All-Ireland Hurling Championship 2019***

They might never win another championship game.

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The steps rule is used only when a ref wants to
A. Even up a previous dodgy decision
B. Try and engineer a close finish
Or, most commonly
C. To favour the team the ref has decided, for whatever reason, he wants to win.

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Some Limerick fellas were trying to convince me that this Limerick group of players are different from all others, and that they wouldn’t lose the run of themselves. I felt this was absolutely bollocks because the man who knew them best, the manager, nearly killed himself trying to keep hype away from them in the lead up to the final, so fearful was he of them being waylaid. All bets are off now. The boys are gonna go bananas, and rightly so. Why the fuck wouldn’t you.

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It’s wide open so next year.

I said it when Galway made the breakthrough last year, that it would be great if we had a variety of teams win over the coming years .

In the past six all Irelands, five different teams have won the all Ireland

I’d say it’ll be one from Cork, Clare or Tipp, and I aim to narrow it down over the next 11 months.

limerick will walk it FFS.

+1. Can you picture the scene in some meeting room in UL in late November and Kiely and Currid asking the players to split into 6 groups of 6 and to scribble down goals for the 2019 season? They won’t give a fuck and, as you said, rightly so.

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Shook?

I thought Owens was a bit of a cunt yesterday… But I was very emotional… What the fuck did he award a free for on Conor whelan towards the end of the first half over by the cusack? And did Kyle connect with Joe first half? It was hard to see from my angle…

Cork you were told.

Kyle gave Canning an elbow in the back of the head.

You can make plans as much as you like. You can insist that great teams do back to back. You can plot your goals and say what you will do and wont do. But everything has changed now, in ways you never dreamed imaginable. Galway you’d say, handled the hype relatively well, they let the players off, strolled through the league and ramped it up for Championship. But you don’t know if you have the stomach for the fight, until you’re truly in the fight.

Mike Tyson said everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face. Galway were punched in the face yesterday and realised they didn’t quite fancy it all that much. No shame in that. Limerick brought ferocious hunger and desire to it yesterday, it was incredibly admirable. Thats just how it is.

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Brilliant.

Deserving of motm so.

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He was septic for both sides, basically made it up as he went along.

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Grand. Had a few bottles watching the rerun of the game plus analysis in the Spur. Quiet enough really. A lot of people stayed in Dublin last night.

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Yeah. We got our breaks also…he awarded some bizarre frees and then let blatant stuff go.

He was excellent, as usual. Didn’t even warrant a mention on The Sunday Game last night.

Has he a job? He seems to be a complete simpleton.

Gillane was blessed not to see a second yellow.

I’d never give it big licks about tipp not doing back to backs. Kk have the advantage of being a one sport county of limited imagination, where the be all and end all is hurling, coupled with a manager who’s raison d’etre is kilkenny winning the senior championship, and everything he does or touches in hurling is subservient to that, much like saf in the soccerball.
Tipp were the only reason that there was any interest maintained in mainstream hurling, like mayo in the football, but unlike mayo they won. Many say kk were at their peak in 2009. I was at that game and tipp had them, until benny dunne did his thing. Tipp at their peak were one of the best sides then to ever play the game, certainly the equal of kk, they just weren’t and aren’t consumed by it like kk.
Other counties have football, rugby and soccer at a high level.
The county panels themselves have now caught up with this kk semi - professionalism, but, in my very honest opinion, kk are still ahead of the curve, as Cody has kept a level head, and eschewed the 25 person backroom team, each claiming their input was vital, surrounding himself with knowledgeable hurling men. He remains the best tactician in the game.
I think winning two or three in a row is hard alright, but actually if you have a very deep squad, it gives you an edge.
Personally I’d love to see o Donoghue strip the backroom team right back to basics, bring on a top class reader of the game, who can react in real time, and go out and hurl.

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