Galway v Kilkenny All Ireland Hurling Final 2012

Sport
901

Its good to see GAA players talking honestly, but Joe might well regret a few comments here, though hopefully this will rattle Henry and JJ to Cody like levels: (From the Irish Times)

JACKIE CAHILL
GALWAY’S JOE Canning believes that Kilkenny’s Henry Shefflin was guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct in last Sunday’s All-Ireland senior hurling final.
And Canning insisted the Cats were handed “very easy frees” by referee Barry Kelly in the Croke Park showpiece.
Canning admitted Kilkenny are a bit “cuter” when it comes to dealing with officials on the field of play and he referenced a first-half incident when Shefflin ran “30 or 40 yards down the field” to remonstrate with Kelly.
Canning, who converted a free in the third minute of stoppage time to tie the game, also revealed how his direct opponent JJ Delaney was unhappy with Shefflin’s decision to take a point from a 68th-minute penalty.
Canning, 23, was speaking to reporters yesterday at Semple Stadium in Thurles at an event to promote Saturday’s Bord Gáis Energy All-Ireland Under-21 hurling finals.
And he stoked the fires ahead of the eagerly-awaited senior rematch with Kilkenny on September 30th by admitting: “I suppose they are a bit cuter. In one instance in the first half, Henry ran 30 or 40 yards down the field and was giving out to Barry Kelly and Damien Hayes for a free.
“That’s not sportsmanlike either at the same stage. That’s the way it goes – that’s probably the experience they have. Hopefully we can get that and use it to our advantage as well. You need everything you can get during those games.”
Canning also admitted he mishit the late equalising free that ensured a replay between the sides on September 30th.
He said: “I kind of mishit the last one, to be honest, I didn’t mean to hit it that low. There were three Kilkenny players in front of me, it was lucky enough it went over.”
Canning said he did not see the controversial late award, when Kilkenny defender Jackie Tyrrell was penalised for a tangle with Galway substitute Davy Glennon.
He said: “I don’t know – to be straight up about it I didn’t see it. I was over the far side, in at full-forward. I didn’t actually watch the match since.
“I don’t know – obviously I’ve read papers and stuff. Some people say it wasn’t a free and others say that it was. You get stuff during a match as well – when they got a ball moved forward 15 yards and the same thing happened in the second half with the same players involved, and it didn’t get moved for us and we could have been in for a score.
“You get them things during a match. I thought, on the field, sometimes they influenced frees and stuff like that. So they got very easy frees during the game as well. We’re happy enough, if it was an easy free, to take it.”
And Canning lifted the lid on Kilkenny defender Delaney’s reaction to Shefflin’s 68th-minute point, when the eight-time All-Ireland medallist put the ball over the bar when a goal would have put the champions three points clear.
When Canning was asked if he thought that Shefflin was about to go for the jugular as he stood over the penalty, he replied: “Yeah I thought he was.
“JJ wasn’t too impressed anyway behind me! He thought he should have went for it as well. People asked me after what I would have done. I probably would have went for a point as well because at that time of the game, a point was very crucial. If he missed it, people would said why didn’t he tap it over the bar.
“It’s a very thin line and he’s probably the most experienced player on the pitch. At the time, he thought it was the right thing to do. If it was saved and we went down the pitch and got a point or a goal, it could have swung things in our favour. He probably took the right decision at that time in the match.”
Canning added: “He probably would have went for it himself. ‘I’ll just put it that way!’”
On his own late equalising free Canning admitted he had “massive doubts” before standing up to convert.
He had missed a similar chance just a few minutes earlier and he said: “Obviously you have doubts and I had massive doubts from missing the one before but that’s part and parcel of it as well.
“That’s the one I think of more than the one I scored, how the outcome might have been different, but then you never know, if you’d got the first one you mightn’t have got the chance for the second one, so you never know.”
Canning went on: “You’re just trying to concentrate on getting the lift right, getting the strike right. I’ve had the same routine for years, since you’re young every free-taker has the same routine, maybe tweaks it or whatever but you have to trust it, no matter what. That’s all I was concentrating on, hoping not to have everyone in Galway after my head afterwards!”
Canning also admitted that he did not enjoy the experience of a first All-Ireland SHC final because of the huge pressures involved.
He stated: “I think when you’re out on the field, you don’t enjoy it. It’s not a place to enjoy it – you enjoy it after the match if you win and obviously you don’t enjoy it if you lose. But when you’re playing in such a high-intensity game, mentally more so than anything, the mistakes and stuff are costing you that extra point or two in a match, you don’t enjoy those things.
“And anybody that says , I personally don’t believe them if they say they enjoy playing a match like that.
“It’s a thing you look back on and say, yeah, I’ve played in it but at the end of the day, you want to do your best and it’s like training, when you’re training as hard as you can, you don’t enjoy running them laps or anything like that.
“It’s the same as a match – when it’s high intensity, you don’t enjoy that.”
Canning was also pleased with the performance of referee Kelly, insisting that every hurler deserves the freedom to express himself on the field of play.
He said: “Everybody is protected on the field. Nobody goes out to hurt another player or anything like that, or do anything stupid. At the end of the day, you go out to hurl and everybody is the same.
“That was the way it was on Sunday. Everybody went out just to hurl their own patch and that’s the way it should be.”

902

Not much wrong with Canning’s interview, very honest in fairness. The guy is very down to earth and just wants to get on with his hurling. I would imagine JJ was not alone in wishing Henry has gone for goal as a point is a very slim lead and most people would back Henry to bury it. Think Joe is 100% correct in calling out Henry for all his “refereeing” on the field. It would not be tolerated from any other player and hopefully whoever is reffing the replay will tell him to stick to the hurling and leave the ref to do his job.

903

Doubtful. Joe has no fear.
Fuck Kilkenny

904

Joe is dead right. Shefflin has been at this shite for years under the guidance of Cody.

The media still haven’t bothered to address Brian Codys behaviour from Sunday.

I doubt it would have got the same media attention if Cunningham had behaved in a similar manner.

905

I followed Jackie Cahill on twitter briefly, he would fit well into the category of Irish epl being referred to in the Hillsborough thread.

Interesting secision to come out with such an interview. Not sure what Joe or Galway will get out of saying these kind of things to be honest but the JJ referenece to the penalty was interesting and a nice one to drop in.

906

Disappointing to see Joe and Galway resort to such underhand tactics

907

Another very good article from Donal Óg. He doesn’t hide his hatred for Kilkenny anyway.

[font=Verdana]Only winners do warm downs? Do Galway believe they were winners on Sunday? Well, your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. So said Mohandas Gandhi, the great hurling coach.[/font][font=Verdana]
As Kilkenny left the field on Sunday their faces had the grey look of men who have been a long time in the trenches. I watched Galway warming down and swapping words. The idea that they might be winners was hardening in their heads. They were still buzzing.[/font]
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This week Galway have reason to believe they have got into Kilkenny’s system like a rare virus.[/font]
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SMALL THINGS[/font]
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As Brian Cody gave Anthony Cunningham the hairdryer treatment on the sideline at the end of the game, the Galway manager must have been thinking to himself that for once it was Cody who had blinked first.[/font]
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When Henry Shefflin, who added to his legend in a big way with that second half performance, chose to take a point with a penalty three minutes from time it was a rare sign of Kilkenny wondering about the consequences of failure. Three years ago, with Kilkenny two points down, Henry drove home a late penalty against Tipperary without a moment of doubt.[/font]
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And Tommy Walsh. Tommy never leaves his post no matter how the battle is going. On Sunday he was getting dragged to places he never usually sees. And it seemed to affect the certainty he always brings to his game.
And lastly, Sunday seemed to provide proof that Kilkenny have gone to the well an awful lot this year. From Christmas time onwards they were hearing about what Dublin might do to them in Leinster. They prepared big time for that. They’ve had hard days ever since. They love their hurling but as men you just wonder do they long for this season to be over at last?[/font]
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There’ll be a lot of talk in the next three weeks that Galway lost their chance, that they definitely won’t do it now. Anthony Cunningham will take the opposite out of it. The odds have shifted slightly more in Galway’s favour. They have a better chance the next day than they did on Sunday.[/font]
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SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL[/font]
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Sunday’s game was some kind of wonderful. As a hurler, as an Irish man, it was a pleasure to be there. You could feel the electric passion in the place as the national anthem was roared out. I looked at the big screen as the words scrolled up…chun báis nó saoil. Summed it up.[/font]
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Some kind of wonderful it was and as they say, what is seldom is what is wonderful. Barry Kelly, a man who I’ve skirmished with a few times down the days, gave a laoch an cluiche performance for a start. It was the best display of refereeing I’ve seen in years. He got nearly every call right. He used his assistants well. He cut out those things which go past the limits of the ‘manliness’ which was talked about so much in the last few weeks. He cut them out and the game was better for it. More honest and more ‘manly’. Nobody got bullied. Hopefully his performance will become the template for the way the game should be refereed in the future. Kelly’s performance on its own was worthy of a column-worth of statistical analysis.[/font]
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Most of the actual game stats will tell only part of the story.[/font]
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Much of the she story on Sunday was in the things which were tried and didn’t work. A lot of Kilkenny’s striking was rushed which was unusual to see. Galway got it right most of the time but lost their way for a while in the second half which almost cost them.[/font]
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Kilkenny felt from the start that there was a weakness in the Galway full-back line. They kept pounding them with balls, hoping that something would break. It never did. You need the breaks in that situation and what breaks there were fell to Galway. Kevin Hynes looked like he’d been playing full-back all his life. Fergal Moore was no surprise but I though Johnny Coen gave a brilliant exhibition of old-fashioned corner back play, adapted to the modern game.[/font]
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Kilkenny’s forwards never got going. At least the fellas without royal titles never got going, and apart from frees, Henry was quiet enough in the first half. Again it was an indication of the pressure out there that Henry missed the 65 straight after his shot for goal from the 21-metre free was missed. Going for goal at that stage was a sign in itself of pressure. I think if he’d scored that goal in the first half he would have gone for the penalty late on. Galway are in Kilkenny’s heads.[/font]
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Galway’s backs have a great knack of recovering. Any time a Kilkenny player would twist free into space the defender would bounce back and appear in front of him again somehow. That wears you down. Generally Aidan Fogarty couldn’t get free of his marker and Colin Fennelly struggled in the same way. Eoin Larkin was quiet. TJ Reid was in and out, a great first half point but a badly scuffed point attempt as well.[/font]
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Most surprising was Richie Power and how tame his performance was. Two things. I think he gives his best performances when Henry Shefflin is out of commission and he has to step up to the mark himself. And he looks weighed down for some reason. Maybe the baggage of a sending off earlier this year against Eoin Cadogan, a knee injury with Carrickshock and that huge collision with Wayne McNamara in the Limerick game are taking a toll. I saw him take a quick flaking off the ball on Sunday and made a point of watching him the next time he went for a high ball. I thought he’d demolish all before him but he jumped fairly placidly. At one point in the second half I looked down and Shefflin was roaring at him trying to shock him back into life.[/font]
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Galway’s plan went more according to the script. They move so well. They get the ball and they are exploding towards goal. You can’t be a standing target for Kilkenny or you’re dead. Galway’s only worry was the quality of the clearances when they were under pressure.[/font]
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The way Brian Hogan was playing in the second half it was crazy just clearing ball into the centre-back position. Generally speaking a ball should never be cleared into the centre back position in hurling. It almost always ends in tears. When you are playing very defensively, as Galway were at times, the consequences are even worse. When Galway funnel back defensively they need to take a second and pick their targets well when they are clearing. Hit the spaces out wide instead of the crowd in the middle.[/font]
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Their second goal was a good example of what Galway need to do more of. Skehill picked out Cyril Donnellan to his left with the best puck-out of the match (David Herity’s puck-outs weren’t a great success and he didn’t vary much). Donnellan played a diagonal ball to the right corner. Balls coming at an angle from that part of the field are harder for defenders to cope with and the mistake came. Niall Burke was in for the goal.[/font]
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At the far end it was the first time since 2004 that Kilkenny didn’t get a goal on the big day. James Skehill’s save from Colin Fennelly was a great stop. Shefflin, in his brilliance, was thinking about two seconds ahead of everybody else on the field. When he got possession and the Galway defence went to bottle him up you expected him to take a couple more steps before he parted company with the ball. He got rid of it instantly though. He passed almost blind across the body of a Galway corner back and found Fennelly. It took everybody off guard, including Fennelly I imagine. He didn’t hit it as sweetly as he wanted but those ones can be harder to save sometimes.[/font]
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WARRIOR[/font]
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Iarla Tannian must be closing in on the Hurler of the Year award. Nobody did more than he did to set the tone for the Leinster final in the first quarter of that game, and on Sunday he was a warrior again when Galway needed him to be. Again, midfield was a sign of how Galway got to play a lot of the game on their terms. The match-ups suited them.
Kilkenny put Richie Hogan out there and there was a lot of logic to that move. They hoped he’d help with the Damien Hayes situation and they knew that on his day Hogan could be more creative than any other player on the field in that sort of a warzone. Hayes was too big of a distraction though. Kilkenny hoped Hogan would offer the best of both worlds, helping to shut Hayes down and being creative himself.[/font]
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I think the lesson with Hayes is that you are better off doing what Cork did in the semi-final: put a man on him to track him to the death. Leave the others to get on with playing.[/font]
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As for Hayes himself there’s a great lesson for Galway and for coaches in the way he plays. Galway have pace everywhere and they are good at taking the ball at speed into the contact. A lot of time they make it to the clear ground past the opposing player. Maybe that’s a policy and they are happy with the percentages. Sometimes, though, you’d like to see them anticipate the contact and feign a striking motion. The opposing players are on a hair trigger and will always commit themselves then. The Galway player just needs to step back and lay the ball off. Hayes does that very well. I love seeing skills like that evolve.[/font]
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Galway will have no fears for the next three weeks. Well, fewer fears anyway. They’ve defied Kilkenny twice in championship hurling this summer. People told them they couldn’t hope to do that once.[/font]
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They aren’t the perfect team and you’d worry about their bench. None of the substitutions for either side had much impact on Sunday and it was a hard game for fellas to be going into late on. Galway though don’t have the sort of bench that takes the gamble out of changes. Anthony Cunningham hasn’t put a foot wrong this year so his decisions as regards the panel have to be respected but you wonder if, when he looks behind him on a big day, would he not like to have a Ger Farragher or bursting to come in? Or would the experience of Niall Healy, who was a surprise inclusion in their 26-man squad on the day, have made a difference in that frantic finale?[/font]
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It’s a gift in bad times that we have another weekend of celebration to look forward to. There’ll be purists who’ll moan about Sunday’s game but for me this was a great and honest battle, brilliant entertainment that reminded us of how great hurling can be.[/font]
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A PERFECT POEM[/font]
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The weekend before last I spent what felt like a month in Lansdowne Road watching the American football game between Notre Dame and Navy. Three and a half hours and there was hardly a moment that was spontaneous. It was all specialists doing their stuff. Comparing the gridiron to the hurling is like comparing a computer programme to a perfect poem.[/font]
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Great to see that the GAA have cut prices. Times are hard and GAA followers have been faithful. A replay is bonus territory income-wise. And we need to get out and promote the game. Last Sunday was a celebration of the greatest game in the world. In the run-up, outside of the two counties involved, the atmosphere was flat and players’ and managers’ media exposure was limited.
[font=Verdana]The game needs heroes. It needs faces that kids can recognise and stories that they can latch on to. We are in a battle with other sports. We need to shake loose our suspicions of the media, turn them on their heads and use them to our advantage. We need to get out there and make this the occasion it should be - a chance to rejoice about something so great in our culture…[/font]
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908

Typical Galway bullshit. Excuses and whinging.

They were 7 points up at one stage and needed the ref to buy them a draw…

Cunts, one and all.

909

Welcome aboard… AFR’s own serial Galway hater. Good to see you haven’t changed mate.

Ref’s buying draws… what an accusation against such a noble group of fellow GAA men… who you always keep so close to your bosom?.

910

AR shoots from the hip :guns: :guns: :guns:

911

:clap: :clap: :clap:

912

I don’t hate Galway, I hate the bullshit excuses… Canning is an absolute hurling master and may someday be classes as a legend, this shit should be below him…

I’m a lover not a hater, think I’ll go sign out in the closet thread now…

913

You have to hand it to Galway, they have Kilkenny rattled more than anyone has managed in the guts of 10 years or so. Seems like Cunningham sent Joe out to yank their chains a wee bit further. More I think about it the more I like it.

914

Would you ever fuck off you cunt.
Henry Shefflin while the best hurler of his generation at the very least, is an utter bollox and the way he is going is becomming a disgrace to the game. His vindictive demeaner on the field and his incessant dictating to referees at every opportunity in an underhand attempt to influence decisions is absolutely disgusting.

Id say you are the type of cunt who is actually a referee in real life so that makes you look even more stupid. How would you deal with a scumbag who ran 30 yards to scream in your ear in an attempt to influence you.
What if he waved his arms in front of you as he jumped up and down like a cross between a spoilt child and a fucking imbecile? What would you do ‘An Reiteoir’?

If you were a cowardly cunt who only refs for the power trip and the power trip alone then you would do nothing, which is what my guess would be.

Shefflin is to be admired for his talent and his sheer bloodymindedness on the pitch, but he takes it too far. He gets away with it because the GAA and the media need a hero. But he is fast becomming the worst possible role model for children taking up the game.

Further proof here that Galway have no fear of KK, they dont give a shit about them, about Cody or Shefflin. In fact they are laughing thier holes off at them by the looks of it.

915

Anyway, its about time things livened up a bit.

The build up to the final was as low key as ever. No harm to put a bit of a sting in things.

http://saptstrength.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/stir-the-pot.jpg

916

Gets away with it? Would you ever go fuck… The stark reality of the situation is that jealous Cunts like you are more intent on dragging Kk down to your level rather than raising your own standards.

Galways attempt to make hurling more like Gaelic is an abomination and Kk are actually at the vanguard of the resistance to a bastardisation of the game…

As for refereeing, What the fuck would you know about pressurised decision making, the most important decision you probably have to make each day is which cock to suck next…

917

GAA players are not “role models”.

918

Wasn’t there meant to be an All-Ireland footbal final on this weekend, may have got my dates wrong as there’s not a mention of it in the papers.

Also Joe has been retrospectively banned from AFR for suggesting Barry Kelly would award “very easy frees” to any side.

919

Next weekend. Under 21s and camogie this weekend

920

2 Gems :clap: :clap: