All Ireland Gold, better hurling now or then?

Started by milltown row, November 23, 2006, 01:44:06 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

milltown row

All Ireland gold last night, Tipperary v Galway, real classic. Lane lasses into the net in the final seconds and is jumped by a dozen Galway supporters.
I would say in today's games that there would be at least 3 straight reds and 4 or five double yellows. Leahy, was he a dirty shite all the time, he was only 18 in that game last night. And Declan Ryan was as bad, but stroke over some great points. Antrim were represented that year with Gerry McClory doing lines man.

My questions is this, do we prefer the hurling of that time to the type we have at the minute? I'll go for the late eighties early nineties every time. At least Antrim could compete with the big guns then.


The Claw

Any Era that has Eoin Kelly and Shefflin in it is head and shoulders above the rest.

GalwayBayBoy

QuoteLeahy, was he a dirty shite all the time

The answer is yes. ;D

Although in fairness we had some hard bastards in the Galway team too back then. Swings and roundabouts.

That was a great period for hurling alright along with the mid'90's. That Galway v Tipp rivalry was at the heart of it for a few years. No timber spared in those games and the hurling wasn't bad either.

johnneycool

Each era has it's own endearing features.

The heavy hitting and pulling (not tugging jerseys) has been refereed out of the game now and as you said there'd be loads of yellow and red cards flowing if a modern ref was in charge with the honorable exception of Dickie Murphy who made the Cork/Clare semi final a few years back one of the toughest games of hurling in the modern era and IMO it was the best game I've witnessed in a long time but maybe I'm old fashioned!!

A week later Kilkenny and Galway played out a high scoring 'classic' with little or no ash broken and probably vindicative of the modern style you are referring to and probably appeals more to the general public. The Cork style of possession type hurling removes a lot of the 50/50 challenges out of the game and whilst it's a very effective way to play the game kinda ruins it as a spectacle unless you're from Cork obviously.

The Clare team of the mid to late 90's were right on the limit with their style of up tempo hard hurling and it was a joy to watch, Brian Lohan bursting out of challenges and driving up the field probably got bigger roars from the crowd than a lot of scores managed.

If a balance between the two styles could be reached where the downright sledging that happened in the the late 80's because of bad blood between Tipp and Galway mostly but not the only ones and the fast free flowing stuff we see now from the Eoin Kelly's Shefflins etc then we'd be in business.

slow corner back

Being a big slow sledger of that era I always preferred that late eighties early nineties. OK now we have Henry Shefflin and Eoin Kelly, then we had Nicky English and Joe Cooney dont try to tell me they would not survive today as would kelly and shefflin in the eighties. Class will out. The difference today is players are much more athletic, does it improve the game, hard to say. In the eighties we had guys who would sledge all day but were not great hurlers now we have guys who can run all day but are not great hurlers. A skillfull guy will still come through to the top and the guy who wants it desperately will find a way to survive/ achieve be it running or sledging. It was a great match, by the way, I had forgot how good it was.

neilthemac

Top players earn their frees much to easily in todays game due to improved refereeing

Though there's a lot more overcarrying of the ball today that isn't picked up on by referees - Yes, it is FOUR steps with the ball in hand!


Fionntamhnach

I seen most of the second half of this game last night. To be honest I thought it paled very much against more recent matches at the same level, but maybe that's just me.