Giving him the job was a poor decision. Leaving him there for 3 years was a fucking disgraceful decision. It must be said too though that a lot of players didnât conduct themselves very well as the shambles progressed.
Still disappointing as today was. Itâs a real relief to see a Dublin hurling team playing with some pride.
Nice to read a bit of balance as regards that whole sorry episode.
Wexford are playing Kilkenny in Nowlan Park in round 5.
Iâd say heâll be happy with the stats.Both subs came on and scored 4+. Heâll live on that.
No point from play from Sutcliffe is the one obvious thing that Dublin can improve on. Youâd imagine he will always be targeted, but he has serious talent and is well able to rack up 3/4 points.
If Kerry win, they have to play a play off against the 5th place Munster team. If one of the others win, they automatically go in for the 5th place leinster team without any playoff. Makes no sense.
Itâs preferntial treatment for the Munster Championship. Bizarre when Leinster Championship representatives have been winning the All Ireland at a rate of 2 to 1 over Munster Championship representatives this century.
The southern hemisphere win most rugby world cups but there tends to be more northern hemisphere teams at world cups
Cadogan and OâMahony doubtful for Sunday.
Sounds like Alan Cadogan is out, Brosnan and OâFlynn to start. Cahalane fullback.
Surely thereâs a few more that have picked up career threatening injuries in training?
Itâs not kk.
ENDA MCEVOY
june 4 2018, 12:01am, the times
Limerick show signs of being the coming team but Galway are supreme
enda mcevoy
For every aspiring young team that succeeds in making the journey to a better place thereâs a moment en route that in retrospect can be identified as a turn in the road. It might be a minor piece of silverware that helps build confidence and leads to bigger things, like Wexford with the Walsh Cup in 1996. It might be the burying of a statistical hoodoo or a first victory in decades against a traditional nemesis, like Clareâs Munster title in 1995.
In the case of John Kielyâs Limerick it may prove to be not even a win but rather a draw: that hard-earned point against Cork on Saturday night. A moral victory in trying circumstances? Letâs not go there; Limerick fans are the last people in the world to be patronised about moral victories. Instead letâs call it what it was in practical terms: an extremely useful point and one that could, come the end of the round robin, turn out to be the point that pushes Limerick over the quota and into the Munster final.
This was a result quarried out of rock without the aid of blasting equipment. The visitors to PĂĄirc UĂ Chaoimh saw their centre-back depart injured after six minutes â and didnât lose. They played with 14 men for three quarters of an hour after their free-taker was sent off in the 25th minute â and didnât lose. They had to cope for the last seven minutes without the services of their star performer and main attacking outlet, substituted after running himself into the ground â and didnât lose. They missed a glorious chance to seal victory three minutes from time when Pat Ryan fluffed his pull from point-blank range, conceded two of the next three points â and didnât lose.
A turn in the road? Too early to say. But itâs not too early to say that Limerick are potential Munster finalists and potential All-Ireland semi-finalists. Eleven of Saturdayâs starting XV possess All-Ireland Under-21 medals from the past three years. In every way they look that entity beloved of hurling folk, a coming team.
They have a bench likely to prove a factor in tight games over the next couple of months, one stocked with young, fit, enthusiastic types. Not every All-Ireland is won by a team playing a 20-man game â last yearâs wasnât, for example, largely because Galway were never forced to break the glass and reach for their substitutes â but some are. Limerick are better placed to prosecute such an approach than most counties.
On Saturday, moreover, they had a breakout performance from Seamus Flanagan, who not only hit five points from full-forward but won frees, provided assists and generally drove the Cork defence to distraction with his ability to hold up the sliotar and distribute it. Given the memory of how Kevin Downes, Shane Dowling and Declan Hannon all exploded onto the scene as exciting young Limerick forwards before losing their way, it is clearly too early to be endowing Flanagan with messianic qualities. Interestingly, however, he was only a substitute for last yearâs All Ireland Under-21 final. A late-maturing player is always an asset.
Saturday provided one valuable lesson for Flanagan and his contemporaries. Regardless of the treatment he was receiving from Sean OâDonoghue it was naive in the extreme for Aaron Gillane to think he could retaliate without consequences. Besides, he was trying it on with the wrong referee. Three years ago James Owens was in dereliction of duty when, shortly before half-time in the All-Ireland final, he booked Johnny Coen for clothes-lining Colin Fennelly. The contact was high and dangerous but Owens copped out. Faced with a similar stonewall crime on Saturday ââ striking is a red-card offence, end of story â the referee applied the correct sanction.
Gillane, another of last yearâs under-21 cohort, will learn from the episode. His manager being a secondary-school principal, of that we can be sure. In any case, had Gillane not been sent off Limerick would not have produced the performance they did in his absence. Sometimes things work out, just not in the way you expect.
In view of both the flat period Cork hit midway through the second half and Davy Fitzâs admission that Wexford were off the pace against Galway, questions will be raised about the efficacy of fitness regimes and the apparent hardships of having to line out three â and in Offalyâs case four â weekends in a row. Hardships? Really? We are constantly told how inter-county hurlers and footballers are professionals in all aspects of their lifestyle â training, diet, hydration, rest â bar the financial. Yet three games on consecutive weekends leaves them feeling like theyâve run a marathon? Please. In any case Cork scored five points after the 65th minute on Saturday. Scarcely the output of a bunch out on their feet.
To finish, a caveat. The opening ten minutes at PĂĄirc UĂ Chaoimh brought ten points and four wides. The game was that open, that fluent, and it bubbled away in the same manner till the final whistle. Two hours earlier Galway, who the previous Sunday had beaten Kilkenny by 1-22 to 2-11, saw off Wexford by 1-23 to 0-17, very nearly the same scoreline. On both occasions they kept their opponents below the 20-point mark. On both occasions, with the wind behind them in the first half, James Skehill went for distance off the tee and dumped puckout after puckout on the enemy 14-metre line, whereupon his forwards made use of their size and strength to go to war.
The All-Ireland champions are a grinding machine playing a different game to the one that took place in PĂĄirc UĂ Chaoimh.
For all that Limerick look the coming team, they are almost certainly not coming just yet. Not while Galway are around.
Whatâs he on about Galway not using their bench last year? It was Jason Flynn and Niall Burkeâs late contributions that arguably won the final for Galway.
Also silly to write off Linerickâs 2018 chances in the final paragraph. Based on the evidence to date, they may well have the best set of atfributes to trouble Galway.
You should probably ask Enda. Maybe something to do with the relative depth of the respective panels. I think Galway got by last year with one or two important cameos from the bench such as the two you instanced there, and Glynnâs in the semi. Limerick have a cohort of lads from the same age bracket competing with each other to even get onto the bench.
Enda McEvoy very critical of James Owens there. Henry Shefflin was as well yesterday in the Sunday Times.
Very neat description of Galway. An abhorrent âstyleâ of route one hoof hurling but incredibly effective largely due to their strength and physicality all over the park. How a formerly windy but silkily skillful team have been transformed into a crowd of granite monsters playing a turgid and grinding brand of winning hurling is scary.
