How many sessions do the lads do a week under Davy? In fairness, if its more then two a week it seems extreme.
Wait, the Waterford lads will try and shift Davy, the Clare lads will try to shift Mike Mac and everybody in this country will either ignore it like they did with Justin and Connors or blame Cork. 
Mike Mac wonât be shifted in the middle of the season, Tony Considine lasted a full season when things were a lot worseâŚDespite all the talk from the fair weather fans, there are no hurling people in clare calling for his head, in saying that he will struggle to keep his job next year all the same
[quote=âThe Pukeâ]6 weeks is the norm I believe in terms of recovery time/feeling the benefit of hard/phyisal training*âŚ
*[SIZE=â1â]either that or colm honan hasnât a clue[/SIZE][/quote]
They wonât get that off fitzy. Youâll know that yourself from any of the Lit fitzgibbon lads. Iâd actually feel that 3-4 weeks is the maximum theyâd need for energy levels to replenish but Davy will cut it tighter than that I would say. Still doesnât explain why the waterford lads are bitching at this time of year.
I dunno, considering they will have 8 or 9 weeks from th end of the league til the championship you would think that from the first week in may it would be all short ball work sessions
Iâd agree with you but it wouldnât be fitzyâs routine at all. Iâd actually think itâs a massive shock to the system for some of the waterford lads considering the contrast in styles theyâve had to deal with. Thatâs ok for young lads that have nothing won and are hungry as fuck. For the likes of these lads though, with three munster championships under their belts itâs a different story. Itâs possible that Davy is struggling to convert the masses. Compared to the swash-buckling hurling they played under Justin Iâd say theyâre feeling very dead in their legs when theyâre hurling these days, much less enjoyable. They demanded this change though, and itâs up to them to buy into it. If they act the cunt with fitzy theyâll only confirm the place in history a lot of people have designated them already.
thats the thing tho. it was the senior players who felt they hadnt enough hard training done at this stage last year under Justin. Now they think they have too much done.
[quote=âWatch The Breakâ][/quote]
Re Pat Dalys comments put up by WTB
There is nothing wrong with the league. Good teams win and shit teams get beat. Thats kinda the whole point. The 4 points super Sunday scenario has got to be a pisstake.
One thing I might change would be to have the losers of Div 2 final in a promotion play off against 2nd from bottom in Div 1.
That should keep a few more of the mediocre brigade of counties on their toes a bit.
[quote=âLazarusâ]Re Pat Dalys comments put up by WTB
There is nothing wrong with the league. Good teams win and shit teams get beat. Thats kinda the whole point. The 4 points super Sunday scenario has got to be a pisstake.
One thing I might change would be to have the losers of Div 2 final in a promotion play off against 2nd from bottom in Div 1.
That should keep a few more of the mediocre brigade of counties on their toes a bit.[/quote]
I said it here last year that the proper job for the league would be to have 7 teams in division 1 and 7 in division twoâŚ
So for arguements sake next years league would look like:
divsion 1
kilkenny
tipp
galway
dublin
limerick
cork
offaly
division 2
waterford
clare
wexford
antrim
laois
carlow
down
each team gets 6 group games and a bye weekend as wellâŚtop 4 go into semi finals, bottom 2 automatically relegatedâŚdivision 2 finalist promoted
I agree completely. The senior players have to take the responsibility for the situation theyâve created. As per Justin the bad feeling had been building up since the end of 2006 as I understand it, and they really had lost faith in him by the end of 2007. So whether it was the man or the methods that they had lost faith in is the issue really, because davyâs methods would be in a different world altogether.
[quote=âThe Pukeâ]6 weeks is the norm I believe in terms of recovery time/feeling the benefit of hard/phyisal training*âŚ
*[SIZE=â1â]either that or colm honan hasnât a clue[/SIZE][/quote]
That can totally depend on the age profile of the team etc Puke. Training age needs to be taken into consideration. Waterford being quite old i would think Davy is taking this into consideration. Getting the balance right is what its all about.
With a team like Clonlara i would shorten that expectation of fatige, as ye were young. But with an amatuer sport there is really no hard and fast rule as there are so many more varibles than with a Pro team.
Iâve seen really top class coaches and trainers get it wrong from time to time. Sometimes with a hurling or football team there is nothing the coach can do, a guys life can change and it can have a knock on affect for the whole team, good or bad, but usually bad.
[quote=âLazarusâ]
One thing I might change would be to have the losers of Div 2 final in a promotion play off against 2nd from bottom in Div 1.
That should keep a few more of the mediocre brigade of counties on their toes a bit.[/quote]
Perhaps. I donât think you can change the reality that managers use the league to experiment no matter what you do to the structure though. The league is very much a secondary competition, and in fact it is probably the 4th most important piece of silverware in inter-county hurling. The fact that the gaa use it for ârules experimentationâ only emphasises this.
Beyond that then you really need to make sure that it can be used to maintain as many teams playing top level hurling as possible. I donât really think that a Clare or an Offaly in division two is going to make any difference to the standard of hurling in carlow. Improvement for teams at that level comes through the underage ranks as Dublin have demonstrated. If playing in division two hurts offaly and wexford hurling then perhaps that is a good enough reason to change the current system.
At the end of the day however, the problem with hurling remains that not enough teams are competitive at it, and gulfs in class are demonstrated to a much harsher degree on the scoreboard than they are in football. Unless the Dublin hurling model is replicated elsewhere, all the re-structuring in the world wonât do any good. And all the fancy stadiums they can build wonât do that for them.
[SIZE=â3â]Referees in favour of new rules[/SIZE]
GAVIN CUMMISKEY
NEWS ROUND-UP : WITH COUNTY boards increasingly appearing to mandate delegates to reject the new yellow-card rules at next weeks GAA congress in Cork echoing the stance adopted by Brian Cody, Mickey Harte and most high-profile intercounty managers support came yesterday from referees.
Referees would be very sad to see them go, said referee chief PJ McGrath yesterday. We had a meeting in Athlone last week and all of our top referees were there. There were 120 present and they voted unanimously in favour of the rules. They would like to see them passed.
McGrath, still remembered for adjudicating the 1982 All-Ireland football final when Offaly and Samus Darby shocked Kerry, refused to accept growing media speculation that a two-thirds majority now seems unlikely.
I think there is still a good bit of support for them and I think when the time comes to vote they could go through.
There are passages in the game now that last up to four and a half minutes there was nothing like that in the two previous years, nothing went beyond two minutes.
On several occasions we have seen fellas putting their hands out and then withdrawing the hands immediately because they know they could commit a yellow-card offence.
In a rare opportunity to gauge the referees opinion, at yesterdays Vodafone awards ceremony in Dublin, when Maurice Deegan from Laois was named football referee for 2008 while Westmeaths Barry Kelly picked up the hurling accolade, McGrath also shed light on two other issues.
What about introducing a citing commissioner like in rugby union? I wouldnt see anything wrong with it. I think it would work well as long as the person was unbiased and couldnt care less who wins and who loses.
Okay, what about Hartes assertion that referee Brian Crowe was black-balled for refusing to upgrade Noel OLearys yellow card to red after video evidence showed him striking Graham Geraghty in 2007?
No, there was nothing like that because I have been on the appointments committee for the past three years. Brian Crowe was off for one reason or another, but it wasnt that reason. There was a while when he wouldnt have been as fit as he would have wanted, he wanted a rest. Hes back now.
Deegan also firmly backed the new playing rules, when a player is sent off for a yellow card but can be replaced, noting it made life easier for the man in the middle.
However, the same sanctions in hurling provoked a slight deviation from the party line.
That is the mistake that is sometimes made, said Kelly. They are under the same association but they are very different games. Hurling-wise I havent found any great difficulty. Referees at all levels maybe have been guilty of not implementing the rules, whether they be new rules or old rules. Thats something we need to look at.
What about allowing common sense to dictate a refereeing decision, when cynical actions are clearly not evident?
They are two words we are always told never to apply at various seminars throughout he year common sense doesnt come into it. It is like anything else. Like a lad driving home with a few drinks in him. Common sense tells the guard if he is 50 yards from his house he is unlikely to cause an accident. From our point of view it has to be black or white. Judgment is important, maybe thats a euphemism for common sense in a way. You must use your own judgment.
Regarding Tuesday nights club delegate vote in Kilkenny GAA president Nickey Brennan said: Ironically, last night the Kilkenny County Board was split down the middle, 23 for them and 23 against so we will call that an honourable draw between myself and Brian Cody and I suppose getting a draw with Brian Cody in this day and age is a big thing.
Cork vs Armagh
Alan Quirke
Ray Carey Noel OâDonovan Anthony Lynch
Noel OâLeary Graham Canty Micheal Shields
Alan OâConnor Nicholas Murphy
Paul OâFlynn Paul Kerrigan Patrick Kelly
James Masters Donnacha OâConnor Daniel Goulding
Replace Pa Kelly and Alan OâConnor with Pearse OâNeill and Cussen and I would be very happy with that team come championship.
[quote=âTurenneâ]Cork vs Armagh
Replace Pa Kelly and Alan OâConnor with Pearse OâNeill and Cussen and I would be very happy with that team come championship.[/quote]
Would you expect Cork to beat Armagh in this game Turenne? Have either team anything to play for?
Iâm guessing the team that wins will be almost certainly guaranteed promotion, plus they are probably the two biggest counties in the division so they should want to properly test each other.
Iâd guess they are two pretty equal teams, but Cork have home advantage and their best team out yet in the league so I think they might win by a couple of points.
What games are on TV over the weelend?
[quote=âTurenneâ]Cork vs Armagh
Replace Pa Kelly and Alan OâConnor with Pearse OâNeill and Cussen and I would be very happy with that team come championship.[/quote]
I donât like the overall balance. Goulding and Masters as the 2 corner forwards could be a disaster. Neither are great at working hard and tracking, and both are heavily left footed. Goulding scored 7 points last week for his club Eire Og, but had 10 wides, and he was marking a 17 year old, not good shooting. If i were Armagh iâd have the corner backs attcking all day. And while i rate both Noel Oâ Donovan and Ray Carey there would be a distinct lack of experience in the full back line with the two of them.
Donât like the fact that Paul Flynn is suddenly ok to start for Cork this week, but not his club last week. He played for Cork 2 weeks ago, got a hamstring injury, missed Ballycloughs 1st round game and now all of a sudden heâs good enough to be training tuesday night and picked for Sunday. I know hamstring injuries well, and they take more than 10 days to heal.
Alan Oâ Connor has improved, but i just canât see us beating a top notch team with him in the 15 come championship.
I think Cussen could be in trouble. The full forward thing hasnât worked out and i donât know is he mobile enough for Inter-County midfield.
[quote=âcaoimhaoinâ]
I think Cussen could be in trouble. The full forward thing hasnât worked out and i donât know is he mobile enough for Inter-County midfield.[/quote]
Thatâs cos ye are using him badly.
Last year I was watching a Cork match[might have been the Kerry semi first day out] and the only person to kick a decent ball into the full forward that day was, ironically enough, Cussen.
Some of the kicking by the Cork lads into the full forward line has been cruel the last couple of years.
[quote=âcluaindiuicâ]Thatâs cos ye are using him badly.
Last year I was watching a Cork match[might have been the Kerry semi first day out] and the only person to kick a decent ball into the full forward that day was, ironically enough, Cussen.
Some of the kicking by the Cork lads into the full forward line has been cruel the last couple of years.[/quote]
Oh i agree, but Cork generally are better with the low ball into a roving Oâ Connor. Our best football is when we play this way, because of the players we have. Just because we have Cussen doesnât mean we should change our whole game plan. When he is in there the lads seem to be confused, and on top of that some of them donât have the ability to kick the ball across the full forward as opposed to lobbing it in. Any big full forward will tell you he prefers the ball coming at an angle. Kerry are brilliant at it. The likes of Noel Oâ Leary isnât going to be able to adjust his game to the level required at this stage of his career.
I see Cussen as a midfielder, who is a very good passer, as a guy to bring in with 15-20 mins left. I played in the half forwards against him in football and he is impossible to win breaks off. He kinda keeps the ball in the air even if he doesnât win it clean, thus getting a 2nd chance and still being way above everyone else. He has probably learned it from everyone trying to break balls from him all his life.
Derry beating Donegal now, which is bad news for the Jacks 
Galway get dished a dose of reality again from Kerry.History repeats itself, Kerry Derry final for 2nd year in a row with Galway losing out on final day on points difference