Nostalgia is a pointless pursuit.
Enjoy the game thatâs in front of you⌠because itâs fucking enjoyable
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Nostalgia is hardwired into all of us pal.
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Itâs also amusing to see the whole âmy team is going well, this is the best time everâ slant.
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Itâs easy say the old games were great when youâre only really going to watch the all time classics or your own team. There was an awful lot of shite served up in the qualifiers from 2003-2012 for example, loads of bad games in All Ireland semis over the same period. At least now it looks like all the teams have nearly converged on the physical preparation side of things and hurling is doing the talking again.
Both Kilkenny and Limerick had a significant physical advantage for most of their dominant stretches and made for a poor spectacle
It used to be better.
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Itâs not the warrior game any more.
The 15 on 15 had more individual battles so probably less predictable than todayâs game which is very stats based. The skill level these days is alot way ahead (most skills). Some skills have been lost along the way⌠You had 3 Galway minors staring at a sliotar in the Clare box yesterday and was asking for a first time pull into the net but they went to pick it 
Then there are the fellas that get lost in stats⌠At the end of day it was alway and will always continue to be about the ability to win ball dirty or clean.
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Hurling I think is mainly supposed to be art rather than science. Thereâs too much focus on the science and not enough on the art these days.
Hurling needs two essential things for it to be rivetting. It needs to be a physical confrontation. But it also needs to have a state of flow, where a game takes on a mind of its own. This is where the artists can weave in and out through the brutality. Hurling needs warriors and artists. These are the two types of players who are the most loved.
The artists of latter day, the avant garde mavericks, are Tony Kelly, Joe Canning, Bubbles OâDwyer, Patrick Horgan etc. If you can combine an artist with a warrior, you have the full package. Thatâs why Ciaran Careyâs legend continues to endure, why Waterford 2002-2008 endure as by far the most loved team of that era, and why Austin Gleeson continues to frustrate, because people understand that he has that full package of warrior artistry, but exists in a team where he canât express it.
Tony Kelly, more than anything, is what is currently saving hurling. You KNOW when youâre in the presence of greatness that will endure.
Limerick and Kilkenny donât really have those players. Cian Lynch had the potential to be one of the great artists but has had his genius pretty much coached/injured out of him at this stage.
It would be ridiculous to say that Limerick v Kilkenny in last yearâs All-Ireland was a poor game, because it wasnât, but there was something ultimately unsatisfying about it. It was too clinical, and Kilkennyâs late flurry of points reinforced the programmed nature of players now. Why didnât they go for goals?
Helmets destroy style and they destroy the visceral nature of the classic appeal of hurling. There are no more Dan Shanahans.
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Too many shots
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It hasnt spread throughout the country and these shot fests games arent helping
Also the notion that Sunday 8 days ago was the greatest day in the hurling championship ever is pure bollocksology.
The great days are ultimately determined by narrative. The narratives last week were unsatisfying.
The best of those narratives was probably Wexfordâs survival, because there was a primal nature to it, a defiance, a stirring of the blood. Liam Og McGovernâs goal where he went through and finished off his left is the most enduring image of the day. But for Kilkenny, it was a dead rubber.
The narratives in Munster were only of relief for Limerick and Tipperary, not joy, and of a bizarre type of âalways look on the bright side of lifeâ for Cork, rather than the devastation it should have been. Dublin v Galway had no narrative, nor Antrim-Westmeath. In fact it was Carlow v Offaly which was ultimately the most satisfying game of last weekend.
Narratives make days. Thatâs why the Carey point endures and why nobody would talk about Limerick v Clare 1996 had Clare hung on to win by a point. Itâs why Galway v Tipp 2017 will endure much longer than Galway v Waterford 2017. Because Canning, after 50 minutes of rubbish, delivered his destiny in 20 minutes of hurling, and most especially through one shot.
Limerick v Cork felt at the time like it could be building up to a devastating sting in the tail, but it didnât deliver that sting.
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Is there a way we can get more counties to border Tipp?
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Anyone who went to any of the Limerick games in this yearâs Munster championship wouldnât be on here crying like a gobdaw. The Clare and Cork games in particular had absolutely everything. The Limerick v Clare games last year were the sameâŚ
Lynch has had a very bad ankle injury, probably worse than what was reported. It was a freak injury⌠trying to say the modern game has broken him to suit a long winded scutter of an âargumentâ ⌠telpis.
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Hurling has evolved into a possession game and its a poorer spectacle for it. Gaelic football too. There are far less one v one contests for possession now and i would suggest the purpose of any futurerule changes should be to increase the number of these 1 v 1 contests.
A high ball dropping into the square and Jimmy Barry Murphy and Conor Hayes awaiting its arrival and the whole of Croke Park on the edge of their seats. A low ball into the corner and Joe Deane scampers out to meet it with Tommy Walsh on his heels. A puck out landing down on Liam Dunne and John Power and hurleys breaking like kindling. I know there is a tinge of nostalgia at play here but i donât think there is enough of this stuff in the modern game. Soccer and rugby in particular change their rules as the games evolve. The GAA are unwilling or unable to do likewise.
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Few lads on here think theyâre working for gb news
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Back to the days of rucks? What the fuck have we now.
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Exactly.
Watching a clip of the MF there from 1991 would make you think that the ability of a fast ground stroke to change the direction of play quickly could be a tactic that would work if you had small nippy forwards.
Too risky I spose.
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The games are great, this year especially
The players are quite robotic and thatâs something thatâs taken from the spectacle, thereâs no room for a maverick or a little fat lad who could score goals.
My favourite team for obvious reasons were Cork 84-91 and I wonder how many of them
Lads would have played inter county if they were born 40 years later
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He isnât a patch on TK or Canning. Heâs been blown up by the Limericks in order to distract from the rubby style robots that are smashing their way through teams. He scored a point from 20 yards out off his knees in a match a few years ago and they nearly lost their minds, something most junior hurlers would manage.
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