Official 2012 All Ireland Hurling Championship Thread

Sport
1

[font=arial][size=3]Action begins this Saturday in the Leinster Championship with Westmeath facing Antrim and Carlow taking on Laois.[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Full Fixtures List:[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Leinster Hurling Championship[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Preliminary Rounds[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]May 19th[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Westmeath vs Antrim - Mullingar, 3pm[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Carlow vs Laois - Carlow, 7pm[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Quarter-Finals[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]June 2nd[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Laois/Carlow vs Dublin - Tullamore, 5pm[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Offaly vs Wexford - Tullamore, 7pm, RTE[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]June 3rd[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Galway vs Westmeath/Antrim - 3.30pm, TBC[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Semi-Finals[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]June 17th[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Galway/Westmeath/Antrim vs Offaly/Wexford - Portlaoise, 5pm, RTE[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]June 23rd[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Dublin/Laois/Carlow vs Kilkenny - Portlaoise, 5pm, RTE[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Final[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]July 8th[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Croke Park, 4pm, RTE[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Munster Hurling Championship[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Quarter-Final[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]May 27th[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Tipperary vs Limerick - Thurles, 4pm, RTE[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Semi-Finals[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]June 17th [/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Clare vs Waterford - Thurles, 4pm, RTE[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]June 24th[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Cork vs Limerick/Tipperary, TBC, 4pm, RTE[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Final[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]July 15th[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]TBC, 4pm, RTE[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Qualifiers and Final Rounds[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Qualifiers -Phase I - June 30th[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Qualifiers - Phase II - July 7th[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Qualifiers - Phase III - July 14th[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Quarter-Finals - July 28th or 29th [/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Semi-Finals - August 12th and August 19th [/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]All-Ireland Final 2012 - September 9th[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Betting[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Leinster[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Kilkenny - 4/9[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Galway - 7/2[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Dublin - 6/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Offaly - 33/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Wexford - 66/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Antrim - 150/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Laois - 1000/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Westmeath - 1000/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Carlow - 2500/1[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Munster[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Tipperary - 6/5[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Cork - 9/4[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Waterford - 13/2[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Clare - 13/2[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Limerick - 20/1[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]All-Ireland[/size][/font]

[font=arial][size=3]Kilkenny - 4/5[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Tipperary - 3/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Cork - 9/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Galway - 14/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Dublin 14/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Waterford - 25/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Clare -33/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Limerick - 40/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Offaly - 150/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Wexford - 225/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Antrim - 500/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Carlow - 1000/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Laois - 1000/1[/size][/font]
[font=arial][size=3]Westmeath - 1000/1[/size][/font]

2

MBB might be able to confirm but I’ve heard Laois are at an all time low ebb with barely enough turning up to fill a training session. Carlow expected to push them very close and worth a few quid at 13/8 with b365.

3

Not at all. Played challenge in Tullamore last weekend against someone like Westmeath, won and cheered on the minors then to victory and were seen en masse congratulating their young cohorts on the field afterwards. Missing a few big players through injury though and Carlow are not to be sniffed at for a county like ourselves. Dont always believe or listen to know nothing cunts like Jackie Cahill on the excellent leinster.gaatv. We may not win but atmosphere isnt so much of an issue as other years, ie pre Rigney.

4

Limerick to win Munster at 20/1 is outstanding value going by the contributions of the Limerick posters on here

5

dont see much value there to be honest, if you were on Clare in the munster final (were they to beat waterford) @ 13/2 and Honan and Jim Mc were back fit it would be a nice bet but small money

i see waterford didnt make the mistake of playing us in limerick

6

I just hope it’s an entertaining championship. Been all too predictable recently.

7

+1

Let’s see if the gee bags put their money where there mouth is.

8

Maurice Shanahan and Eoin Kelly out injured as well for the Clare match?

9

I would pile onto Clare.

10

Who’s likely to be Waterford’s free-taker now? Gavin O’Brien?

11

Martin O’Neill

12

What the fuck will their forwards look like now, O’Neill, O’Brien and Mullane inside…? Who in the half-forward line?

13

Moran Prendergast and Eoin McGrath will be the half forwards. See my comments above re backing Clare.

14

Ah jaysus. :lol:

15

Didn’t know he was likely to start.

16

He is now.

17

I hope we get a classic at some stage this year anyway. Dublin-Tipp and Limerick-Waterford were the only stand out games we got last year and they weren’t all that great either. Waterford going into decline has been bad for the championship.

18

It is being rumoured that Shane O’Sullivan may quit the Waterford panel and go travelling this summer. He would be a loss

19

2008 all over again. Clare by 9 or 10.

20

Contact law; Being in possession is not a great advantage anymore, especially against Kilkenny[font=Verdana][size=3]
Eamon De Valera was at a function for Rockwell College Old Boys when he famously said that hurling and rugby were the games best suited to the Irish temperament. It was a dinner table comment not intended for general consumption but it reached the pages of The Irish Times and generated quite a fuss at the time. In the days of the GAA’s ban on foreign games it was a niche opinion for an Irish statesman to hold but liberal nonetheless. By comparison, Barack Obama has enjoyed a handy week.[/size][/font]
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All such inhibitions dissolved over time. GAA teams have been importing ideas and influences from other sports for years to the point where an element of cross-pollination became the norm. It was reported as a novelty when Clare’s hurlers concocted training drills with rugby tackling bags in the mid-90s but nothing you might hear about the conduct of inter-county training would surprise you now.[/size][/font]
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Hurling and rugby have always shared some common ground: both have always promoted the warrior mentality and placed a high premium on physical courage. It used be said that there was a place on a rugby field for players of all shapes and sizes and that used to be true of hurling too, even at inter-county level. Now? That is a quaint notion.[/size][/font]
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In rugby’s professional era the terms of engagement have been determined by physical power above all and in the Brian Cody era that is where Kilkenny have taken inter-county hurling. If hurling was a non-contact sport Kilkenny would still be the greatest team of all time but given that the opposite applies Kilkenny have colonised the contact zone as the source of their power. From that dominance everything else flows.[/size][/font]
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It presents a huge challenge for every team regards themselves as rivals. If you march into a tackle against Kilkenny you’re putting the ball at immediate risk. It doesn’t matter that the ball is in your hand: in the modern inter-county game, and particularly against Kilkenny, possession is not nine- tenths of the law. It’s like walking into a stadium turnstile; it looks like you should flick through but if nobody steps on the pedal you’re trapped.[/size][/font]
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In their execution of swarm tackling Kilkenny have reached Tyrone’s level of deadly virtuosity. There was a perfect example early in last Sunday’s League final when Eoin Cadogan ran into an ambush 30 metres from the Cork goal. Given his footballer’s instincts he was happy to take on the tackle but couldn’t burst through.[/size][/font]
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He was fouled first by TJ Reid and then by Paddy Hogan; no whistle. Carry on. Was the referee playing an advantage? What advantage precisely? Cadogan turned back, harassed, and offloaded to Stephen McDonnell; by now, having the ball was no longer an asset but as McDonnell tried to dispose of the negative equity he was hooked.[/size][/font]
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Cadogan picked up the break and tried to make ground again. Fouled again. Reid, again. Carry on. Eventually he made a successful handpass and the ball was cleared but not before he was put to his wit’s end. At no time in that sequence, though, was it certain that the ball would be cleared.[/size][/font]
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Why was no free given? Because the contact zone in Kilkenny matches is now like the breakdown in rugby. You expect that there will be infringements but you don’t necessarily expect a whistle and it’s not necessarily an advantage to have the ball going in. Against Kilkenny’s swarm tackling hurling referees have adopted the rugby directive of “use it or lose it”.[/size][/font]
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James McGrath’s performance last Sunday undermines, yet again, Cody’s assertion that the “physicality” is being taken out of hurling. Nothing could be more at odds with the plain reality. Last Sunday McGrath chose not to whistle for in excess of 30 fouls on a ratio of about 2:1 in Kilkenny’s favour. If referees were living in dread of the assessor in the stand, as Cody has suggested, then McGrath skilfully masked his anxiety.[/size][/font]
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McGrath’s performance was typical of inter-county hurling referees at the moment: protection for the player in possession is minimal, application of the rules is selective beyond reason. On both counts Kilkenny don’t mind: they don’t play for frees and they don’t need them.[/size][/font]
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Former GAA president Christy Cooney appointed Brian Cody to a standing committee on playing rules which has met on a handful of occasions without bringing forward any recommendations so far. Why would Cody want any changes? With rare exception Kilkenny games are being policed in the laissez faire tone that Cody wants. On that front he has been unchallenged.[/size][/font]
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Kilkenny’s movement and use of the ball was devastating in spells last Sunday but what really defines them is how they behave when they don’t have the ball. Going back to the 2006 All-Ireland final, when Kilkenny slaughtered Cork on turnovers, Kilkenny’s facility to take the ball off their opponents has been peerless.[/size][/font]
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Cork took the ball into contact far too much last Sunday, much like Dublin in the Leinster final last summer. At this stage of their development Dublin have more players with serious upper body strength but you’re simply not going to beat Kilkenny for power. You need that facility in order to compete but it is not a place to take the battle and hope to win.[/size][/font]
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There was an extraordinary scene late in the game last Sunday when Richie Hogan pinned Cadogan to the ground in a wrestling manoeuvre, right in front of Cody, animated at ringside. When Hogan came on to the panel as a teenager he had the classic profile of a sniping finisher: neither tall nor bulky but gifted and quick. Now? He’s just like the other marines in black and amber, fighting with all his might for Cody and county. Still brilliant but not just brilliant any longer.[/size][/font]
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Cork were outclassed and overpowered and, to a certain extent, Kilkenny paid them the compliment of approaching the game on a quasi-championship footing. When these teams met in the group stage of the League two months ago Kilkenny didn’t flood the landing areas under puck-outs nearly as much as they did in the final. Last Sunday, normal service resumed. In the opening four minutes three of Cork’s puck-outs were picked off by Kilkenny wing-forwards on screening duty inside their own 65. Cork targeted an astonishing 23 puck-outs at Pa Cronin but Brian Hogan, his direct opponent, only contested one of those puck-outs in the opening half an hour and less than a handful altogether. In their system the half-back line is protected at all costs and the contracted area between the full-back line and half-back line is like the air space above the Pentagon: a no-fly zone.[/size][/font]
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When Cronin moved out of the centre for puck-outs he became somebody else’s responsibility and when he drifted onto a lot of loose ball around centre field in the final quarter neither Hogan nor Kilkenny were concerned; John Mullane did something similar in the All-Ireland semi-final last August when he picked off a succession of late points as a deep-lying centre forward when the contest was over.[/size][/font]
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Contrast that with Conor Lehane’s experience in the closing minutes when he had a goal on his mind. He won a hard ball in the corner but as soon as he gathered possession he was tackled by Kieran Joyce, Paul Murphy, Hogan and Tommy Walsh in quick succession. When Lehane finally cracked he coughed up possession to Richie Doyle by which time all his progress had been lateral and difficult.[/size][/font]
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There were only two minutes left and the game had been over for nearly an hour but Kilkenny’s ruthlessness in these matters is not a slave to the clock or the calendar. Cork will learn and get better. Kilkenny? The usual.[/size][/font]