Iām not going to watch on and let the game of hurling die out because a few lads what a jolly in croke park a few times a year.
This isnāt right. It isnāt what the games are about.
Iām going to do something about this.
Young lads are more interested in golf, gym etc than previous generations. They are just not āall inā like those before them.
So if Wexford got to an all Ireland hurling semi final this year in July they wouldnt bring 40,000?
Seanie Shea plays for Kenmare mate, a club side.
Unlikely anybody from Cavan would pay Kerry accommodation prices.
Iāve rarely interacted with you. The last 2 posts are why. I wont be getting into anything with you like you do with others. Best of luck.
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@Gman i cant believe you think that running off a County Championship in 6 weeks in June/July is a good idea. I know there is football but hurling is a game you need to be playing a lot more than 4 months of the year.
Wexford trying to do a 50:50 split between hurling/football is admiral in some ways but as regards trying to be successful in either is not going to work.
Oulart being beat by some 3rd tier team from Dublin was a big warning light.
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Youāre a gas young fella all the same,the best WUM on here by a mile.
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Nasty nasty post. Very nasty.
That All Ireland Quarter final double header was as bad a fixture scheduling as i can ever remember. Awful stuff. Then Fergal only went and said āhold my beerā fixing for Ballyhale and Ballygunner for World Cup Final day.
The round robin has just killed the whole intercounty thing. The League is a total non event and while the Championship starts with a little bit of a crescendo, it peters out then to a whimper with a complete lack of proper knock out games. 2x Quarters, 2x Semiās and 1 final is pitiful.
Its been exaggerated too much as well by the way. There are 5 group games and then only 1 team doesnt progress out of the group of 6 (1 into relegation, 4 into 1/4s). Spacing it out would only put football in between the games, so in all reality, it would make little difference as to how much hurling is played.
As it is now, most clubs are training hurling all through summer in preparation for championship, with very little football played by dual clubs. Which football people have complained about, but clubs have voted for hurling first for longer prep and better weather.
They are fixed dates. Everyone knows when it is on. The way it was before with 3 or 4 games before May, then a gap until the following September was a load of shite. Plus it would be one or two weeks of hurling, then over to football. All that happened was the hurlign first clubs just played hurling throughout. Now you have a lot of clubs considered football ones making massive strides up the ranks and some of the traditional stronger hurling clubs have been struggling now that the playing field has been levelled out. The club players prefer it this way. You can focus on one code and give it your best, and when its done, go play the other. There is no overlap.
The GAA is odd in this manner. We are expecting to play two games which are very different, but play them side by side. You wouldnt see it anywhere else. Take Australia as an example, AFL and cricket can be linked with some clubs, but AFL is a winter game and cricket in the summer. You dont rock up to AFL training with your cricket bat, but yet here we have football training and told bring the hurls as well and weāll do some ball work after.
Wexford is probably the most dual county in Ireland. And I dont measure that by success of being good at both codes, more so that pretty much every club plays both, and by and large, the first 15 in one, is very similar to the first 15 in the other. In other dual counties, you have region split for good hurling/football areas, but in Wexford you dont have that as much. And more often than not, the best hurlers in the county would likely be the best footballers. We see it in underage a lot. So the split season in Wexford with the two codes independent of each other works for players. It probably doesnt make the county teams better, but it depends what your outlook is. Do you want clubs to produce county players or do you want club players getting the best set up for them?
The one thing I would say is that the timing is too condensed, but this is dictated by provincial championships. If we had another 4 weeks to space things out, it would be far better.
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The grim reality of how this split season is playing out is there for all to see today. Traditionally the McCrory Cup Final would occupy the early afternoon slot of a double header, before crossing over to Ravenhill to Jackie Fullerton and Jim Neilly to guide us through the main event.
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10 years ago today we had one of the greatest club finals of all time.
A James McCarthy/Dean Rock/Philly McMahon/John Small inspired Ballymun Kickhams coming acropper vs St. Brigids. What a game and what memories to have.
Today should have been the day Glen Maghera and Kilmacud Crokes came together. Thereād have been 50k in Croke Park. Instead tumbleweed blew across the Irish sporting landscape.
At least we had Gonzaga v Blackrock College to save the sporting day.
The animal cruelty/gambling addicts lobby had Cheltenham as well.
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I remember when we had days of thunder on Paddyās Day.
Cross v Dr Crokes 2007, Cross v Kilmacud 2009,Ballyhale v Portumna 2010, Cross v Brigids 2011, Cross v Garrycastle 2012. Great days.
Glen Maghera v Kilmacud could hsve matched and surpassed any of those games with 50k or 60k in attendance.
Iād like to see āThe St. Patrickās Day Five In A Rowā marketed as a joint North-South television event by RTE and BBC.
12pm: The MacRory Cup Final live from the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds, Armagh with commentary by Thomas Niblock and Enda McGinley, presentation by Mark Sidebottom, analysis by Peter Canavan, Mickey Harte and Oisin McConville.
1:30pm: The Northern Bank Ulster Senior Schools Cup Final live from Ravenhill, commentary by Jim Neilly and David Humphreys, presentation by Mark Robson, analysis by Allen āSnifferā Clarke, Paddy Johns and Neil Doak.
3:30pm: The Bank of Ireland Leinster Senior Schools Cup Final live from Lansdowne Road, commentary by Ryle Nugent and Tony Ward, presentation by Jacqui Hurley, analysis by Luke Fitzgerald, Ross OāCarroll-Kelly and Gerry Thornley.
5:30pm: The AIB All-Ireland Club Senior Hurling Final live from Croke Park, commentary by Marty Morrissey and Michael Duignan, presentation by Darren Frehill, analysis by Cyril Farrell, Ger Loughnane and Daithi Regan.
7:30pm: The AIB All-Ireland Club Senior Football Final live from Croke Park with commentary by Ger Canning and Oisin McConville, Darren Frehill remaining on presentation with analysis by Jim McGuinness, Kevin Cassidy and Brendan Devenney.
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2017 was a great day.
I cant remember the exact throw in times but Slaughtneil vs Dr Crokes in the fading light of Croke Park was some spectacle. A Friday night lights crucible of drama.
A game that will haunt Slaughtneil until the day they die i would say.
A game of two halves. A rivetting first half followed by a dirge of a second half.
Dr. Crokes were bad in the second half, Slaughtneil were truly awful.
The 2013 football is about as good as it gets. St. Vincentāsā two All-Irelands in 2008 and 2014 were each thoroughly enjoyable in their own way.
My first St. Patrickās Day at Croke Park was the 1986 double bill of Burren v Castleisland Desmonds followed by Bufferās Alley v Kilruane MacDonaghs.
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