Maurice Brosnan: Eight observations from the National Hurling League
Cork are the only team to score double-digit goals across 1A and 1B. File picture: Larry Cummins
After the clampdown comes the reckoning. Renewed focus on head contact in hurling has prompted calls for video assistance for referees.
"I know it will slow down the game but I'd rather be here saying they got those two or three decisions right and the game was refereed the right way,â said Jackie Tyrrell on League Sunday last weekend after James Mahonâs red card in Walsh Park.
"Referees need more help and it is hard in real time to make those calls.â This debate has deep roots. It is six years since Limerick put forward a motion to allow a team to request live clarification of a referee decision âlimited to two failed requests per team per gameâ. Darragh O'Donovan's late side-line was wrongly deemed to have gone wide in their championship exit to Kilkenny.
Other shrewd pundits, including Corkâs Eoin Cadogan, have also pushed for the introduction of VAR. Their logic is reasonable. This sensational sport is so fast. How can one official accurately adjudicate all of it?
Tyrrell made the case that Mahon should not have been sent off but Brian Duignan did deserve one. Other experts disagreed. âYou hear a lot in rugby, the buzzword is âintentâ, for Brian Duignan there was no intent there to catch Stephen Bennett,â said John 'Bubbles' O'Dwyer on the Smaller Fish podcast.
âIt was just more a collision rather than a red card or anything like that, even a booking.â Here is the minefield proponents of video referees will force us to navigate. After the All-Ireland semi-final thriller between Cork and Limerick last year, Brian Gavin praised the performance of referee Thomas Walsh, while acknowledging he could have awarded as many as 20 more frees. This is the nature of the sport. Everyone runs close to the border. Slow down handpasses, steps and tackles and the game looks drastically different.
Clareâs Peter Duggan and Tipperaryâs Alan Tynan were both sent off recently and despite numerous complaints, both failed in their appeal. With VAR, those common incidents have to be highlighted. The only outcome from VAR in hurling is more red cards, not less. Technology also changes the dynamic of the sport. Currently referees can claim they didnât see an incident, such as Johnny Murphyâs missed Robbie OâFlynn jersey pull. Introduce video and the perception is that officials deliberately overlooked it. So every incident is looked at. Who wants that?
What we can do, collectively, is heed Tyrrellâs advice that referees need more help. Every stakeholder in the association can make that happen. Supporters, media and managers can appreciate just how challenging a task it is, players can ensure it isnât even more challenging than it needs to be. There have been cases of players in hurling and Gaelic football recently going down after what appeared to be minimal contact. That deserves more condemnation than any good-faith referee call.
Here are eight observations from the National Hurling League.
When Corkâs 2024 championship commenced with a disappointing defeat away to Waterford, there was plenty of focus on the three veterans who started up front. Patrick Horgan, Seamus Harnedy and Conor Lehane are the three most experienced players in the Cork squad. The fourth also lined out that April afternoon.
Damien Cahalane was sent off for a second yellow in Walsh Park. He played again against Clare in Round 2 and logged his 46 championship appearance for his county in the All-Ireland final. It is coming up on ten years since his younger brother, Conor, took to social media to hit out at some of the social media abuse aimed at Damien in the aftermath of a Munster semi-final defeat. The St Finbarrâs stalwart later spoke about how it affected his family. The sideline critics have never hindered him.
Cahalane has produced some colossal performances for Cork since then. The 2017 Munster final was awesome. He helped Cork rescue their season in 2022 when he took on Stephen Bennett. His 2023 showing against Clare was deservedly praised on The Sunday Game. Pat Ryan has expertly built a All-Ireland contending side over the last two years but last weekend he came calling for Cahalane once more. Once more, he delivered.
The full-back kept Brian Concannon scoreless, blocking his sole shot, before the Galway man was whipped off at half-time. His one mistake was in the 13th minute when Concannon rolled past him and was fouled for a converted free. That small slip failed to knock him off stride.
He finished with 13 possessions with 12 passes finding a team-mate. Cahalane won five puckouts, four times his pass inside led to a Cork score. A perfect ball into Patrick Horgan led to a sweet Shane Barrett point in the second half, his delivery to Shane Kingston was the play before Horganâs final free.
Donât get it wrong. There is no redemption arc here. Cahalane has nothing to make amends for. The only true takeaway to extract from this story is admiration for a stalwart who turns up and empties himself every single day.
Cork are the only team to score double-digit goals across 1A and 1B. Their current total is 15. The 2024 league was a round less but their average is still higher than any side from last season as well. They are an outlier. How?
In the GAA winners often set trends. Look at how swarm tackling or third-man midfielders or rotating forward lines caught on in hurling. Coaches look at what works and attempt to copy it.
Limerick are full of nonreplicable features yet their tendency to play two inside forwards was always going to lead to imitation. One corner-forward, in the Peter Casey role, withdraws out the field to leave the other two inside. Now plenty of teams do the same. Cork donât.
One striking element of their 15 goals is just how similar so many are. A delivery from deep, even inside their own half, and three forwards positioned close to the opposition goal.Â
This was the case for their very first goal of 2025 through PĂĄdraig Power. This was the case for three of their four goals last Saturday night.
A threatening half forward line force Galwayâs half-backs to track. Their inside three stay deep, stretching the pitch. That combination means they have a threat close to goal and space to exploit.
The standout result of the 2025 season was Donegalâs victory over Kerry. Nothing that followed will diminish that. Yet no sport is capable of bringing a side crashing back down to earth like this one.
Donegalâs league campaign ended in bitter disappointment as they suffered a 20-point hammering to Derry, confirming their relegation to Division 3. Kerry finished in third with three wins from six.
The worry for Donegal now is that they must regather for the Christy Ring Cup. They face Derry again in three weeksâ time.
âNowhere near it,â Donegal boss Mickey McCann told Highland Radio.
âIt is so disappointing. The game was gone for us at half-time. We started really poorly, I did say before that Derry play that higher standard and if we are off in work-rate, we are in bother. Derry actually outworked us. Our forwards never really turned up at all. We struggled inside. Derry just looked that level above us.
âI donât think we are as bad as we showed today. But it is very disappointing, we prepared well. Training has been going good. I just think for the boys, it was a big game for us, the pressure maybe got to us. Very disappointing. It will be hard to regroup from that.â
One of the most remarkable club successes of recent years came from Mayo outfit Tooreen. A tiny village with an enormous hurling passion, they made it to Croke Park in 2023 where they went down by just two points in the Al-Ireland intermediate decider against Monaleen.
Galway native Ray Larkin was a crucial part of that success. The Kilnadeema/Leitrim clubman has won five senior county hurling finals and four Connacht hurling titles as a coach and manager. He took over as manager of Tooreen in 2020. In 2024, he was appointed joint-manager of Mayo with Brian Finn. This year he continued as sole manager.
Larkin led Mayo to a Division 3A title in 2024 but there was no promotion. They secured their spot in the Division 3 final again on Saturday with a 2-15 to 4-15 win over Wicklow. Larkinâs outfit won five of their six games, only losing to fellow finalists London.
One of the most consistent pillars of John Kielyâs reign has been their ability to work the ball from the back. This is, after all, a coaching group who converted Barry Nash into one of the most effective corner-backs in the country. A noticeable issue in their weird league is the amount of times they have coughed up possession inside their own half. Wexford clearly identified this weakness last Saturday, conceding puckouts and pummelling Limerick on the turnover.
Their depth is an undeniable luxury. But the constant change is also part of the problem. The back six is changing every week.
Dan Morrisey at full-back. Mike Casey at full-back. Sean Finn to full-back. Kyle Hayes at six. Ethan Hurley to six. William OâDonoghue to six. Declan Hanno⊠No. Late change. Colin Coughlan to six. Four weeks and a Portugal training camp ensure they have enough time to find the solution.
The 2024 league was strong. Tipperary won four of their five games before a one-sided semi-final defeat. A chastening championship had locals concerned. Liam Cahill addressed them directly after the opening league game of 2025.
We will meet bumps in the road that will create difficulty but it's about patience now as well,â he said in Pearse Stadium. âAnd I know that's not going to cut much slack with the impatient, less knowledgeable Tipperary hurling folk that are out there.â
Cahill held his hands up on the coaching front too. They didnât get it right in fitness training. Tipperary made some backroom adjustments. Kilkennyâs David Herity took on a more prominent role. Paul OâBrien, one of the figures involved in analysis outlet The Performance Process and a insightful columnist with the Irish Times last year, joined as analyst.
Now another excellent league campaign is bagged. There are signs of a bright future from the top right down. Thurles CBS claimed their first TUS Dr Harty Cup title in 10 years, several U20s have impressed. On Sunday week they have a chance to clinch some silverware before a blockbuster trip to Limerick.
When Dublin GAAâs new website went live recently, it included full and updated squads for their senior footballers and hurlers. 35 hurlers are listed (versus 43 footballers).
âWe had two objectives really from the league,â said manager Niall Ă CeallachĂĄin after their triumph over Laois last weekend.
âOne was to win games and go up, we didnât achieve that. Two was to give a lot of lads opportunities, we did do that. We did it again today. Fulfilled that objective and we know a lot more know than we knew seven or eight weeks ago. There is a high level of competition for first 15, the first 20, the first 26.âÂ
AIB GAA Hurler of the Year Andrew Jamieson-Murphy came on and scored three points in that tie. Ă CeallachĂĄin had said former Limerick hurling panellist and current Na Fianna midfielder Brian Ryan, who was nominated for Club Player of the Year, was set to join the senior panel. However, he did not play in the league and is not listed on the county website.
Earlier this month GAA+, the GAAâs new wholly owned streaming platform, was scheduled to launch in Croke Park. They were also to announce the 2025 schedule. That event was then postponed and it has yet to be rearranged.
When they do eventually launch, an easy win would be to make the most of match footage from games that arenât shown live or receive minimal highlights. Just under 5,000 attended the Gaelic Grounds last Saturday while there was over 6,000 in Semple Stadium. Both games were dead rubbers, leading to an understandable decision not to broadcast them or show highlights.
All matches are also recorded by analysts. The same system that has led to football teams suppling footage to the Games Intelligence Unit should be used for hurling.
Tipperaryâs second point against Clare came after a glorious move by Dylan Walsh. He controlled a long delivery with his hurl, touched it up a second time, turned his man, slipped to the ground and rose to clip his score. Tony Kelly demonstrated some Tony Kelly wizardry before half-time to dispossess his man and swing over from the sideline.
There are a significant number of people who would love to see that.
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