Ah jaysus, I donât think Paudie OâBrien has ever reached a level where heâd have to step down. Shur heâs still only 33 at the moment.
Steve McDonagh must not have been far off 40 when he won a senior county in 2006.
What a man.
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Was away this evening, decent start for Bruff, 2 points on the board.
Cappamore put young Whelan on the edge of the square apparently, interesting move. Their attack doesnât actually look bad on paper, maybe Iâll have to revise my relegation tip for them, I would have said they lacked a bit of firepower.
Me too.
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Gotta credit Bog again for throwing up programmes from matches heâs at.
Apparently young Meany started instead of young Riordan for Bruff.
Scorers as per Bruff/the Leader:
Bruff 2-16
Josh Keating 1-7 (0-6 frees)
David Browne 1-1
Paul Browne 0-2
Chris Browne 0-2
Danny OâLeary 0-2 (0-2 sidelines)
Bobby OâBrien 0-1
Darragh Butler 0-1
Cappamore 1-15
Liam OâDonnell 0-7 (0-6 frees, 0-1 â65)
SeĂĄn Whelan 0-4
Joe Lonergan 0-3
PJ Hogan 1-0
Tommy OâDonoghue 0-1
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It was briefly discussed at one of the county board meetings last year, even though I donât think a motion was put forward by any club. There was definitely no vote taken on it.
Tbf, picks for the PIHC could be revised weekly. An absolute bearpit. This level alone has justified the structure change years ago. Always goes to the wire.
It will be interesting to see how much NaP are affected by players being taken by the first team. Hopefully it doesnât impact too much for the sake of the competition.
Massive bugbear of mine that the clubs wouldnât at minimum throw a picture of the program up on twitter
11 in the backroom team for Bruff 
Bizarre
Is that the Cork Jerry OâConnor with Bruff?
What were the Clare graphics like 5 All Irelands ago?
Actually, that was the last one
That one means domhnall OâDonovan has it, weâre fucked, donât shooo⌠great score domhnall
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Yep⌠one of the twins
Heâs been with them for a couple of years now.
Tom Ryan: Limerickâs advantage is just too big - thereâs no stopping their success
Away from the madness of the carnival that rightfully greeted their moment of history, I found the true value of what last weekend meant in relative and respectful silence.
On Tuesday evening, I attended the monthâs mind mass of my neighbour and friend John OâGrady, a former All-Ireland final referee and Limerick hurling to his core, with the mass celebrated by Bishop John Noonan, another Limerick man who togs out for a force even superior to John Kielyâs in Florida.
There is something about those quiet moments, when surrounded by your own, that allows the magnitude of what has been achieved and the awareness of how it would have touched the lives of those now departed that provides a powerful sense of pride.
Everyone gets to celebrate in their own way, but I wouldnât swap my moment of reflection for anything else.
But as well as quiet pride, I also have a genuine concern at what Limerickâs obliteration of Kilkenny means for the wider game.
There are some of my own who took umbrage last week with my line that professionals playing amateurs is not a match-up which should ever take place in the GAA. It was not, as I pointed out, meant as a slight on the Limerick players or management. As I have said time and again, they represent the very best of what our game is about, players whose supreme level of talent is matched only by their commitment.
Neither is it a slight on JP McManus. His support of the team and of the county is evidence of a man who, for all his worth, understands that there are few more precious values than having pride of home and place.
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The problem is that when you put all that together, no one else comes near, nor will be able to.
A lot of the talk in early summer was how Limerick had been reeled in by Munsterâs pack, forced to the line by Waterford and Cork, drawing with Tipperary and losing to Clare in the group stages.
It left them going into that final round game against the Rebels needing to win and had they not won that by a one-point margin, they would not even have been in the All-Ireland series they ended up dominating.
Now, it is that evidence that will be dredged up to suggest that hurling, in terms of being a competitive entity, retains a healthy pulse. I beg to differ.
When this championship was stripped back to sudden death, Limerick were in a different class.
Even in that clutch final-round game against Cork, they always looked like winning and were six points the better team. If people really want to know the distance between Limerick and the rest, then just check out their complete dominance of Leinsterâs big two, Galway and Kilkenny, in Croke Park.
Those of a snobbish disposition in Munster hurling - and we are not short of that breed - who will argue that Limerick would not have done the same to a team from their own province are fooling themselves.
Limerick have reached the stage where they can taper their season to ensure that when they need to press the turbo-charge at the end of the season, it is there for them to hit.
On top of that, they are primed to explode in Croke Park for the same reason that the Dublin footballers were pretty much unbeatable there in their Jim Gavin pomp.
Itâs the perfect pitch for them the bigger, the stronger, the faster you are, the more it suits.
And when you add in the fact you have the better players, then what happened to Kilkenny in the second half would have happened to everyone else as well. The difference with Dublin, and it is not an insignificant one, is that Limerick have sourced their advantage from private money, rather than having it gifted to them from the GAAâs central funds at the expense of everyone else.
But no matter where the money comes from, the bottom line does not change in that it provides an advantage others simply canât afford.
Look around the rest of Munster and that disparity is there to be seen.
Clare are only emerging from a period of financial trauma, while Waterford might be about to enter one given the financial commitment involved in redeveloping Walsh Park.
And if someone tells me one more time that Cork are building fast, I will merely point out that we have been told that for the last 10 years and that the house would nearly want to be built at this stage.
Of course, the physical one has been and the debt accrued in developing PĂĄirc UĂ Chaoimh inevitably means they will not get close to providing the level of professional supports which Limerick enjoy.
And all that means is that when the final whistle blows this time next year, nothing will have changed.
Tom Ryanâs All-Star team
Nickie Quaid (Limerick),
Mikey Butler (Kilkenny), Huw Lawlor (Kilkenny), Barry Nash (Limerick),
Diarmaid Byrnes (Limerick), John Conlon (Clare), Kyle Hayes (Limerick),
Darragh OâDonovan (Limerick), William OâDonoghue (Limerick),
Tom Morrissey (Limerick), Tony Kelly (Clare). Shane OâDonnell (Clare),
Eoin Cody (Kilkenny) Aaron Gillane (Limerick), Conor Whelan (Galway).
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Thatâs a cracking article by Tom Ryan.
Limerick are very similar to Man City in soccer.
Itâs very difficult for anybody to compete with them.
Only 7 all stars from the team that dominated by Tom
He was hurling Junior. The club was not able to put in a third adult team this year.
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Whatâs the population of Ballyhale Shamrocks parish? Iâm slightly surprised at them not having a 3rd team when you see comparable rural areas from neighbouring counties having third teams. Oulart the Ballagh, Rathnure, St Mullins, Myshall etc.
No Junior specials team?
He was vice-captain in 2018 wasnât he? Before the injury. He was one of the first up to lift the cup iirc. He also may have hung on around the panel for 2019 but saw little or no gametime.