Exactly.
Youāll have periods of greatness, averageness & below par players.
The tournament canāt take a year off because the panellist arenāt Tony Kelly standard.
I donāt like being negative and Iām often accused of being overly positive about other stuff on here but the evidence on this is indisputable and has been building for a few years now.
Itās filtering into the Senior stuff properly now this year too. Like I watched some bits of the National Hurling league last weekend and there were guys who couldnāt even rise the ball when hitting frees and failing to get the distance from frees 25 yards out. Really awful stuff.
Very good points. But, sorry, am having a bit of brain fadeā¦ Who is Fitzgerald?
Is it Mark Fitzgerald from Waterford?
Has he played League this year?
Was thinking him ā but just not sure.
Mark Fitzgerald. Passage. Came on vs Laois last weekend. Best player on the pitch in Tipp/Waterford under 20 last summer.
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Yes. A super talent, as was discussed here that evening. Potentially a Rolls Royce hurler.
While you are thereā¦ Where is Eoghan Connolly (CKC) in college?
Heās not in college afaik. Doing a trade.
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Blocks with Mickey? Is Bourke ( RDK ) employing them all now?
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He was in LIT/TUS and few years back. He carried them to a fresher final but has dropped out since.
Heāll probably end up in IT Carlow yet.
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Iād imagine Connolly will be a decent club hurler as was his Dad. Thatās about it.
Not sure exactly, heās prob better off doing that than spending 6 years in LIT anyway.
Decent is a bit of an understatement
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He was a very good club player.
Iām going to say that that the winning WIT Fitzgibbon team from 2014 had 5 players who played Championship that year (one of those played outfield for Fitz but in goal in Championship).
UL will have 4 for sure (Rodgers, Kiely, Brennan & Galvin). Iām not really sure about Darragh Corcoran, Gearoid OāConnor & Billy Power, but youād imagine they wouldnāt be too far away. And Bryan OāMara & Ciaran Connolly are anomalies really.
NUIG will probably have the same- Concannon is one of Galwayās best forwards, Niland will be their freetaker, Darren Morrissey and obviously Lynch.
Anyway, the point is moot. Clare had a great crop 2012-2014 who obviously came straight into their senior team. Limerick had a crop 2015-2017 who all came in and were starters immediately. Waterford similarly in 2015-2016. Those teams dominated at underage level.
Tipperary obviously won back-to-back All-Irelands in 2018 and maybe those players havenāt broken through yet to the extent to which Tipp people would have hoped. But, itās a slightly different example to the Clare, Limerick, Waterford ones as they had more proven players on the senior scene, won an All-Ireland in 2019 and Sheedy was obviously quite faithful to that group. So a combination of those reasons has perhaps seen a delay in those breaking through.
Cork have now won back-to-back 20s All-Irelands (and these are obviously a year younger than would have been seen at 21)- I think 3 of them have already played Championship hurling and I would guess that at least 5 of the 2020 team will see Championship gametime this year. Which is a fair number of 21/22 year-olds.
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I think theyāll both has a short peak if you know what I mean.
TJ was very good up to mid twenties and dropped off then. There physical size goes against them.
Big men like that suffer as they age in hurling. TJ was a handy Rugby player.
Thanks.
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Thanks. Was thinking I had not seen him mentioned.
Hopefully OāMara comes back in after travelling. He looked excellent this year in the Fitz. Pity his year last year was halted due to injury as he looked good in the league. I know Bonnar wonāt hold travelling against him. I also like the look of Morgan this year. Two good additions to the back line. Thoughts of Quigley full back?
our U-8s have 40
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