
neglect of the basic skills. You see this new idea of blanket defence (copied
from football), no ground hurling and too much negative play. Galway, Cork, Clare
and Wexford are very disappointing. Having seen Waterford and Limerick in the
opening game of the Munster Championship it's hard to imagine they're both in
the last four.
: Fans in Limerick,
Tipperary and Waterford - even Kilkenny - might not agree with you, but I understand
where you're coming from. With the deepest respect to all our friends in Kilkenny,
the proud old game badly needs a new county to break through to the senior title.
However, looking at the teams left in the last four, it's hard to see where that
alternative might come from. Maybe it's time to re-word Ring's old maxim: 'Without
Cork, the championship is only half-dressed'.
TICK IN THE BOOK THE ANALYSTS
AND pundits on RTÉ's 'The Sunday Game' need to be fairer in their comments
about umpires. The hurling umpires are often hung, drawn and quartered by Cyril
Farrell, Ger Loughnane and Tomás Mulcahy without any clear evidence that
any of their decisions were incorrect. Just because a player disagrees with a
decision and remonstrates with an umpire, it does not always mean that the umpire
was wrong. I have no problem with their comments if the TV cameras prove conclusively
that the umpire's decision is incorrect but they never seem to give the umpire
the benefit of the doubt. Ger Canning is just as bad during his commentary and
never seems to give the 'Man in the white coat' a break either.
The umpire
is standing behind the goalposts whereas the analysts are watching the game on
a TV set, or if they are at a game, they are perched up in a box at the opposite
end of the ground from where the controversial incident occurs.
You must admit, though, that there
have been a few controversial umpiring decisions in some of the big hurling games
this year. I can't see why the sliothar and uprights couldn't be electronically
tagged, so that when the ball passes between the posts it is automatically registered
as a score and the scoreboard is updated accordingly. It could be programmed to
record the ball passing beneath the cross bar as a goal.
RED CARD THE COUNTIES
THAT merit entry into the Liam McCarthy Cup should be ring fenced. What is the
point of all of this relegation play-off rubbish? Even one year out of the top
echelons would be disastrous for counties like Wexford, Offaly or Clare. Alternatively,
championship status should be tied into a ranking system and I suppose the fairest
way to do that would be on the finishing position in the previous National League.
All counties in Division One and the top three in Division Two should be immune
from relegation in the subsequent championship. At least this rewards consistency
and limits the possibility of an apocalyptic descent into the Christy Ring cup
for `traditional` counties.
I've shortened your comments but we still get your drift. From now on, I'm flashing
the Red Card at anyone - and that includes top 'offeeshals' of the GAA - who persist
in putting forward complicated proposals for 'reform' of the championship. It's
simple, really. A league is a league. A knockout is a knockout. And ne'er the
twain should meet. Let the league be the competition that tests teams' stamina
and consistency. Abolish the provincial championships. Run a simple, knockout
championship for counties that feel up to the McCarthy Cup and have subsidiary
competitions for the others.
I LIKED MICHAEL Moynihan's recent excellent
interview in a Monday 'Irish Examiner' with former Offaly hurler Daithi Reagan
in the 'Questions and Answers' column. Daithi was correct in his assertion that
the GPA are elitist and that despite what they are saying, the end game for them
is 'Pay for Play'. The Government should have cancelled the GPA grant in full,
instead of cutting it back to €1.5 million.
Michael's interview confirmed the impression we have of Daithi from
his TV3 punditry. He's a straight talking, knowledgeable, downright good guy.
Not surprisingly, therefore, he didn't spare the GPA in his remarks. The silence
from the GPA these past few weeks has been noticeable. A bit like Sherlock Holmes's
dog. The one who didn't bark in the night.
SHAME ON THE GAA for not
allowing inter county teams to train in Croke Park before big championship games.
Yet, there appears to be no problem allowing the international soccer and rugby
teams in before home internationals. We must refocus on our own games and look
after our own Gaelic players. This is not good enough.
: I fear this could become an issue for hurling counties following the
laying of the new 'Scunthorpe' sod in Croke Park. They may need time to familiarise
themselves with it again and should get that chance if they ask for it. Unfortunately,
the only way some other teams will get into Croke Park will be if they wear big
black shades, talk in a mid-Atlantic twang and talk about their plans to save
the world. Of course, that could still leave Conor Mortimer and Mayo in with a
shout.
The Under 21 championships in both hurling and football consistently
produce top class contests - all the skill of the adult games but played at a
faster pace and without the type of cynical fouls that pervade with the older
age group. Yet, not so long ago, Croke Park 'offeeshals' toyed with abolishing
the grade. Full marks, then, and 'Comment of the Week' award to SĂ©amus
Walsh for his eloquent explanation of why Under 21 is here to stay. He wins his
choice of a His or Hers t-shirt from our pals at Puckout.com, where you can design
your own GAA leisure wear on line.
CATCH UP with more great conversation,
controversy and craic on 'An Fear Rua - The GAA Unplugged!' at www.anfearrua.com
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