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Kerry native Fionán Mackessy edging towards his Kilkenny hurling debut

Former Kerry star Fionán Mackessy is edging closer to his debut for the Kilkenny senior hurlers having commenced full training with Derek Lyng's Cats in recent weeks.
Mackessy's move to Kilkenny, where he linked up with O'Loughlin Gaels, was the source of much debate but he impressed from the off with his adopted club before earning a call-up to the county squad in recent months.

Mackessy was selected as a Joe McDonagh Cup All-Star for his exploits with the Kingdom in the past five seasons and it will be fascinating to see how the reigning Poc Fada champion fares at the highest level with the Cats.

The towering 26-year-old moved between defence and midfield with great effect for Kerry but having operated in the half-forward line for O'Loughlin Gaels in their run to the Kilkenny SHC final, his positioning under Lyng will be intriguing.

With Walter Walsh, Cillian Buckley and Conor Fogarty hanging up their county boots since the end of the season, fresh faces like Mackessy are sure to get some opportunities to shine in the league – and he is one of many new recruits in the squad.

Niall Shortall (Ballyhale), Shane Staunton (Clara), Luke and Peter Connellan (Thomastown) are others handed the chance to make a mark over the winter as Timmy Clifford, Liam and Kevin Blanchfield, Conor Delaney, Conor Heary and David Fogarty make way.

https://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/hurling/kerry-native-fionan-mackessy-edging-towards-his-kilkenny-hurling-debut/a1449385341.html

Walter Welsh.
He burst onto the scene 12 years ago. He was certainly an unorthodox (Kilkenny codeword for mullocker) hurler!

https://x.com/KilkennyCLG/status/1857350698280653142

Nothing beats the sight of a Tipperary jersey to get the Galway lads whining about past injustices! 
I think Tipperary are going better than last year and should beat Galway by about 6 points.

I hear Brian Cody intervened himself to make sure sure Gavin referees Waterford this weekend.

Referee Brian Gavin cleared to referee Sunday's All-Ireland hurling semi-final

Brian Gavin is free to take charge of Sunday's All-Ireland semi-final between Kilkenny and Waterford after an Offaly Hearings Committee cleared him of the charge of allegedly making abusive comments to a referee after a local club game.

Gavin, who has taken charge of three All-Ireland finals, was reported by referee Pauric Pierce for making the alleged comments after an Offaly junior football quarter-final between Clara, the club where Gavin is chairman, and Kilclonfert. Clara lost the game.
Referee Brian Gavin

Offaly's Competition Controls Committee proposed the ban on receipt of the report from Pierce, who is the Offaly Board's Coiste na nOg chairman.

Gavin sought a hearing which was due to take place next week.

But Croke Park intervened and requested that the hearing be brought forward to last night (Thursday) to avoid a distraction for Gavin as he prepared for Sunday's match.

Gavin was determined to clear his name and preserve his reputation and is understood to have vigorously rebuffed the charge at the hearing. 

Wexford 4-17 Kilkenny 1-09 

I'm sure Kilkenny will tell us it was a bad Kilkenny team and not a good Wexford team.

Jimmy was one of the all time greats, a really stylish hurler and a true gentleman as well.
Hurling has lost of one its best.

Only 3 from Cork and 8 from Klare, even though Cork were within seconds of winning the All Ireland.

Goalkeeper
1.Anthony Nash (Cork)

Full backs
2. Richie McCarthy (Limerick)
3. Peter Kelly (Dublin)
4. David McInerney (Clare)

Half backs
5. Brendan Bugler (Clare)
6. Liam Rushe (Dublin)
7. Patrick Donnellan (Clare)

Midfield
8. Colm Galvin (Clare)
9. Conor Ryan (Clare)

Half forwards
10. Séamus Harnedy (Cork)
11. Tony Kelly (Clare)
12. Danny Sutcliffe (Dublin)

Full forwards
13. Pádraic Collins (Clare)
14. Patrick Horgan (Cork)
15. Conor McGrath (Clare)

It's great to see the Christy Ring Cup final is getting some prominence again and being restored to its August slot in Croke Park.
I think Limerick will win in by 3 or 4 points.

FORMER Wexford hurling star Paul Codd – who once famously accused GAA officials of being "tinkers and rogues" – has been declared bankrupt in the High Court, with debts of almost €5m.

Mr Codd was adjudicated bankrupt after a petition brought by Co Cork farmer David Deasy over an unpaid €530,000 judgment he secured against the former hurler.

Court documents show Mr Codd last November estimated his debts, combined with those of his now-dissolved company Paul Codd Ltd, were €4.9m. The papers show he blamed the collapse in the property market and a drop in the value of the land for his loan for the purchase of the land being declined. He said this left him "in a position where the total contract price could not be paid in full".

He said that he had intended to pay outstanding sums using profits from crops grown on the land.

Mr Codd claimed that despite this offer, Mr Deasy gained access to the land with a tractor attached with a harrow in September 2011 and destroyed a potato crop leading to losses to him of €136,800. Mr Deasy said in other court papers that he wasn't liable for the claimed losses. He said the potatoes were his property because they were planted on his land and he wanted to clear the land in advance of its sale to another buyer.

Restructuring

In his filing, Mr Codd said he had arranged a €2.8m restructuring loan with a financial firm Gerrard Knox Consulting in an attempt to part-pay his creditors, including Mr Deasy.

In later documents, Mr Deasy expressed scepticism about Mr Codd's €2.8m restructuring loan, pointing out that Mr Codd had not told him how much he would receive from the loan.

He denied he was being unreasonable in petitioning for Mr Codd's bankruptcy and listed a number of occasions from 2008 onwards when he had attempted to negotiate with him.

He said: "I have not taken the decision to apply for petition for bankruptcy in respect of Mr Codd lightly. However, I have lost all confidence in his ability or intention to pay off the judgement I have obtained."

In February, solicitor Thomas Walsh quit as Mr Codd's representative in the case.

Mr Codd did not respond to attempts to contact him for comment last night.

Mr Deasy said last night that "Mr Codd has no legal right or moral entitlement to this land."

He said: "I have made every effort to accommodate Mr Codd, which has not been reciprocated."

He said he had been unable to transfer ownership to Michael Martin because of Mr Codd's occupation of the land.

And Mr Deasy added: "This inability to transfer title to the new owner and attendant liabilities has placed my own farming business in financial jeopardy."

Am I about the only one who finds this term annoying?
I've been in Dublin the last while and seems to be very common.

It is very often used in a derogatory sense. The type of comments are things like:
"Premier Emperor is a big gah head", "a draw to make more money for the gah", "typical of the gah, ripping people off".

To bug these people, I tell them I've no idea what the f**k 'gah' is.

Former Miss Ireland Holly Carpenter is going out with meathead prop Cian Healy.
I mean seriously.   


Former Rose of Tralee lovely girl competition winner Aoibhinn Ni Shuilleabhain is going out with coat hanger and all round dry shite Ryan Tubridy!
For fecks sake lads!


These are mismatches of Tipperary vs. Leitrim hurlers proportions!

Seán Óg Ó hAilpín retires


Cork legend Seán Óg Ó hAilpín has announced his retirement from inter-county hurling.

In a statement issued through the Gaelic Players Association, he confirmed that his 16-year career is over.

Ó hAilpín retired in 2010, but returned last year to re-establish himself in the team. He insisted, however, his decision this time is final.

"This time it's for good. I always felt it was premature to end my career in 2010. It was great to get the opportunity this year to re-establish myself in the team and contribute in a meaningful way to Cork," he said.

"I would like to thank all the players I played with over my sixteen year career. I have always taken immense pride in wearing the Cork jersey and representing the county I love. I wish the Cork team the best of luck and success in their future endeavours."

Ó hAilpín won five Munster SFC medals and three All-Irelands, and was voted Hurler of the Year in 2004.

Marty Morrissey famously said there won't be a cow milked for a week when Clare won the Munster football title 20 years ago.
Since there is no grazing land in Clare, it would have been business as usual.

What could be said when other counties win something? What activity won't get done for a week with the celebrations?

Dublin - There won't be a spoon burned for a week.
Monaghan - There won't be a drop of diesel laundered.
Donegal - There won't be a Honda Civic written off
Wexford - There won't be a strawberry picked
Louth - There won't be a cigarette smuggled
Kildare - There won't be a stable cleaned out
Roscommon - There won't be a sheep sheared
Antrim - There won't be a petrol bomb thrown

Any others?

McEnaney wants tougher stance from hurling refs

The head of the GAA's national referees committee has called for significant improvement from hurling match officials in 2013.

Pat McEnaney has said his committee is disappointed that "seven to eight clear red cards" were missed by referees in this year's hurling championship.

He described such a situation as "unacceptable" and signalled a change in approach in 2013.

His comments come as former GAA president Nickey Brennan questions the performances of the officials in two of Kilkenny's last three championship matches that resulted in serious injuries sustained by two of their players.

Michael Rice required the insertion of seven screws in an operation on a hand that was left shattered after a blow from an opponent's hurl in the All-Ireland semi-final against Tipperary, while TJ Reid's kneecap was fractured by a blow from a hurl in the All-Ireland final replay against Galway.

"The two incidents involving Rice and Reid were very serious and we are once again left wondering how the GAA can punish the aggressors if such incidents are not handled properly by the match officials," wrote Brennan in his weekly 'Kilkenny People' column.

Review

McEnaney said he wouldn't be specific about any particular incidents but admits that, overall, he finds it hard to disagree with the former president's views and confirmed that the NRC has conducted its own review with referees since the championship.

"As a group, I'd have to say we weren't happy with it. There were only two red cards in this year's championship. We felt in our review that there should have been seven to eight more red cards that were clear offences. That's a figure of 16pc that we got right, which is not satisfactory," he said.

The former football referee, who took charge of three All-Ireland finals, has been head of the referees' committee since April and frank in his assessments this year.

Brennan pulls no punches either in his analysis. "I know that some Kilkenny players have stepped over the line on occasions and were rightly punished for their misdemeanours," he wrote.

"Such punishment was accepted and the team moved on to the next challenge. It is therefore ironic that at the end of another championship year, two of Kilkenny's star men, TJ Reid and Michael Rice, will play no part in their club's current championship campaign.

"Both were the victims of appalling indiscipline in which the perpetrators went unpunished for reckless use of the hurley.

"I accept that neither player went out intentionally to cause the Kilkenny opponent a serious injury, but in the heat of a contest unsavoury incidents sometimes occur which have no place in Gaelic games.

"It is simply not good enough to talk about hurling being a man's game and whatever happens on the field being left there."

Earlier this year, on the eve of the hurling league final in May, Kilkenny manager Brian Cody made quite an impassioned plea to officials to stop trying to take the physicality out of the game.

The GAA's Central Competitions Controls Committee can rarely give out retrospective suspensions now because of a change in the protocols in revisiting incidents already dealt with by referees.

McEnaney is adamant, however, that his group are convinced there should have been five times as many red cards in the 2012 championship.

"We have to accept that we missed them and that's a good starting point for us in 2013."

McEnaney sees room for improvement overall in football too but is satisfied that there was improvement in the critical areas they targeted in 2012 -- body checking, the protection of the high fielder and interference by opponents with injured players who are lying on the ground.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/hurling/mcenaney-wants-tougher-stance-from-hurling-refs-3264703.html

Canning takes aim at Shefflin conduct

JACKIE CAHILL

GALWAY'S JOE Canning believes that Kilkenny's Henry Shefflin was guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct in last Sunday's All-Ireland senior hurling final.

And Canning insisted the Cats were handed "very easy frees" by referee Barry Kelly in the Croke Park showpiece.

Canning admitted Kilkenny are a bit "cuter" when it comes to dealing with officials on the field of play and he referenced a first-half incident when Shefflin ran "30 or 40 yards down the field" to remonstrate with Kelly.

Canning, who converted a free in the third minute of stoppage time to tie the game, also revealed how his direct opponent JJ Delaney was unhappy with Shefflin's decision to take a point from a 68th-minute penalty.

Canning, 23, was speaking to reporters yesterday at Semple Stadium in Thurles at an event to promote Saturday's Bord Gáis Energy All-Ireland Under-21 hurling finals.

And he stoked the fires ahead of the eagerly-awaited senior rematch with Kilkenny on September 30th by admitting: "I suppose they are a bit cuter. In one instance in the first half, Henry ran 30 or 40 yards down the field and was giving out to Barry Kelly and Damien Hayes for a free.

"That's not sportsmanlike either at the same stage. That's the way it goes – that's probably the experience they have. Hopefully we can get that and use it to our advantage as well. You need everything you can get during those games."

Canning also admitted he mishit the late equalising free that ensured a replay between the sides on September 30th.

He said: "I kind of mishit the last one, to be honest, I didn't mean to hit it that low. There were three Kilkenny players in front of me, it was lucky enough it went over."

Canning said he did not see the controversial late award, when Kilkenny defender Jackie Tyrrell was penalised for a tangle with Galway substitute Davy Glennon.

He said: "I don't know – to be straight up about it I didn't see it. I was over the far side, in at full-forward. I didn't actually watch the match since.

"I don't know – obviously I've read papers and stuff. Some people say it wasn't a free and others say that it was. You get stuff during a match as well – when they got a ball moved forward 15 yards and the same thing happened in the second half with the same players involved, and it didn't get moved for us and we could have been in for a score.

"You get them things during a match. I thought, on the field, sometimes they influenced frees and stuff like that. So they got very easy frees during the game as well. We're happy enough, if it was an easy free, to take it."

And Canning lifted the lid on Kilkenny defender Delaney's reaction to Shefflin's 68th-minute point, when the eight-time All-Ireland medallist put the ball over the bar when a goal would have put the champions three points clear.

When Canning was asked if he thought that Shefflin was about to go for the jugular as he stood over the penalty, he replied: "Yeah I thought he was.

"JJ wasn't too impressed anyway behind me! He thought he should have went for it as well. People asked me after what I would have done. I probably would have went for a point as well because at that time of the game, a point was very crucial. If he missed it, people would said why didn't he tap it over the bar.

"It's a very thin line and he's probably the most experienced player on the pitch. At the time, he thought it was the right thing to do. If it was saved and we went down the pitch and got a point or a goal, it could have swung things in our favour. He probably took the right decision at that time in the match."

Canning added: "He probably would have went for it himself. 'I'll just put it that way!'"

On his own late equalising free Canning admitted he had "massive doubts" before standing up to convert.

He had missed a similar chance just a few minutes earlier and he said: "Obviously you have doubts and I had massive doubts from missing the one before but that's part and parcel of it as well.

"That's the one I think of more than the one I scored, how the outcome might have been different, but then you never know, if you'd got the first one you mightn't have got the chance for the second one, so you never know."

Canning went on: "You're just trying to concentrate on getting the lift right, getting the strike right. I've had the same routine for years, since you're young every free-taker has the same routine, maybe tweaks it or whatever but you have to trust it, no matter what. That's all I was concentrating on, hoping not to have everyone in Galway after my head afterwards!"

Canning also admitted that he did not enjoy the experience of a first All-Ireland SHC final because of the huge pressures involved.

He stated: "I think when you're out on the field, you don't enjoy it. It's not a place to enjoy it – you enjoy it after the match if you win and obviously you don't enjoy it if you lose. But when you're playing in such a high-intensity game, mentally more so than anything, the mistakes and stuff are costing you that extra point or two in a match, you don't enjoy those things.

"And anybody that says , I personally don't believe them if they say they enjoy playing a match like that.

"It's a thing you look back on and say, yeah, I've played in it but at the end of the day, you want to do your best and it's like training, when you're training as hard as you can, you don't enjoy running them laps or anything like that.

"It's the same as a match – when it's high intensity, you don't enjoy that."

Canning was also pleased with the performance of referee Kelly, insisting that every hurler deserves the freedom to express himself on the field of play.

He said: "Everybody is protected on the field. Nobody goes out to hurt another player or anything like that, or do anything stupid. At the end of the day, you go out to hurl and everybody is the same.

"That was the way it was on Sunday. Everybody went out just to hurl their own patch and that's the way it should be."

...Brian Cody's head at the end.
He looked like a fella from Ballymun on holidays in Santa Ponsa who forgot to put on the sunscreen!

Hurling's 2nd biggest all time rivalry and the biggest rivalry of the last 5 years.

I think the Cats are ripe to be skinned. Beaten out the gate against Galway, average against Limerick in a game they should have been bouncing back in.
Richie Hogan suspended after a referee inexplicably took a Kilkenny player to task for dangerous play, Michael Fennelly still coming back from injury.
Now their website has collapsed!

Tipp have been in 2nd gear so far this year and hopefully are coming to the boil. There is a bit of concern about our backs being a bit loose. In attack we are really starting to fire. Bonnar Maher is possibly the most under rated player in hurling at the moment. Lar still has the intelligence and lethalness of old and hopefully the stamina. Pa Bourke is starting to hit a rich vein and I expect something big from Eoin Kelly.

Tipperary by 7.

Tessio from The Godfather


Anthony Cunningham

One of the greatest spectacles in sport will take place in Tom Semple's field Stadium on Sunday.
Both teams will be well up for this game. Cork are have upped it under Jimmy Barry this year and will be hard bet. Their win over Kilkenny will spur them on.

Tipperary have a long list of missing players, I don't think Paul Curran and Conor O'Mahony will start, but home advantage should swing it for us.

Tipp by 3!

Can anybody shed some more light on this fella?
I remember him jabbing Paul Ormonde in the head with a hurley years ago.
Then he spent most of the next few years getting kicked off the Antrim panel.

On his day he is good as forward from the big counties, but he seems to have issues.
What are the odds on him putting the head down and doing it consistantly for Antrim?