Hurling awards: A season of new beginnings and familiar endings
Diarmaid Byrnes of Limerick celebrates with the Liam MacCarthy Cup after the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Final match between Kilkenny and Limerick at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
Yesterday’s match was an incredible contest but the Munster final is still entitled to be acknowledged as the game of the year. In the history, rich lore and iconography of the Munster final, the 2004 decider between Cork and Waterford earned the right to be considered the greatest, certainly the best of the modern era. That match had everything but the Limerick-Clare final in early June was such a classic that it entered that conversation as possibly the greatest ever. It was such an epic, hard-hitting and ferociously contested battle that it also produced a standard of hurling under such intensity unlike anything seen before in hurling.
The quality was off the charts, especially when the sliotar was as precious as a bar of gold. Anytime anyone had the ball, they nearly needed an armoured car to protect it.
The game certainly felt like a throwback given such a fusion of old-school man-on-man battles waged all over the field matched with skill levels that defied the logic and time in which they were executed.
The electric atmosphere matched the occasion. The individual brilliance was heroic. Some of the scores were outrageous, especially Tony Kelly’s late sideline cut that took the match to extra-time. A score for the ages in a game for the ages.
- Christy O’Connor
Outside of the two Clare-Limerick epics, how good really was the Munster championship? Poor. Average at best. Waterford collapsed in their last two games, losing to Cork and Clare by an aggregate margin of 18 points. Tipp lost their four games by a combined total of 31 points. Cork were extremely poor in their opening matches against Limerick and Clare before recovering, albeit against Waterford and Tipp teams way off the pace.
Waterford spinning out of control was even more surprising again considering how well they had matched up to Limerick at the end of April in the Gaelic Grounds. They lost to Limerick again but they finally looked to be making up ground on the team they had chased down so hard in the previous two years, but couldn’t catch.
Waterford looked in a good position but management clearly gambled in the aftermath of that match – and lost heavily. Waterford trained ferociously hard after that Limerick game. Management surely expected to beat Cork in Walsh Park, irrespective of how hard they trained during that period. It backfired spectacularly. Waterford were flat against Cork and suddenly their fate was out of their hands. Clare annihilated them a week later.
Nobody would have seen that coming four weeks earlier. Liam Cahill will surely be the next Tipp manager but his tenure in Waterford was effectively over before his side’s campaign concluded.
- Christy O’Connor
The rehabilitation of Antrim hurling is gathering pace and while Darren Gleeson's side aren't yet regularly winning games in the top flight of the National League, or the MacCarthy Cup, they're genuinely competitive. In the first four rounds of the league, Antrim lost by three, four, two and one-point margins to Kilkenny, Dublin, Waterford and Laois. They eventually beat Offaly in a play-off to remain in the top flight and after winning the subsequent Joe McDonagh Cup they had Cork on the rack in an All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final, leading at half-time. The GAA hasn't covered itself in glory where the promotion of weaker counties is concerned (see Least Pleasant Surprise) but now is the time to put a real push on to back the renaissance in Antrim. "I'm hoping that the GAA understand that and grab that opportunity because it won't be there forever," said Antrim forward Neil McManus recently. Between the excellence and clear ambition of Gleeson's management team, the morale boosting green light for Casement Park's redevelopment and recent momentum gathered on the pitch, a window of opportunity has opened up for Antrim. The next step, according to McManus, is winning games regularly in the Leinster championship. It's not beyond their reach though they will require support.
- Paul Keane
The fact that the 'Kerry situation' still hasn't been resolved doesn't reflect well on the GAA. The Kingdom would have had to contest a promotion/relegation play-off with Tipperary, the lowest ranked Munster county, if they'd won the Joe McDonagh Cup. In the end, they lost a cracking final by a solitary point to Antrim who avoided any play-off themselves as they were promoted straight up to next season's Leinster championship. Kerry, of course, couldn't complain about the situation before they'd won the Joe McDonagh and the issue died a quick death when they were beaten in the final. But what would have happened if they'd won? Some suggested they should boycott the play-off and dig their heels in, 'Newbridge or nowhere' style. Meanwhile, when the GAA held its All-Ireland series launch, there were no representatives from Kerry or Antrim, despite both teams being involved in All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals just days later. All of which gives the impression that the GAA isn't nearly as committed as individual counties like Kerry and Antrim are to bridging that great divide between tier one and tier two hurling. The biggest downer of all is that the exact same promotion/relegation issue could materialise again next summer.
- Paul Keane
Up to the All-Ireland final, they were hard to come by at senior level (Wexford, with their injuries in the closing stages against Clare, would have a shout) but drop a couple of grades to minor and the candidates are plentiful. Chief among them have to be the Offaly All-Ireland runners-up who may still be feeling raw after the conclusion of that rip-roaring clash with Tipperary in UPMC Nowlan Park. Referee Shane Hynes followed the book in red carding Damien Corbett for his dangerous throw of the hurley at Cathal Robinson as well as not awarding the penalty. It’s an incident that could spark a rule change and understandably so but at the time it was the right call. As for the Niall Furlong incident before Paddy McCormack’s dramatic winner for Tipperary, on one hand you can see why Hynes didn’t award him the free and on the other why he should have. Combine the two moments and Offaly were most definitely unfortunate. Tipperary’s previous conquests Clare and Galway, particularly the former in the Munster final, could make arguments for inclusion in this category too but the never-say-die attitude of Tipperary was a compelling and defining feature of this year’s All-Ireland minor hurling championship
- John Fogarty
Since it’s not a controversy (although some would have fully believe it is), the split season isn’t considered in this category. Any person who complains that the final is too early should be ordered to go and find the extra weeks the clubs require to complete their championships. No, for most tiresome controversy there can only be one winner since it largely impacted hurling: HawkEye.
What was most laughable about the company’s comments via the GAA last week was the claim that “there were no historical issues with the system and that the problems experienced relate to last Saturday only and specifically to the Hill 16 end goal for that specific moment in time” Could someone then explain why there was no data available for the Leinster hurling final or why there were such a lengthy delaying notifying referee Thomas Walsh of a wide into the Hill 16 goals in the first half of the Galway-Limerick All-Ireland semi-final? And while it is often claimed that the detection apparatus used in Thurles isn’t exactly HawkEye what about a point being given to Kilkenny in the U20 final in May when Limerick goalkeeper Conor Hanley Clarke clearly pulled the ball down before it went over the bar? Ten seasons into the relationship, the future of HawkEye in the GAA requires a thorough review
- John Fogarty
Mine’s a strange one for some people but John Keenan’s handling of the Munster SHC final played a major part in it being the game of the championship. His commonsense approach was so like what we have seen from Fergal Horgan over these past four or five years and the players responded to it in kind. I know he might have whistled for seven or eight more frees but his contribution to a classic was immense. And as for the potential red cards he supposedly missed, how many among us noticed what happened to Seán Finn, William O’Donoghue and Seamus Flanagan in real time? Only for the benefit of video replays and slow-motion did those flashpoints become apparent. How he has been frozen out of appointments ever since is scandalous in my book. I just don’t think he is well got in Croke Park and it seems he finds it hard to get a Kilkenny match for some reason. Not even getting one of the sidelines for the All-Ireland final was disappointing. John refereed the game in Thurles like I and I believe a lot of people want to see it officiated. He has matured into a referee who wants to support the game and is one of the best despite what others might think
– Brian Gavin
Readers who engaged with the events of the summer will be able to recall, in ballpark terms, the attendance figures for many of the big games. The 52k for Limerick/Galway, the 39k for Kilkenny/Clare, the 45k at the Munster final. Any idea how many people turned up for the Leinster final? Anyone? The question is posed because we didn’t see an attendance figure in any of the match reports. In view of the small crowd that wasn’t much of a surprise. And to be fair to the Leinster Council, had Wexford fetched up in the final – the perfect outcome for them – the size of the gate would not have been an issue. But 7pm on a Saturday evening is no time for a fixture in Croke Park involving Galway and Kilkenny (or Wexford) for any number of reasons, all of them blindingly obvious. The Leinster final deserves a Sunday afternoon slot – as was the case in 2019 when it had a throw-in time of 4pm, Limerick and Tipperary having done battle down south two hours earlier. The Leinster Council had every reason to be proud of the Kilkenny U20s and Offaly minors this summer. A proper shop window for their adult teams would not go astray in 2023.
- Enda McEvoy
Being in Nowlan Park for the All-Ireland minor hurling final between Tipperary and Offaly was the privilege of a lifetime. It was a magnificent match that gripped the emotions from start to finish. The game was won at the death by two pieces of exceptional skill by Tipperary players. This was a climax that was exceptionally cruel on an Offaly team that had led for most of the game and had played magnificent hurling.
When the final whistle blew, there were extraordinary scenes. The Tipperary supporters were elated beyond words at the extent of their resurrection.
But all around them, Offaly people were devastated. Salty tears were shed in the stands and then on the pitch. It was hard to take, not least because it is hard to explain just how much Offaly people love that minor team.
And in defeat, the Offaly players showed uncommon qualities of grace and maturity, when a certain bitterness would have been understandable. The greatest example of this is the fact that so many of them stayed on the pitch signing jerseys and hurls and anything else that was put in front of them until the pitch was cleared of people.
The last emotion that flowed from that day is the sort of pride that can never be lost or forgotten.
- Paul Rouse
Diarmaid Byrnes of Limerick. From early in the championship year the big wing-back has been a dominant personality in the biggest games of the season.
Limerick were sluggish starting off against Cork? Byrnes hit three points from long range to put some energy in the team; he also had their first point of the second half.
Against Waterford? Byrnes was even better, hitting four in a row to steady the ship and putting a full stop on the performance with the last score for Limerick that day. Same against Clare with a long-range equaliser late on in the round-robin game, the ninth of his points that day.
In the All-Ireland semi-final against Galway Byrnes hit six points, including the last score again. He started the scoring in the All-Ireland final and ended with five points to his credit - 0-36 in one season from wing-back.
No arguments.
- Michael Moynihan.
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