His âWexford were fatigued due to excessive pre-season trainingâ point was very much built around the B team beating the A team 4 times before the Waterford game. But surely the whole squad would have been involved in the training and therefore been equally tired or not. Iâm seething about it. Absolutely raging.
He has a funny outlook though. I am good friends with one of the KK management/selection team for many years now. We were having coffee somewhere after the 2011 final and PM passed and stopped to chat. He basically said that theyâd redeemed themselves and bought themselves some more time after 2010.
I think most people thought their record to 2010 was enough to satisfy anyone and they didnât need redeeming.
Item: the texts remind me of the story of the girl from Golden in the Tipp jersey.
He could have made his criticism of Davy without the insults and arrogance but he canât help himself. I had some unsavoury engagements with him on the old kkcats website. Itâs all about himselfâŚand Gerry Quinn getting life.
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Will you post it up there Bando. Itâs firewalled and I canât get the Examiner over here.
Iâd imagine it was the losing to Tipp that needed redeeming.
Friday, July 28, 2017
Ducking the issue of Sundayâs performance, Davy Fitzgerald seized the underdog factor, writes PM OâSullivan.
A nother week, another round of Davy Fitzgerald-driven hoopla.
That insistent voice: âWill I get slammed for saying what I do? I do but I donât care, I donât care. I want to see change.â
Hurlingâs version of vaudeville shuffles across the stage.
For anyone back from holidaying on Planet Jupiter, let me gloss. Michael Duignan and Henry Shefflin and the inadequacies of pundits who have not been manager for a senior All-Ireland triumph⌠Messing and negativity and knocking the little fish⌠That class of a trailing cadence, ribbons of disbelief.
Cold summary: No-one is allowed to criticise Fitzgerald and his doings, not unless that someone is as brilliant and as successful as the man himself.
Ah yeah⌠Whatever your tipple.
But not the usual line to follow, mind you.
With Davy Fitzgerald, you could easily make up this stuff, dream it up 24/7 with the nonchalance of Roger Federer nailing a passing shot. The current Wexford manager possesses a funny record as regards logic.
Still and all, he remains the Ilie Nastase of smokescreens, a master of obfuscation via unpleasantness. Last Sunday, Wexford performed poor to middling for the second championship outing in a row, which is a major boo boo. What aspect stayed front and centre after Fitzgeraldâs press conference?
Dâass roight: Some supposed call Michael Duignan did not make on the telly. Here be cleverness in the losing guise of cuteness.
This figure devours oxygen, into the bargain. Everyone elseâs achievements gutter.
Item: Tipperary and Waterford made the All Ireland semi-finals for the third season on the trot (fourth season, former case). Such consistency, especially for Waterford, is considerable. This season hardly saw so much upheaval as claimed, which must count as a talking point.
Not hear that angle? Me neither. Vaudeville drives out insight.
Each championship game is a rolling audit on guiding principles. An acquaintance met a Wexford first team player last week. the same acquaintance likes a punt and put the question: âAny point in having a few quid on ye as outsiders?â The reply was a click: âNah⌠Not enough gas left in the tank. We trained so hard early in the year, nearly every day in January. The A team has played the B team in training four times, and the A team didnât win once.â
Ducking the issue of Sundayâs performance, Fitzgerald seized the underdog factor: âIf they want the same one or two teams to play hurling and be successful, thatâs fine. Myself and Derek [McGrath] are trying to bring teams to the fore that havenât been to the fore in a long time.â
Yes, Kilkenny or Tipperary were senior champions in 10 of the last 11 seasons. Managed by You Know Who So You Do, Clare in 2013 proved the only exception.
At the same time, Clare did not meet Kilkenny or Tipperary that year. Plain fact offsets any underdog dividend. The current Wexford manager might as well be waving a colander at a waterfall.
Like everyone else, I admire Davy Fitzgerald for going round the country as a GAA volunteer for expenses or less. To an extent, he has been Buff Egan ]avant la lettre.
Equally, I have never had any dealings with Davy Fitzgerald, direct or indirect, good, bad or indifferent. Hurling is my concern, in a small way of going.
Careful analysis, however unwelcome, indicates Davy Fitzgerald will never get the best out of a group of hurlers. Forwards in particular will deteriorate under his regime. Item: Conor McDonaldâs decreasing impact over the summer. He is heading the same way as went Darach Honan, Conor McGrath, and Shane OâDonnell.
What is the point of having backs bombing up from defence to get the odd score if forwards are being marginalised? What is the point of getting Diarmuid OâKeeffe and Liam Ryan on the scoreboard if Lee Chin is playing so deep as to neutralise his attacking threat?
This craic is like mistaking apple peelings for an apple, like mistaking one seasonâs results for sustainable improvement.
Compare the manner in which Patrick Horgan currently thrives under Kieran Kingstonâs regime. Horgan is hurling with far more application and gusto. Knock on effect? The Cork forwards are acting as a defensive shield, obviating the need for an extra defender.
We have travelled this road before. Sweeper-based hurling is another inflection of running hurling, an approach centred on hyper fitness, pace and overlaps.
Depending on the quality of hurler available to a particular camp in a particular season, this type of hurling can win matches. It can even win All-Irelands, as per Galway in 1987 and 1988. Yet the great Kevin Cashmanâs summary? âThe Jennet Express.â Why was he correct? Because such hurling slights the principle of economy. Galway should have won at least two more All-Irelands with that team.
The same express is back with snazzier livery. All the while, Fitzgerald remains a poor coach of forwards where movement and touch are concerned, a poor coach of backs where tackling is concerned. Look at his overall record, away from the hype and the pan stick and the spotlights.
Whistling into the wind and similar activities⌠End of day, Fitzgerald will not countenance even practical objections.
He wants change in a near existential sense and stated when interviewed by John Harrington in June 2017: âTheyâre afraid. Change almost seems to affect them, whatever part of life it is, whether itâs stuff in business, your general life or sport, some people are afraid of change.â
Does this splice of New Age nostrums and aggressive self absorption not leave Davy Fitzgerald a cross between Paulo Coehlo and Paulie Walnuts? Tony Sopranoâs henchman summed up his perspective: âYouâre a little too worried about what I give you. Worry a little more about what you give me.â
Sound like anyone?
For audiences who enjoy vaudeville, the coming years will be â is âtantalisingâ the word? Quite so. Hurling has years of this hoopla to run.
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This was one he wrote back in the day. Incredible arrogance.
"Kilkenny Will Win This Oneâ
I met âBustyâ the other day and with a broad smile on his face, his first salutation was, âweâll bate âem back to Gortnahoe.â There was no semblance as to my well being, no mention of my family and their state of health. There wasnât even mention of Bertie (he would die for the Drumcondra man), just the Tipp match on Sunday in Nowlan Park. âAnd Iâll tell ya another thing yousir,â he said with his chest swelling like the mandible of a Uratrayan bullfrog, âthere wonât be many of them coming to the Nowlan Park ayther, âcos they knows theyâll get hammered.â
The man has been following hurling since before the Ark took off from Mount Ararat, or as he himself has often been heard mutter, since before Brian Codyâs arse was as big as a shirt button. In very simple terms he has no regard for Tipperary hurling. His judgement is generally good, and he is not usually given to questionable hyperbole but when it comes to playing against Tipp, he loses total reason, all his senses and most of his sound judgement.
You see, Busty was around when he thought that he would die before he would see a Kilkenny team beat Tipperary in a serious hurling game, not alone an All-Ireland Final. Too often he witnessed the hordes who purposely went home to mid-Tipp towns via Callan, just to rub in the brine. It was not pleasant being a resident of border towns like Callan and Urlingford. Word on the street had it that after a Tipp/Kilkenny final, Busty got âlangersâ in a local hostelry. The inebriation was certainly perpetrated by the sight of the amassed Blue and Gold transiting his town on their way to Thurles, Nenagh or even Lorrha. Busty was staggering home from the pub, well tanked, when he decided to go into the parish church, where he decided to do the Stations of the Cross. As he stumbled the few steps from Station to Station, the Parish Priest came out and advised Busty that he was doing the Stations back to front. âJazus, Father,â said Busty, âI was wonderinâ about that because the more of them I was doinâ the better Jesus was getting.â
But I am prompted to go along with Busty. I too think that Kilkenny will win and, if that is what I think, why not say so. No point in waffling on about the maybes and the mights in this instance. I have seen many of the National League games through the season now and, in truth, I have not been one bit impressed with any of the teams, particularly any of the four teams in the semi-finals, with one exception. Kilkenny are light years ahead of the rest, of that there is no doubt. In fact, they are so ahead of the pack that one fears for the state of hurling in many of the Counties that had a hurling tradition. Presently in Leinster, Dublin, yes Dublin, are the second best team in the Province. You look at Wexford and you weep. Laois are getting progressively worse as the years progress and poor Offaly are sinking fast. The only county making progress are the Dubs and, maybe just maybe, in a couple of years time, they will have a very decent senior outfit. Wouldnât that be great? But back to Sunday!
Iâll be in Dublin doing commentary for Setanta TV and I would very much like to be in Nowlan Park just to see how many of their considerable gears will Kilkenny have to engage to beat this Tipp team. In fairness, Tipp have been making progress and, in a couple of years from now, Liam Sheedy will have a good, mature, solid team.
Tipp havenât exactly burned the bushes to reach this stage of the League. They beat Offaly by 17 points. At least six of the Kilkenny senior clubs could do that presently. They beat Limerick by 11 points. Did you, dear reader, ever rate Limerick? They are a very moderate team with a number of shadow boxers in their ranks. How they got to an All-Ireland Final in 2007 âbates Banagher.â Maybe they can point to the fact that they went down to Salthill and drew with Galway. Big deal. They drew with half a Galway team, because the other half of that team will never be handed a maroon and white gansey again and thatâs a fact. If they are, hurling is in a worse state than even I thought.
Tipp drew with Clare. I wouldnât boast about that, either. And then they hammered poor Laois. In truth, Laois had as much chance of beating Tipp as Barac (sic) Obama had of being admitted to the Klu (sic) Klux Klan. Will Kilkenny win on Sunday? No doubt, and if you want reasons for my forecast, Iâll give you twenty good reasons, and Iâll be very fair, you can pick any fifteen of them. So to start with my twenty reasons, here we go: James McGarry, Michael Kavanagh, Jackie Tyrrell, JJ Delaney, PJ Delaney, Tommy WalshâŚâŚNeed I go any further?
May the road rise with you.
Enjoy the result.
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What a prick
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Insufferable wanker.
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He idolised Kevin Cashman .
Another twat who swallowed a dictionary.
His obituary of Georgie Leahy that @myboyblue posted was his first decent piece Iâve read in years. Heâs an insufferable bore
It only took the cunt a month to produce it.
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That article above is almost unreadable.
I thought it a bit ungracious myself then maybe I shouldnât be judgemental I think he may be on a spectrum.
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Cashman is the GOAT
Thereâs no way a first team player said that before the game.
Think thatâs the point, mate.
Did PM write that piece? Are you sure? Was it not Barrie Henriques? Or did PM do commentary for Setanta as well?
Id agree with most of that.