GAA Angry Fans
Waterford fans don't like Davy Fitzgerald's approach to post-match TV interviews
but, on the other hand, there's support for beleaguered Cavan football manager,
Tommy Carr.At this stage, Cork hurling fans are so concerned about the fall
off in the hurling standards in the county that it's more angst than anger they're
expressing.
Get in touch: Give your views and comments to An Fear Rua himself
at GAA Angry Fans in 'The Irish Examiner' Just drop an email to gaafans@examiner.ie
and get AFR's reaction to what you have to say.
If you make the 'Comment of
the Week', we have a fabulous prize of exclusive 'his or hers' GAA t-shirts, supplied
by our old pals at , where you can design your own club or county
leisure wear.
WHY DOES EVERY TV interview with Davy Fitzgerald have to
be a pantomime? He never looks the interviewer in the eye and purses his lips
while thinking 'What's the most passionate explosive answer I can give to this
question?' Why is every answer about proving 'What people have been saying about
us is wrong'?
READING MICHAEL MOYNIHAN'S interview
with Davy Fitzgerald after Sunday's game I now know why this Waterford team have
not yet won a deserved All Ireland Title. According to the bold Davy there are
some players on the panel who will only give twenty-five minutes of their time
in chase of that great prize. Come off it Davy boy! Are you trying to tell us
that men like the Shanahans, Nagle, Mc Grath, to name a few, would prefer to come
on for the last twenty five minutes?
Davy and his selectors must shoulder
a fair bit of the blame for Sunday's defeat. They left Aiden Kearney on Shefflin
far too long. Eoin Kelly should have been moved out far sooner. Bringing on Big
Dan for the last twenty minutes was crazy and an insult to this great player.
This game was made for him. But, look, Kilkenny deserved their win and are still
in line for the four in a row. I hope this Waterford team stay together just one
more year. They are a wonderful bunch of lads and even though I am a proud Cork
man, like many Cork people, I would love to see them win an All Ireland Hurling
title.
Davy is passionate
and loyal to his panel and that is a good trait in a Bainisteoir. He defends them
like a lioness defends her cubs. However, sometimes he defends them when there's
nobody really attacking them, except in his vivid imagination. A little more dignity
and a little less passion in his post-match interviews might even improve their
motivational force. Many Waterford fans would agree with 'Rebel Abu's' analysis.
KILKENNY PLAY A Tyrone-type of swarming game since it worked for them
in the All Ireland final of 2006. Now it is up to other counties to follow suit
or try something else. I believe they are getting away with lots in matches.
Run fast, hit everything that moves and
score every chance you get. It's hardly revolutionary? Kilkenny and Brian Cody
have done nothing new. All they have done is remove the shackles that coaches
in other counties have placed on their players.
BARRY KELLY IS not a bad
referee but he needs to look at videos of his performances and learn to spot the
tricks players are using to win frees. Kilkenny's favourite one is to drop the
head when turning a player so their hurley 'wraps' around the neck. Barry gives
a free despite the opposing player not having moved his arm or hurley. The Kilkenny
lads just run into it.
AS A NEUTRAL at Sunday's game I thought Barry Kelly flashed too many yellow cards
for little or nothing. It took a lot of intensity out of the game as many players
were on yellows.
Here's a Yellow
Card all to yourself!
BARRY KELLY WAS just a
bit too easy on Sunday in his attitude to Kilkenny's 'tackling'. It meant a four
or five point swing to the Cats in a game they won by five points.
THERE WERE AT least four or five instances in the second half of
Sunday's game where the wrong decision went against Waterford. Brick Walsh's shoulder
on TJ Reid shouldn't have been a free, Kearney was fouled coming out with the
ball and both led directly to Kilkenny scores. Stephen Molumphy was dragged back
a few times with no free awarded.
: I'm surprised at people saying Barry Kelly had a poor game. I thought
he did well and the yellow cards early in the match ensured that it was a relatively
clean game. He awarded Waterford nineteen frees and Kilkenny only nine. Was it
Barry Kelly who sent all those Waterford 'wing and a prayer' attempts at points
wide in the final fifteen minutes of the first half, when a narrower gap at half
time might have given the DĂ©ise a platform for a winning second half?
MEATH GOT THE benefit of three or four marginal calls in their
game against Mayo on Sunday. I'm not sure they were mistakes but they all went
Meath's way. For example, the Meath player hopped the ball twice before scoring
the first goal. Paddy O'Rourke carried the ball over the line for what should
have been a goal. A Meath player knocked the ball over the sideline but Meath
were awarded the sideline. From that, they got the award of a somewhat dubious
penalty. A total of nine points all given Meath's way.
A COMBINATION OF good Meath play, an atrocious lineball call and
Conor Mortimer's miss denied Mayo a crack at Kerry. Like Dublin last week, this
is the Mayomen's first defeat this summer. Surely provincial winners should get
another chance to play if they lose at the quarter final stage?
Meath won fair and square. Blaming a linesman's decision is just clutching
at straws. Yes, it was a Mayo line ball, but that's all it was - a line ball.
Do you blame the linesman for the missed chances and the poor defending? The questionable
line ball that led up to the penalty seems to be cited by Mayo fans as the turning
point but it shouldn't be allowed to disguise the fact that Meath fully deserved
their win.
WHY MUST ALL must nearly all profiles
of the great John Mullane contain an almost obligatory reference to his big sacrifice
in 2004 in not doing anything to lift the suspension that followed from his sending
off in the Munster final? The latest is Diarmuid O' Flynn's article in last Wednesday's
'Irish Examiner'.
As a Waterford supporter, he gets no kudos from me for
not contesting his exclusion from the 2004 semi-final when the brilliant Paul
Flynn was left to take on Kilkenny on his own and did so by scoring 0-13 in the
process, Waterford losing by just 0-3 after a disastrous start.
Under the
rules of the day, the Munster championship was clearly a different competition
to the All-Ireland semi-final. The All-Ireland series was organised by Central
Council. A few minutes in front of a High Court judge would have established that
Mullane's suspension had to be served in the next round of the Munster championship.
Waterford were badly let down at the time by their county board officers who failed
to make the case for Mullane. Sometimes, the greater good is sacrificed to greater
GAA political expediency! This was one such occasion and the Waterford fans and
players, including the great Mullane, were sold short.
John Mullane's decision to 'do the time
for the crime' is part of the legend of the man. Your version may be closer to
the truth of what could've been done. However, as the wily newspaper editor remarked
in John Ford's great Western, 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' - 'When the legend
becomes fact, print the legend'.
THERE IS A bias
against the Galway hurlers in the Leinster championship. They are not allowed
play any 'home' games in county Galway. I call on Galway county board to redress
this and allow them in on the draw.
Maybe in return for the GAA bending the rules of geography a bit more,
Galway county hurling board would agree to go the whole hog and allow their minors,
intermediates and under 21s compete in Leinster as well?
THE GENERAL STANDARD of games has dropped this year. There has been no great football
and no 'stand out' games. Kerry, maybe, plus Tyrone and Kildare have been good.
The rest - no good. The same is true in hurling. Teams are concentrating on winning
to the exclusion of providing a spectacle for fans.
Some people might respond that the only 'spectacle' many fans are really
interested in is the sight of 'Sam' or 'Liam' being brought across the county
boundary. After something of a slow start, we've had a long list of good and exciting
games in both codes, with Kildare and Wicklow, in particular, lighting up the
football championship.
I THINK HILL 16 should be open for every game
selling cheap tickets - a bit like the bleachers in a baseball stadium. Personally,
I prefer The Hill to the comfort of a seat no matter what the price. Selling tickets
at, say, âŹ10 would attract a lot of people who might not otherwise go because
they can't afford it.
Sounds
like a good idea. I think the GAA's latest pronouncements on attendances indicates
that Croke Park hasn't quite woken up to the depth of the recession and the need
to respond accordingly.
THE PROBLEM WITH Cavan football is that some
players think they are more important than the team. Tommy Carr should be given
a proper chance. He should be given another twelve months minimum, but preferably
two years to have any chance of raising the team's ability and lift the county
out of the doldrums.
Like
Mayo and Roscommon, Cavan is one of those counties living in a time warp of glories
in the Forties and Fifties who have been passed out by their neighbours. Tommy
Carr offers them some hope of doing a 'Wicklow', a 'Westmeath ' or a 'Sligo' on
it. The players would do well to remember that, as an ex-Army man, Captain Carr
will not shirk from a battle for what he thinks is right.
THE GAA MUST
introduce a moratorium for a few years on anything other than upgrading existing
facilities. Any attempts to increase capacities at grounds should be fully self
financed by county boards. Money should only be available to improve pitches and
ancillary facilities like toilets, dressing rooms and shops and improving access.
- Twice as nice 97
Even before the recession
started, we were probably over-provided with stadiums in several counties. I see
there was an outbreak of common sense recently in county Westmeath. As you say,
it's time for more counties to get realistic and - if there is any spare cash
around - spend it on improving the skills of all our players and mentors. Let's
build some more human capital in Dis Great Assooosheayshun Of Ours.
NOW
THAT 'JOHN 3:7' has got back his sign, would he consider changing it to 'Mark
2:7' to commemorate Mark Foley's heroics for Limerick in the 1990 Munster senior
hurling final.
The Lord - and the Garda SĂochĂĄna
- work in mysterious ways. We're glad that his sign was, truly, born again in
time for the weekend's big games.
FOR ANY SPECTATORS at PĂĄirc
UĂ Chaoimh on Saturday evening the two hurling quarter finals were very
disappointing. The Glen and Na Piarsaigh's performance, skill, spirit and passion
were non-existent and both contests were over after forty minutes. Can any person
out there put their finger on the malaise that seems to have engulfed the Cork
city clubs? Up to this decade the city clubs Rockies, Barrs, Glen, Piarsaigh and
Redmonds had won about 90% of the county championships.
THANK
GOD FOR Newtownshandrum and Sars. They could save Cork club hurling. I sincerely
hope they meet in the final. Their displays in the county quarter finals were
breathtaking. Both teams were a joy to watch.
Maybe the Cork selectors should
seriously look at Michael Cussen as a potential forward for the 2010 season?
I ATTENDED A Cork senior club hurling championship match recently.
The game had tremendous passion and huge commitment from both sides but the standard
of hurling and refereeing left a lot to be desired. We need to go back to basics.
The skills of the game are being lost.
It's beginning to look like the problems of Cork hurling at intercounty level
in recent years are just the tip of a deep iceberg within the county. However,
it's good to see that at least there's a growing debate about it. While other
counties have invested huge time and effort at the level of schools, colleges
and underage, the same does not appear to have been true in Cork. And maybe now
it's showing.
I REALLY ENJOYED the feature on Jim O'Sullivan, who recently
retired as the 'Irish Examiner's' GAA correspondent after so many years of dedicated
service to the paper, the Association and the paper's readers. It has always been
a pleasure to meet someone who was and still is a gentleman and it is great that
he will continue covering matches. Veteran reporters like Jim should be cherished.
- Meath Harry
AFR'S SHOUT: The phrase 'Gentleman Jim' doesn't even
begin to do justice to the man.
TICK IN THE BOOK I AM STILL unhappy about
the way Limerick footballers exited the championship this year. They were the
victims of bad refereeing decisions on two occasions. These decisions decided
their exit from both the Munster and All Ireland series. Surely it is time for
the GAA to adopt the end of period hooters that are deployed in women's Gaelic
Football. In the case of 'bad' decisions there is maybe an argument for paying
fees to referees and then subjecting their decisions to review and censure?
: I'm always a bit concerned when I see the
word 'victims' attached to a GAA team. Victimhood is not a good frame of mind
in which to approach a new league and a new championship, so a Tick in the Book
for that. However, I have long been an advocate of borrowing with pride the countdown
clock and the hooter from the ladies game. On the specifics of the game against
Meath, while most people agree more time might have been added, opinion on the
Stephen Lucy decision is evenly divided.
DUBLIN NOW HAVE to ask the
hard questions. They are failing to deliver year on year, so how can this be turned
around? They don't win nearly enough at underage which is a tell tale sign that
all is not well. They must address this and I think they need to address the competitiveness
of their local championship as well.
:
I agree about Dublin's disturbing failure to get results in underage inter-county
football. Could it be that the county is paying a price for the huge emphasis
on under age hurling in recent years. Maybe the county should 'go with the flow'
and return to its true heritage as a hurling power?
goes to Any Corkman who wishes to see Waterford
winning a senior hurling All Ireland surely deserves some kind of a prize. He
gets his choice of a His or Hers GAA t-shirt from our good friends at ,
the web site where you can design your own leisurewear online.
CATCH
UP with more great conversation, controversy and craic on 'An Fear Rua - The GAA
Unplugged!' at
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
