List could be endless here. Just off the top of my head:
2001: Wexford v Westmeath, Galway v Armagh
Galway v Armagh was a 3rd qualifier between the two teams who were about to win All-Ireland’s.
2002: Meath 3-8 Louth 2-9, Sligo v Tyrone
2003: Dublin v Armagh in Croker, Roscommon v Cork. Fermanagh v Meath.
2004: Fermanagh v Cork in Croker when they flew a player in from his wedding.
2006: Laois v Tyrone
2008: Limerick v Meath
2009: Kerry v Sligo, Wicklow v Down
2010: Longford v Mayo
2011: Limerick v Wexford. The controversial game.
2016: Longford v Monaghan and then Derry
2016: Mayo v Fermanagh and Derry v Tipp
2017: Mayo v Cork
2018: Kildare v Mayo
In hurling then you’d also have Wexford v Waterford (2003 and 2014), Kilkenny v Waterford (2013 and 2017), Clare v Galway (2003), Tipp v Galway (2014) and the classic saga of Wexford v Clare in 2014. That was iconic and took on a life of its own as Cyril Farrell would say.
That’s far from an exhaustive list and depends on what you classify as classic or just memorable. Westmeath and Fermanagh had a catalogue of memorable scalps in the early years. Kildare were always good for a qualifier journey under Geezer.
An incredible day. You are a man after my own heart.
I was on my way to a stag in Clonakilty cc @Fat_Pox and missed the bus so had to be in Limerick for 2pm to catch a lift. There was another lad coming from Galway who was about 2 hours late so i ended up watching Benjamin Pavard’s goal from the God’s in the World Cup Quarter Final in Morrisons of Ballysimon.
I heard Latrobe won the derby on the radio on the way down, watched Newbridge or Nowhere in De Barras and to top it off had Uruguay to win the whole World Cup out at a huge price and they only went and sent Portugal packing the same night. I was sure they’d win it out after.
Only downside was the nightclub in Clonakilty had a 100:1 ratio of men to women which i never saw again before or since.
That 2017 double header in Thurles you speak of where Tipp hammered some poor misfortunes from Dublin by about 20 points and Waterford beat Kilkenny AET was an incredible occasion too. Must have been well over 30k in attendance.
That was the night Tadhg De Burca, Jamie Barron and Austin Gleeson all reached the peak of their powers en semble. Those new money supporters who only started to follow Hurling in 2018 will never truly understand just how good Austin Gleeson was in particular. He reached a ceiling in those games only reached before or since by the great Tony Kelly and Joe Canning.
There was a tremendous ‘win or go home’ feeling to all those games whereas now its death by a thousand cuts in these interminable round robins and deep down nobody gives a fuck.
After that 2017 Double Header in Thurles, i went on a huge one in Tipp Town and Hurling was the only show in town conversation wise.
And to those split season zealots who say Club and County can’t intersect throughout the summer, well about 3 weeks beforehand i was in Dolla for a Box Office Industries North Senior Hurling Championship Semi Final between Kilruane and Kiladangan where there must have been about 3k in attendance as Kiladangan edged a classic in miserable conditions. Ireland drew with Austria in a World Cup Qualifier the same June evening cc @Aertel220
I was in dingle that Thursday until the Saturday and a friend from Tyrone drove three of us to the curragh because he was meeting a bird at the races.
One terrific weekend. I forgot the World Cup was on too.
I remember being in paudie o sheas on the Friday and it was like 30 degrees and an auld fella was in a suit and willies drinking guiness and brandy one after the other.
Upperchurch, Killenaule & Cashel pays evens. Killenaule are playing St Mary’s who have had to draft in their injured talisman seamus kennedy in as manager after their management left. Mary’s down a few lads in the USA also.
3 points on that.
Add Holycross to beat Jk brackens and it’s 8/3.
1 point on that.
Going to do a @peddlerscross and keep a track of my club GAA bets on here.
Being the event junkie i am I was lucky enough to be in Doon watching a Categorie F BOICMC match recently. Anyway the Doon Seniors were being put through their paces by none other than the great Derek McGrath on the training pitch to the side. I was impressed by what i saw and despite there only being a skeleton panel in attendance, what struck me was just how fit they were. They must have been on the pitch for over 90 minutes and never stopped running.
They recently defeated beaten Leinster Club Finalists Na Fianna of Dublin on the BOICMC in a game refereed by the games Premier Official, John Keenan of Wicklow.
Looking back at last year they really ought to have beaten Na Piarsaigh in that County Semi Final and since then Na Piarsaigh have lost Peter Casey while Doon are gaining 3 or 4 good lads including Richie English who is Officer Class.
The intangible is Derek. Reports from the BOICMC have stated that Derek has them playing a game of short puckouts which is at odds with what the Doon supporters would want which is whacktics or hit and whip hurling. This could be an issue if things start to go wrong.
However i believe this thing could just take off. Derek needs Doon and Doon need Derek. There are eerie similarities to when Malachy landed in Maghera in 2021. A hurling mad town with rich underage success and a host of inter county stars but no County Championship to show for it.
Darragh O’Donovan, Richie English, Adam English and Barry Murphy have either not been used at all or been used sparingly by Limerick so far this year. They should be hungry by the time Club Championship comes round. Pat Ryan will have a point to prove too and the supporting cast of Chris Thomas, Cian O’Donovan, Jack Ryan Bug and Eddie Stokes are well up to it.
Kilmallock are well on the wane and Na Piarsaigh seem to be on the decline too. This may well be the first year in over a decade where Na Piarsaigh don’t set out at the start of the year with the All Ireland Club as the ultimate goal. Patrickswell remain well short of the sum of their parts and there has been no signs over the last 5 years that they will ever reach their potential. The rest in Limerick are well behind the top 4 so all signs point towards a Doon victory this Autumn and this is a bandwagon i am happy to die on.
The last 5 minutes of that game was compulsive viewing. Shane Duffy nearly bulldozed the keeper out of the way for what could’ve been a late winner. I distinctly remember driving to a practice match the following night and Alan Cawley was complaining on the radio that Ireland weren’t playing well despite being top of the qualifying group. What we’ve give for that luxury these days.
Stick to supporting your pound shop JP buying brown shoes for yere minors and keep you’re beak out of anything to do with LK hurling which you openly despise.