Loughnane: Cork minor standard at very low ebb

On Thursday night, as Ger Loughnane left Cusack Park following Clare’s easy win over Cork in the Munster minor championship, one would presume the result would be a source of satisfaction.

But Loughnane saw the bigger picture and it was the performance of the visitors that caused the overriding emotion and left him more worried about the state of the game than he has been for a long time.

“The standard of the Cork minors, I couldn’t believe they would ever sink so low,” Loughnane said. “I didn’t think it was possible for them to be as bad. Clare don’t propose to have a great minor team but they are honest. Cork were just deplorable and people coming out were just stunned Cork hurling could have descended to that level.

“If Jimmy Barry-Murphy is to get more players into the panel, which he needs to do to make them a championship-winning team, where is he going to get them? And if Cork are not a force in hurling, then the sport really suffers.

“Clare, Galway, Limerick and Waterford have done huge underage work, Wexford have started it too, and you have to do that.

“You just wonder are Cork doing it at the same level. It’s worrying for them and the game.”

But as Loughnane looked ahead to the summer at the launch of The Sunday Game, where Eddie Brennan and Martin McHugh were announced as new analysts, it wasn’t just Cork that were a cause for concern, nor was last week’s league final the reason for his frank assessment of hurling right now.

Instead Loughnane thought the long-term views taken by so many teams would make for a predictable and, by extension, a disappointing hurling championship.

“I think the problem is that so many teams are just building for the future. They’ve given up on beating Kilkenny, especially this year and maybe even next year. You take Clare, Waterford, Wexford, Offaly, Galway, maybe even Cork.

“They are all thinking down the line and there is always the danger that people will excuse performances. The future is now.

“If you are playing a championship game, that’s what matters, you can’t look beyond that and you make the most of now.”

There were other concerns for Loughnane, not least refereeing. While he refuted the claim that referees favour any county, he highlighted the inconsistencies that exist, not just from referee to referee, but within the one game. He talked about Dickie Murphy being the best whistler he’d come across because he used common sense, but that is now lacking. And there was one final problem he wanted to address too.

“I was always in favour of the provincial championship because it meant so much to me growing up, as a player and then as a manager.

“The fact you win a provincial championship and are in an All-Ireland semi-final is a huge incentive but I’d love to see the provincial championships get stronger. I don’t see it though and as a result I see in a short time, certainly five years, it’ll be dismantled. When you see Kilkenny favouring a more open draw, and they are a traditional county, then that’s it.”

However, despite what some would describe as negativity and others might call realism, just seeing Loughnane on set in Donnybrook was the lasting image of the morning.

Under a year ago, the Feakle native was having treatment for leukaemia, however the extent of his recovery was only truly visible when seeing Loughnane bound around the studio.

“It’s great to be back,” he enthused. “I followed the championship the whole time last year, really closely. When I was in hospital I watched all the games on television and read up on all the games in the papers. I just got on with it, took the treatment and even though you’d be weak, I found the GAA season was a great distraction. It’s great to be back.”