Monthly Archives: July 2018

By: Enda McEvoy

 

One can complain about the logic, such as it was, behind the fixture-making. Hurling has so few red-letter days that the All Ireland semi-finals should always be played on successive weekends in order to maximise publicity.

 

But no matter. For what we do have, may the Lord make us truly thankful. As the weekend gets ever closer, the anticipation grows. Galway versus Clare on Saturday followed by Cork against Limerick on Sunday. Croke Park will be the only place to be.

 

Although the reigning champions

By Declan Bogue

 

WASN'T quite what we expected, was it? Not in Tyrone. Or Roscommon. Or Kerry. Or even Dublin. None of the shocks and surprises. No bumper crowd. No breathless excitement and surges of adrenalin from 320 odd minutes of football in Croke Park. No. What we have here, is a failure to communicate. Specifically, from the GAA to their public and anyone else that might be interested in coming to see the sport of Gaelic football.

 

The action on the pitch mightn't have been great, but let's put that down to the second day being played in conditions that we really thought were a thing of the past in the new, sub-tropical Ireland of 2018.

 

The Original Super 8s Questions do remain. And the first one is, what do we even call this thing anyway? It has been made known that those that turn up for their day's work on Jones' Road are a bit sniffy about the title, 'Super 8s.' Fair enough. The phrase was first coined by Dick Clerkin and used

By: Enda McEvoy

 

John Donnelly, charging through the Limerick defence, could have popped over the equalising point but he chose instead to pick out Richie Hogan with a handpass. Hogan in his turn could have popped over the equalising point but he chose instead to swivel, pick his spot and drill the sliotar under Nickie Quaid.

 

Eight minutes remained at Semple Stadium and Kilkenny had hit the front for the first time in three quarters of an hour. That, it seemed certain, was going to be that. The old Cats for the hard road.

 

Except it wasn’t. Limerick responded with the next score to make it a one-point game. Then they levelled matters. Then they went a point ahead.

 

Limerick Turnaround Six scores were registered between Hogan’s goal and the final whistle in last Sunday’s All Ireland quarter-final. Five of them were scored by a man in a green jersey. It was an astonishing turnaround and it was the moment a you

Now that the Super 8's is about to take off over the next month, we know all the major superstars on each team, but here are some of the more obscure talents who are about to announce their talents on the national stage after doing it over the last number of weeks. Can we look beyond the usual suspects from Kerry and Dublin? Who are the Roscommon and Kildare players that might hit the headlines?

 

Sean Andy O'Ceallaigh (Galway) It's hard to beat a savage for a full-back and Galway manager Kevin Walsh has one in the Connemara man. Was called up for senior duty at the start of this year after impressing in the role for the under-21 side last year as they lost the final to Dublin. However, his handling of Con O'Callaghan in that game, holding him to a score from play, was the measure of his potential. Loves to play out in front of his man and his aggression has already been checked by referees, he is a huge asset for Galway this season.

 

Gavin

By Enda McEvoy

 

Now that’s what you call a show of strength. A bottom line of 1-28 from Galway: serious stuff for a provincial final. A from-play return of 1-22: scary. A first-half tally of 1-16: prodigious. Seven points to spare in the end, and that after conceding one goal that might as easily have been given as a free out and another goal that resulted from the sliotar coming back off the upright.

 

Last Sunday in Thurles wasn’t merely a case of Galway retaining their Leinster title. It may also have been the afternoon that set them on the road to a second successive MacCarthy Cup triumph.

 

They were everything they hadn’t been in Croke Park seven days earlier. Determined, focused, hungry, sharp, decisive. In the drawn game they went out to fulfil a fixture. In the replay they went out to win a match. They won it comprehensively and had they been facing anyone but Kilkenny they might well have won it by twice as much as they

By: Enda McEvoy  

 

It does sound like the punchline to a joke alright. A Connacht team in a Leinster final that’s taking place in Munster. Galway and Kilkenny Take Two.    All very droll. But really, what of it?  

 

   Ignore the noise on social media, and the mock outrage from people claiming that the Galway/Kilkenny replay should have been fixed for Portlaoise or Tullamore, and the complaints over the contradiction between the Munster Council forbidding Waterford using Nowlan Park as a temporary home ground and the Leinster Council happily acting as though provincial borders didn’t exist.  

 

   There’s “no consistency” between the actions of the Munster and Leinster Councils, as the accusation has it? Clearly there isn’t, but these are two separate bodies and each is entitled to do as it sees fit. If the Leinster Council is less precious and parochial than its southern counterpart, so be it.

 

Wherfore Art the Replay?

By Declan Bogue

 

AND so, to Round Four and the white line fever that the prospect of entry into the exclusive club the first Super 8s will bring on. What of Laois, Fermanagh, Roscommon et al, how will they fare? Much like Arsene Wenger regressed as a manager in his last half dozen years in charge of Arsenal, he began to refer to qualification for the following season's European competition as the 'first trophy' of the season. But you'd be doing well to pour a mixture of gin, vermouth, Harp and Oul Boys' Slabber into that chalice. You get the sense that getting to the Super 8s will be the saving of some managers. Before, the target for any middle-ranking manager when knocked out of the Championship was to see his side playing in Croke Park over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Now, the dynamic has changed. The aim is to get to the Super 8s, which acts as base camp for those with real tangible hopes of All-Ireland success, or as a destination in itself as some more fragile