Tipperary Eoin Kelly was a divil for it.
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Is English your first language?
There are an awful lot of rules in Hurling that need to be tidied up and enforced. Obviously the hand pass is the big one but there are others.
Lads are breaking the 21 all the time now when taking penalties/frees and nothing is said. TJ Reid did it yesterday. Byrnes did it against Cork this year hitting a penalty.
Same for goalies breaking the 6 yard box taking puckouts. The one time it was pulled, there was blue murder.
Sideline cuts becoming a 5 yard pull. Lads not standing back the required distance.
Iâd also ban the backpass from Full back to Goalkeeper after a puckout similar to what they did in Football.
I know. Iâm just pointing out that thereâs nothing in the rules that clearly state that youâre not allowed balance it. Nicky used to do it too.
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Iâve been saying this for years.
I was at a schools camogie AI final years ago and a freetaker (a teenage girl) was consistently blown up for the way she took her frees.
Although after looking at the vague rules, it seems Byrnes is doing nothing wrong?
Cork used to go mad over him doing it.
On sidelines I thought they were atrocious yesterday. Given theyâre a key restart I thought teams would put more effort into their execution. Itâs easy knowing ground hurling has died as an art.
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Tom Phelan the quintessential late bloomer?
Those fortunate enough to be in attendance at Kilkennyâs All-Ireland final media event last Wednesday week came away with an expanded waistline and hands weighed down with goodies.
We had been tipped off beforehand about the famous Langtonâs steak that is served up once the interviews have been teased out and taped. Nobody, though, had told us that the eight-ounce ribeye was only part two of a sumptuous three-course setting.
Gingerly rising from the table after a feed of brisket, steak, and brown bread ice cream gateau, we were handed an Avonmore bag with enough milk and butter to see us to Christmas.
Our hands and bellies already full, the good Kilkenny folk came with one last gift to send us on our way. And as tasty and as thankful as we were for the food, the 16-page booklet containing detailed profiles of each panellist was easily the most useful item of the day.
Going through the profiles of the 15 men who started the semi-final and the usual cast of subs called down from the stand, Tom Phelanâs bio stood out for being shorter than most of his colleagues.
Of the six honours listed under his name, only two were inter-county related, and both of those Leinster senior medals were pocketed in the last 13 months.
For a man who turns 28 on Christmas Day, that left plenty of blanks regarding where he was and what he was doing pre-2022.
Some of those blanks we were successful in filling in. They paint a picture of an outlier. Someone for whom the door opened long after it was supposed to be closed shut.
Tom Phelan never hurled minor for Kilkenny. He was a two-season U21 panellist. Of the four U21 games Kilkenny played across 2015 and 16, Phelanâs involvement totalled 18 minutes. He was introduced as a sub in all four, but never earlier than the 53rd minute.
A raft of U21 teammates - the likes of goalkeeper Darren Brennan, Conor Delaney, Huw Lawlor, Paddy Deegan, and Billy Ryan - received the Cody call-up in the next year or two. But not Phelan. He was instead a second half sub when the county won the All-Ireland intermediate in 2017.
Nickey Brennan lives three fields over from the Phelanâs in Conahy country. His namesake English from across the border in Tipp would regularly be in touch âravingâ about the neighbour and his UCD Fitzgibbon performances.
Towards the end of the last decade, members of the Kilkenny backroom team got in touch to enquire about the neighbour. Phelan, though, had committed to a summer abroad and so there was no black and amber induction. Not for a while yet, anyway.
Ahead of the 2022 season, the door swung open for the milk supply manager at TirlĂĄn. A 26-year-old inter-county debutant. Evidence that there is no age limit on stepping up and stepping in.
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Barry Nash was unreal.
What a player.
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Wasnât he the first to use it?
This stuff is all true. ButâŚ
I would ban the handpass outright.
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Sometimes it just happens though that a gifted minor team loses to an inferior opponent, but a load of that team produces the goods at senior level and the team that beats them doesnât tear up trees at senior. Minor is an inherently unpredictable grade because of the age factor.
In football, a stacked Galway team in 1994 (Joyce, Donnellan, Savage, two Meehans, Divilly, Richie Fahy, Scan Concannon) lost to a Kerry team which didnât produce too much in the way of senior stars.
Dublin in 2011 had Jack McCaffrey, Paul Mannion, John Small, Ciaran Kilkenny, Cormac Costello, Robbie McDaid, and a load of other fellas who were regular senior panel members, yet they lost to Tipperary.
The Clare generation of Tony Kelly/Shane OâDonnell/Peter Duggan/Colm Galvin/Podge Collins/Aaron Cunningham/David McInerney/Cathal Malone/Seadna Morey plus a few others never won a minor, again losing to teams who produced less at senior level.
Under 21 when it existed was usually a better barometer of future senior success than minor.
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The handpass off the hurley and switch handpass are great skills which should both be allowed. The throwing that teams currently employ is not hurling.
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As an aside to this, the Dummy Handpass thrown by Cody yesterday was exquisite.
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Have any of ye picked a combined kilkenny/Limerick 4 in a row team?
To what end?
In the first 20 seconds yesterday Mikey Butler fucked up a legitimate handpass as there is an actual skill and element of risk involved. Rory Hayes the same for the Kilkenny goal in the semi final.
Everyone knew Keenan was going to let it flow yesterday so vast majority of players took the piss throwing it around.
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For the craic
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It was class and I donât think it even featured on the Sunday Game
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Handpass off the hurley is a great skill.