Tom Humphries

Started by bottlethrower7, January 29, 2007, 09:35:03 AM

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bottlethrower7

Humphries used to be a good sports journalist. I actually used to think there none better, with the exception, maybe, of Enda McEvoy. Of late though hes turned into a hypocrite who whinges too much and  thinks hes funny, when hes clearly not.

Apologies Tom, I expressed an opinion just there. Shame on me.

PS> You and your ilk won the Rule 42 vote, so how about we drop it?

magpie seanie

Just read what you were on about there BT. As one who generally admires Humphries I must say that some of that article was really poor and uncalled for.

Whoops, there's me offering an opinion as well. Line me up against the wall with BT so.

IolarCoisCuain

The article in question:




Only churls churlish over Croker lights

Tom Humphries

Mon, Jan 29, 2007

Locker Room:In the murky alcoves and quiet corners of the chat rooms there are still some contributors bellyaching and muttering darkly about next Saturday's floodlit extravaganza in Croke Park.

A friend used to describe the Livelineprogramme on RTÉ Radio 1 as a civic forum for cranks, and happily the internet and its humming chat rooms have extended the possibilities for that benighted portion of the population who are never happy unless they are grumbling.

To sneak around the chat rooms eavesdropping one would suspect the Dublin-versus-Tyrone shindig was like the Vietnam draft, a compulsory exercise and one likely to lead to death or maiming.

Legislation for the draft has apparently been drawn up by a cabal of media types with nothing better to do. Finally, it is clear the game will do nothing but harm, the least of its unforeseen consequences being media interest, which as we all know, hits a team like the MRSA superbug hits a hospital.

For the rest of us it's a nice little celebration. If you were dragged up a certain way the new year starts in earnest only when the serious GAA action begins again. That period of the year between the end of the provincial club championships to, well, next weekend is spent in a period of suspended animation, marked (well, more so than usual) by feelings of ennui, lethargy and slight depression.

Sure, there is the diet of soccer, the Premiership, The Roy and Niall Show, and the ever-entertaining soap opera of the domestic league, which even in its downtime lurches from crisis to crisis like a drunk walking against the traffic.

For a bewildering number of people on this island there is the Heino as well, an event we take more seriously than the rest of the world put together, and well, why not? If it mixes sport with a suggestion that somebody drinks this beer instead of that beer we're all for it so long as it ain't the GAA that's at it.

All those distractions are fine but they are somewhat remote. The country isn't in full gear till the GAA is up and running and speculative conversation abut the summer is coursing through the veins of the nation.

Next Saturday night is a celebration not just of the end of the winter doldrums but of the end of one period in the GAA's history and the start of another.

The first floodlit game to be played in Croker comes, as we'll tire of hearing over the next few months, before the gates are thrown open and the new tenants are let in.

There are a small minority of diehards, begrudgers and whingers who, like the poor, shall always be with us, and they aren't happy. These people attract cameras and microphones like starlets having wardrobe malfunctions on their nights out. A disproportionate amount of attention is given to things they would be better off keeping private.

These are people from within the GAA who believe that when they cut themselves shaving they seep green, green blood. They are the people from outside the GAA who actually enjoyed the GAA's discomfort over Rule 42. Cold-war types who still live it.

For both sides, Michael Greenan, of the Ulster Council, is an icon and his threat to run for the presidency of the GAA is a promise to bring both sides to business as it was practised, say, in 1959.

The rest of us (barring the iconic Michael Greenan) are just happy to see the back of that dark period of time and to be on the cusp of an era where the GAA's achievement at Croke Park is highlighted and talked about and welcomed and respected.

For the next few months we might still be backward-looking, swamp-dwelling stickballing Neanderthals but we are the ones opening up the grand house and taking the rent from our professional friends. Only a churl would be, well, churlish about it.

Dublin and Tyrone are a perfect way to start things off in the post-churl era.

Mention of those teams and Michael Greenan actually reminds us of that splendid piece of YouTube footage which showcases about five minutes of highlights, head-butts, high tackles and carnage from the Dublin v Tyrone game in the Skydome in Toronto back in 1990. Peter Canavan was 18 and looked like Rick Astley.

The so-called Battle of Omagh was sissy stuff by comparison, but there, scampering around happily in his referee's outfit on the artificial sward used for those foreign abominations of baseball and gridiron was our Michael Greenan.

There's a sense about this season that there is an All-Ireland out there for the taking. Missing a couple of stars, settling a few others and just getting his feet under the table is likely to hinder Pat O'Shea. Armagh are in a curious spot, too old in parts, too young in others. Mayo have John O'Mahony but have they the mental strength? Cork seem a little bit off, especially in the forwards.

That leaves Dublin and Tyrone. The Ulster champions have the best footballers and maybe the shrewdest manager but they've been rolling on for some time now and it will be interesting come summer to see if they have the intensity in their gut to play their high-pressure game. And Rick Astley is gone, taking with him that raw edge which made him so infuriating for opposition fans to watch.

And the Dubs? There's a point to prove after last August and it will take a few new faces to prove it. For a long time the rap on the Dubs has been that they take athletes and try to turn them into footballers (they actually take hurlers and turn them into footballers but let's not go there now), but with Diarmuid Connolly, Bernard Brogan and Dotsie O'Callaghan all bubbling up nicely there's a lot of class to choose from in their forwards.

Midfield is a slight worry in that Ciarán Whelan, patchy though his excellence is, can't go on forever, but the evidence in Tullamore yesterday is Darren Magee is coming back to the level where he is a serious option.

The defence is a greater worry. There's lots of talk about putting the Sigerson-winning midfielder Ross McConnell in the number three jersey for a while and, looking at the back lines, one wonders sometimes where the necessary toughness is going to come from. Where is the Gay O'Driscoll, the Pat O'Neill, the Paddy Moran, or Keith Barr or Eamonn Heery? Ger Brennan brings a little of that and there's a quiet constituency that likes the outside chances of Paul Brogan of Plunketts as well.

That's what makes next Saturday such an opportunity on every level. It's an occasion . The GAA celebrating itself a little while it stands on the threshold of history. And it's a game. Tyrone, who have been experimenting madly in the McKenna Cup, against Dublin, who have been a little more cautious but need three or four new faces to shake things up.

What could be better than throwing a few players into the mix in front of 82,000 people while playing opposition that wants to put down a serious marker? Both benches get a rare chance to see what their tyros might be like under pressure at the height of summer.

We all step out into the light on Saturday and two sides who fancy themselves for the long haul to next September get to have their credentials examined against that light. It will be magical and it will be interesting too. And it's only February.

Relax in the chat rooms, lads. Enjoy the show.
© 2007 The Irish Times

bennydorano

I'm with Tom.  I suppose it's going to progress like all other similar topics on the issue, which basically is change.  The most offensive thing he's written is saying that Tyrone are Ulster Champions!

Hound

There'll never be a "post-churl era"

bottlethrower7

wrong bennydorano, its not about change, its about your opinion not being worth a damn if it doesn't tally with big Tom's. This isn't the first article of this nature and no doubt won't be the last.

One would think that Tom is the died-in-the-wool ground-roots GAA man that we should all aspire to be. Other than going to watch a few under-14 camogie matches and regularly being in attendance at club and county games that he probably gets in free for, I'd like to know what makes him so special that he feels he has the right to diss me and tell me to keep my opinions to myself. Is he in the fields on a saturday morning with a gaggle of kids setting up drills, carrying water, offerring pearls of wisdom from his vast exposure to our games over the years? Is he putting up nets, putting down flags, ringing players, ringing the opposition to arrange games, organising lifts, washing jerseys?

I do all those things Tom. Yet my opinion doesn't deserve to be heard?

And what? I should be glad of the likes of you in my organisation?

I think not.

Over the Bar


AZOffaly

In fairness, Canavan's hair did look like Rick Astley back then :D


GalwayBayBoy

A fairly tame article to be getting worked up about I would have thought.

I suggest though that it would be better contacting Tom himself about it rather than coming on here whinging about it.

IolarCoisCuain

Quote from: GalwayBayBoy on January 29, 2007, 11:51:58 AM
A fairly tame article to be getting worked up about I would have thought.

I suggest though that it would be better contacting Tom himself about it rather than coming on here whinging about it.

Ara come off it a Bhuachaill Cuain na Gaillimhe, we're only doing the Fat Man a favour by talking about it here. He'll be able to squeeze another thousand words out of this for next week and then take the weekend off, able to eat sausages 'til he bursts on Saturday in Croker.  ;D

The Bottom Brick

Humphries gave his opinion and belittled the opposing viewpoint in oing so -I don't see what's wrong with that.

By the way, the man is still the best sportswriter in Ireland by a country mile.
33, 35, 47, 48, 52, 07!

Rufus T Firefly

Quote from: The Bottom Brick on January 29, 2007, 12:26:12 PM
Humphries gave his opinion and belittled the opposing viewpoint in oing so -I don't see what's wrong with that.

By the way, the man is still the best sportswriter in Ireland by a country mile.

Agree with that!

He has commented on the views of the 'no camp'. At no point has he said they are not entitled to hold that viewpoint or indeed to express it!

But then, that doesn't suit the MOPEry (thanks OWC  ;D) of the 'no camp' here!   

Good man Tom!  ;)

bottlethrower7

QuoteThere are a small minority of diehards, begrudgers and whingers who, like the poor, shall always be with us, and they aren't happy. These people attract cameras and microphones like starlets having wardrobe malfunctions on their nights out. A disproportionate amount of attention is given to things they would be better off keeping private.

AZOffaly

Quotethey would better off keeping private

I read that as in , 'in my opinion their objections are not valid, and they'd be better off not airing them for their own sakes'.

I don't think he meant you aren't entitled to have those opinions.

If I said that I think Leprechauns exist, I'd be entitled to hold that viewpoint, but I'd be better off keeping it to myself :D

bottlethrower7

its not how I read it and I'd be sure enough thats not how it was meant (in the context of the rest of the article...'bellyaching'.....and other lazy, poor articles hes written on the topic).

And yes, I found it very offensive. Why even have a vote if one of the 2  options is 'not valid' (your words AZOffaly), or is one that me and my ilk should keep to ourselves?