ACT NOW BECAUSE HURLING IS DYING ON ITS A***
YOU know the old saying ‘one swallow does not a summer make’? Wel l , if tomorrow’s hurling semi-final is not a swallow then the whole summer will have gone down the toilet.
Kilkenny’s win l ast Sunday summed up the hurling Championship — it was an atrocious game of hurling, a real snoozefest.
I was chatting to a proper hurling man on Monday morning and he told me he couldn’t stand to watch The Sunday Game, he wasn’t interested.
Dark clouds are forming and the stakeholders of our game, the folk above in Croke Park earning the big wages, would want to start paying attention because hurling is dying on its arse.
What I wouldn’t give to coach a team with the skill, speed and courage of that exciting young Waterford side, but last weekend the coaches completely reneged on their responsibility.
One thing I will say for Derek McGrath is he has successfully bridged t he generation gap between minor and senior, it is just a shame he won’t let these brilliant young hurlers hurl.
They had an opportunity to show their wares in Croke Park but instead they were completely incapacitated by their ‘system’.
Outside of TJ Reid and Richie Hogan, Kilkenny looked ordinary, but a Waterford side crammed with skilful hurlers could not create a single goal chance. Far from a successful year, I believe this is a very negative period for Waterford hurling.
People are banging on about next year and how they will be more experienced.
The same people were saying the same thing about Limerick this time last year.
When you have the wind at your back, you have to take your chance.
Far from their beloved defensive system being the making of these players, by setting up his team the way he did, McGrath held them back.
They had Tipperary on the rack in the Munster final and let them off, and they did the same last week.
You had Maurice Shanahan looking to the bench when he stood over a free in the final minutes, trailing by six points, wondering what he should do. Like Davy Fitz in Clare, McGrath is coaching the hurling out of these fellas.
Even Tipperary fell into the ‘system’ trap in their Munster final win over Waterford, it was bordering on the pathetic to have Paudie Maher hurling against nobody in the sweeper role. To have one of the most powerful and combative hurlers in the country marking no one shows the ridiculousness of how things are going.
Thank God then for Galway. Anthony Cunningham’s (right) men are coming with an edge that Tipperary have never seen in a Galway team. They are a very serious outfit. They are very much in the Kilkenny mould — very physical, all hurling and none of this systems nonsense.
BY all accounts, they have done away with the airyfairy drills in training, which has become a dogeat-dog, intense affair. We saw in their dismissal of Cork that Galway’s forwards are moving and they have weaned themselves off their Joe Canning dependency. For his part, the big Portumna man is playing himself back into fitness and, if he hits form, he is the complete package.
Playing him at full-forward brings him i nto direct contact with Tipperary’s battle-hardened fullback line and the quarrel between himself and James Barry on the edge of the square could be more interesting than last week’s semi all on its own.
There is no denying Tipperary’s ability, but they dropped their guard a bit against Waterford, abandoned their natural game and now they have to rejig everything again. I have my doubts.
If Galway have a dependence on Canning t hen Tipp lean on Sé a mus Callanan just as heavily.
Jason Forde is a good addition in the forwards and Bonner Maher is a workhorse, but this Galway defence are hardy boys — they proved that against Kilkenny. Anyone saying that this Championship has been anything other than a disaster as regards quality, entertainment and excitement is deluded, but I think tomorrow will be the day that hurling comes back to life in Croke Park. Galway’s strong, physical defence can see them upset the odds in a cracker and, even after all the dross, I cannot wait. We have swallowed enough crap this year, it’s time for a swallow.
McGrath is coaching the hurling out of these fellas