various hurling articles

[seafoid]

Number One question will be key for Limerick as they reach a crossroads
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2025/01/25/no-1-question-the-key-one-for-limerick-in-a-pivotal-season/

Nickie Quaid has been a hugely influential figure in five All-Ireland triumphs but John Kiely must now plan without the outstanding goalkeeper
Nickie Quaid: at the beginning of November he won his third All-Star award; a fortnight later he tore his ACL playing soccer with friends. He now faces months of rehab.

 
Denis Walsh
Sat Jan 25 2025 - 06:00

At the end of the 2018 season Brian McDonnell, the analyst and coach, produced The Green Monster, a stunning piece of long form analysis on the hurling championship.

The document runs to 12,000 words, logging every heartbeat and muscle movement and brain wave of Limerick's All-Ireland. The analysis, though, begins with the goalie.

McDonnell illustrated each of Nickie Quaid's 265 puckouts in three graphics, with coloured dots to denote the outcome.

"Quaid enjoyed an extraordinary season," wrote McDonnell. "Limerick retained possession on their own puckout 72.25 per cent of the time, which is absolutely ridiculous."

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Storm Éowyn can't destroy Connacht GAA's ambition – Prenty's Tenty will rise again
Storm Éowyn can't destroy Connacht GAA's ambition – Prenty's Tenty will rise again
Number One question will be key for Limerick as they reach a crossroads
Number One question will be key for Limerick as they reach a crossroads
In their breakthrough season, Quaid's puckouts were Limerick's most powerful instrument of control. Their principal puckout targets would have flourished in any era, but that year they were animated by Paul Kinnerk's imagination and Quaid's capacity to split an apple with an arrow.

"We started drilling down into it when Seanie O'Donnell came on board [as their lead analyst, in 2017]," says Barry Hennessy, who was first reserve to Quaid for a decade. "The percentage return for Limerick puckouts at that stage was 30-something per cent."


In less than two years, Limerick's efficiency doubled. In the long run, those numbers were unsustainable. There is too much transparency and too many camera angles, and too many nimble minds engaged in opposition analysis. Limerick's point of difference, though, was Quaid. Nobody could shut down his capacity to scramble.

"I know it's a cliché that the qoalie is the quarterback now," says Paul Browne, who played with Quaid for nine seasons, "but when you're watching the NFL playoffs over the last couple of weeks you'd hear fellas saying, 'that's a rookie quarterback throw,' because he's after throwing it to the wrong place at the wrong time under pressure.

"That's Nickie's biggest forte – he'll hit the right puckout at the right time, under pressure. That only comes with experience, unfortunately."

Quaid has been the Limerick goalkeeper since 2011. Their championship team has been famously stable over the years, but still, in their five All-Ireland-winning seasons, only four players were ever-present starters: Quaid was one.

At the beginning of November, he won his third All-Star award; a fortnight later he tore his ACL playing soccer with friends. If Limerick reach Croke Park at the beginning of July there is an outside chance that Quaid will be fit to play, but that would mean a rehab of not much more than seven months. David Burke, the Galway centrefielder, managed it, but the typical recovery period is a month longer. In any case, Limerick must plan without him.

Limerick's goalkeeper Nickie Quaid consoled by manager John Kiely after the defeat to Cork in last year's All-Ireland semi-final, the team's first defeat in Croke Park since 2019. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
Limerick's goalkeeper Nickie Quaid consoled by manager John Kiely after the defeat to Cork in last year's All-Ireland semi-final, the team's first defeat in Croke Park since 2019. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
The void that Quaid leaves behind comes at a crossroads for this group. Just like the Kilkenny team that failed to win five-in-a-row, they are good enough and just about young enough to win another couple of All-Irelands, as long as there is some judicious pruning and replanting.


John Kiely and Kinnerk have committed for another two years, and O'Donnell is still on board too, all of which is hugely significant. Without these three legs the stool could not stand. But during the close season there was more boardroom turnover in the Limerick set-up than at any other time during Kiely's eight years in charge.

For the coming season there will be a new strength and conditioning coach, a new performance coach, a new goalkeeping coach and a new nutritionist. O'Donnell had a team of three helping him with analysis; they all stepped away and needed to be replaced. There will also be two new coach/selectors and a different captain.

Declan Hannon had been in that role since Kiely's second season in charge and in that time Hannon has also been their preferred centre back. He only turned 32 in November, but that number must be set against 14 seasons in the front line. At some point, longevity is more about subtraction than addition. In recent years injuries have become more intrusive, and his form has been more volatile. It is likely that other options at number six will be explored.

But it is certain they will need a new goalkeeper. The problem with replacing Quaid is that he was not just the executor of the puckout strategy he was also its co-creator and curator and its chief critic. That kind of institutional knowledge cannot be replaced.

Browne remembers arriving for training an hour before the appointed time to find Quaid and the other goalkeepers "pumping with sweat because they had an hour's training done already". On other nights Quaid would do an hour of video analysis with O'Donnell, just on puckouts.

Munster GAA Senior Hurling Championship Round 2, TUS Gaelic Grounds, Co. Limerick 28/4/2024
Limerick vs Tipperary
Tipperary's Ronan Maher and Declan Hannon of Limerick after the game
Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/James Crombie
Munster GAA Senior Hurling Championship Round 2, TUS Gaelic Grounds, Co. Limerick 28/4/2024 Limerick vs Tipperary Tipperary's Ronan Maher and Declan Hannon of Limerick after the game Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/James Crombie
After the peak of 2018 and 19, Limerick's puckout efficiency inevitably dipped; other teams came up with workable solutions, which forced Limerick to think again.


"Teams had a plan in place either to push up on Limerick or fill the gaps," says Hennessy, "so your puckout return would have gone from the high 60s [per cent] down to the 40s."

Limerick's response was to re-tool Barry Nash as a play-starter from corner back.

"They'd play it to Nash and he'd play the Nickie Quaid role nearly, with the same movements [up the field], but it was just staggered," says Barry Cleary, an analyst with GAA Insights, who work with a range of intercounty teams.

That worked spectacularly for a season, but with all these innovations the law of diminishing returns applies. In the second season, Nash was more harassed and disrupted. One of the alternatives that Kinnerk devised was for a fourth Limerick player to drop into the full-back line as a first receiver.

"Kinnerk is a big fan of Man City," says Cleary "and if you look at the way soccer kick-outs changed where players stand to the side of the goalkeeper [just outside the six yard box] I think he was working off that principle. By bringing Kyle Hayes or Diarmuid Byrnes into the full-back line they're opening up a gap at wing back which asks a question of the opposition. If you leave that zone free, they'll run somebody into it."

But they also had emergency puckouts and Quaid would instinctively know when to push the button.


"You look at the Crusaders [New Zealand rugby team]. Sam Whitlock [their captain] used to talk about what they did when lads' eyes were starting to glass over," says Hennessy. "You just make it as simple as possible.

"It would be a case of Gearóid [Hegarty] standing on the sideline [for a puckout] or Diarmuid Byrnes coming into the full back line. Lads would know that if the ball went to Diarmuid it was going to be landing hot and heavy down the field. Those set-ups were more of a trigger to say, 'Look, we know we're under pressure. Let's just relax for a second and get back into the game.'"

Nickie Quaid: the problem with replacing him is that he was not just the executor of the puck-out strategy he was also its co-creator and curator and its chief critic. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
Nickie Quaid: the problem with replacing him is that he was not just the executor of the puck-out strategy he was also its co-creator and curator and its chief critic. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
Limerick's puckout numbers returned to the mean over the last three seasons, in part because "everyone else is obsessed with their puckouts," says Cleary. "The other thing to understand is that if you're at 50 per cent you're grand. Tipperary won the 2019 All-Ireland with the worst long puckout in the country – they were winning something like 28 per cent. But they were eating everyone else's long puckout."

That is what Limerick have consistently done too. The common pattern in Limerick's three big defeats since 2019 – against Kilkenny and Cork twice – was that they suffered under their opponents' long puckouts. In those matches, that trend was the most subversive of all.

In clutch situations, though, Quaid had the wherewithal to find a home for the ball. When they struggled against Kilkenny in the 2022 All-Ireland final he leant on his two favourite receivers: Hegarty and Tom Morrissey. Between them they had 32 possessions. With the goalie, they had that connection.

It will be fascinating to see how it plays out. After injury forced his retirement in 2020 Shane Dowling was restored to the panel this winter, having been reinvented as a goalkeeper with Na Piarsaigh.

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"Unbelievable striker of the ball," says Browne, "and has the accuracy piece to go with it. It's not a canon, it's a gun."

But Jason Gillane was the third goalkeeper for a couple of years behind Quaid and Hennessy, and he was the reserve goalie last year.

"He has everything," says Hennessy. "A brilliant brain, a brilliant shot-stopper. He's matured a lot. He was away from the panel for a couple of years, and it hurt him. The only unknown for Limerick is, whoever goes in there, do they have the temperament Nickie has?"

In a pivotal season it is the first big question.

[johnnycool]

Kyle Hayes will ultimately be the new Limerick centre back.

They won't allow him to be isolated out on the wing whilst teams target the centre and other side like Cork did twice last year.

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2025/01/31/hurling-is-such-a-local-obsession-in-tipperary-so-where-have-the-supporters-gone/

Hurling is a local obsession in Tipperary so where have the supporters gone?
The cold distance between the Tipperary team and the Tipperary public has troubled manager Liam Cahill

Denis Walsh
Fri Jan 31 2025 - 15:06

In Liam Cahill's post-match huddle with reporters after Tipperary eviscerated Galway on the opening day of the National League nine questions were put to him. He wasn't asked about the Tipperary supporters, but in answer to the second last question Cahill brought them into the conversation, stepping on to a diplomatic tightrope. For balance he had a carrot and a stick.

"I mentioned bravery there earlier about the direction we're going and the change we have to make," he said. "I'd ask the Tipp supporters to be brave as well and come out and support them. There's not much bravery in going up to Croke Park every year over the last decade for All-Ireland semi-finals and All-Ireland finals and all that.

"These players will be around long after I'm gone. They're the catalyst to everything that gives us the joy that is being a Tipperary supporter."

Cahill's answers are rarely strangled by self-censorship; he is straight and never short. But the cold distance between this team and the Tipperary public has troubled him for a while. In 2023, his first season as manager, they upended Clare in Ennis in the opening round of the championship and drew with Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh after a storming performance. In his post-match press conference that evening he applauded the "small" Tipperary crowd who had been heavily "outnumbered" that evening and pleaded for reinforcements. For emphasis, he used the word "small" twice.

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A year earlier, when Tipp's season was sinking in quicksand under different management, they disturbed Limerick for an hour in the Gaelic Grounds, but it was alarming how few Tipperary supporters had travelled. Padraic Maher, who was one of Cahill's selectors in 2023, tweeted about it at the time: "Very poor support for our boys in Limerick today," he wrote. "They deserve better."


Cahill speaking to the media before a game against Kilkenny in February 2023. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
Cahill speaking to the media before a game against Kilkenny in February 2023. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
Against Cork last May the numbers reached a stultifying nadir. To have any chance of staying in the championship both teams needed to win; Semple Stadium, though, was bathed in red. Babs Keating was canvassing for the European Elections with the former GAA president Seán Kelly, and they stood on the brow of the railway bridge.


"All we could see coming up the road was Cork supporters," says Keating. "It must have been 10 to 1. It was never seen before." The attendance in Thurles that day was given as 43,792; at least 35,000 were from Cork.

In the GAA desertion is a common affliction. Every intercounty team is followed by a standing army of unblinking loyalists and a Dad's Army of reservists, who prefer to avoid losing battles. In that respect, Tipp are no different from everybody else. But in a county of Tipp's size and history of success and livid passion for the game, everything is amplified. Winning is a carnival; losing is an opera.

"What I would compare it to is Manchester United," says Tommy Dunne, the former Tipperary captain, selector and coach. "Man United are in the news every day. With Tipp there is a spotlight there all the time – and probably more so when things aren't going well. In Tipp you are expected to win. You measure yourself on really, really high standards. That's the thing. When you lose there is hell to pay.

Cork fans outnumbering Tipperary fans during
a Munster senior hurling championship match at Semple Stadium, Thurles, in May 2024. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
Cork fans outnumbering Tipperary fans during a Munster senior hurling championship match at Semple Stadium, Thurles, in May 2024. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
"I was only thinking the other day about when Cork beat us below in Killarney [2004 qualifiers]. I remember going into work two days after, ashamed of my life. F**king ashamed of my life. I was working in a place in Nenagh with 400 or 500 people and I was going around with the head down, hoping you wouldn't meet someone that was going to have a go at you about the match, or even just offer sympathy to you. You wouldn't know what to say. That was real life, and it's not any different now I'm sure."

In every county there is a triangular relationship between the team, the supporters and the local media. Cahill has spent the last three years trying to navigate that space without impaling himself on the sharp corners. Last Sunday in his post-match comments he spoke, pointedly, about the "knowledgeable people who know the hurling landscape in Tipp" and understand that this team will need time; but he also referenced the "impatient, less knowledgeable Tipperary hurling folk," who will heckle that process. That intellectual divide is not unique to Tipp either; every manager must suffer it.

In many ways Cahill is hard-nosed, and he expects his players to be tough, but in some ways he is sensitive. After Tipp fell to their fourth defeat in last year's Munster championship Cahill was asked by Shane Brophy of the Nenagh Guardian if he would be staying on for the final year of his term. It was a perfectly legitimate question, but his response was prickly and defensive.

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"I take umbrage to that question," he said, before asserting that he enjoyed the support of the county board and the dressingroom. Managers don't necessarily need an overall majority. Cahill and Brophy continued the conversation in another room when the press conference finished and in the following week's Nenagh Guardian Brophy offered his side of the argument.

"The Tipp manager did express his annoyance to me over the headline used in this paper last week describing Tipperary as 'The Whipping Boys of Munster,'" wrote Brophy. "It's not a nice headline, I agree. However, I stand by it. When you are losing championship games by 15 and 18 points to Limerick and Cork respectively there is no sugar-coating it – facts are facts ... I loved the fire in his response [to my question]. I was caught a little by surprise I admit, but I'm a grown man, I can take it."

Cahill arriving at Semple Stadium for a match against Clare in the Munster senior hurling championship in May 2024. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
Cahill arriving at Semple Stadium for a match against Clare in the Munster senior hurling championship in May 2024. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
In a phone call after the Tipperary county final five months later the two men resolved their differences. But nobody lives in a soundproofed room and the modern world bristles with noise. Cahill pays attention. JJ Kennedy has been writing his esteemed Westside column in the Nationalist newspaper since 1981 and last Monday night he appeared on Tipp FM to review the Galway game.

His contribution was balanced and temperate. The gist of it was that nobody should expect Tipp to win anything this year, but producing a competitive team was both achievable and necessary. In last year's Munster championship Tipp's scoring difference was minus 36 and there was a destructive pattern of final quarter fade-outs. Cahill accepts that they got the team's conditioning wrong.

But 16 new players have been added to the squad in the off-season, which is more churn than any other elite team in the country. After he came off air Cahill texted Kennedy, essentially to say thanks.

"Look he's under pressure at the moment, there's no doubt about that," says Kennedy. "He has been taking a lot of flak. He is sensitive to that, and he does react to it. I was saying to him, the genuine followers know where Tipperary are at, and you can't work miracles. The other ones are just background noise.


"Hurling is part of the daily conversation here in Tipperary and people take it very seriously. When things go bad criticism flies, and you just have to suck it up really."

Cahill near the end of a game against Clare
in the Munster Championship in May 2024. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
Cahill near the end of a game against Clare in the Munster Championship in May 2024. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
But if the game is such a local obsession where have the supporters gone? Michael Bourke is a former chairman of the county board and is now chairman of the Tipperary supporters' club. When it was set up during Babs Keating's first stint as manager nearly 40 years ago it was the first such enterprise in the country, and in the years since they have raised more than €8 million, a staggering amount.

Last year they raised nearly €100,000. Supporters are still prepared to put their hands in their pockets. "Maybe some people are fickle in their view and they don't see prosperity," says Bourke. "Maybe there's an expectation from our supporters that we should be in Croke Park every year, and that would be your dream – but that doesn't happen. Everyone hits a lean period. Now, Liam is bringing in a huge amount of young, energetic players, and they will capture the trust of the public."

The absenteeism, though, is difficult to ignore or explain away. "It's hard to make sense of it," says Dunne. "It means so much to many people and yet so many people don't go and follow the team. What I do remember from playing is the feeling that letting down supporters is the worst feeling in the world.

"It happened a few times when we were playing and you never forget it. There is a responsibility there and that is part of playing for Tipp. There are certain standards that you must meet. That is a savage challenge for a group of players year after year. I was conscious of the pressure of being a Tipp player, I'm certain about that. Did it affect me? Did it bother me? It did affect me. There's no getting away from that.

"The jersey weighs a bit heavier when things aren't right. But I still love the fact that it carries so much weight with the public. I still love it because it means something. We are a county of substance, of tradition, we are a county with history – that's still there."


Tipperary selector Tommy Dunne in 2019. 'My perception is that the public look to the management first in terms of blame or accountability, and that's perfectly understandable.' Photograph: Oisin Keniry/Inpho
Tipperary selector Tommy Dunne in 2019. 'My perception is that the public look to the management first in terms of blame or accountability, and that's perfectly understandable.' Photograph: Oisin Keniry/Inpho
After the Cork game last year Dunne sent Cahill a text in solidarity. He says he wouldn't normally do something like that, but it was an excruciating a day for everyone who cared about the jersey. They had played together for a few years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and like Cahill, Dunne had not been afraid to step into management, first with Declan Ryan and later with Liam Sheedy. On the sideline nobody wears a helmet.

"It was as bad, if not worse [being involved in management]," he says. "My perception is that the public look to the management first in terms of blame or accountability, and that's perfectly understandable. I remember the debacle of the All-Ireland semi-final in 2012 and the shame and embarrassment I felt [as a coach] incredibly hard. It was horrendous, absolutely horrendous. This feeling that we got it so badly wrong and it was on us.

"But you step into those roles and the reality is that that kind of stuff is never far from your door. There's no point in looking for sympathy or living in a pretence that it's not going to happen because you're only one performance away from negativity or maybe abuse. I'm not saying that's right – that's just the way it is.

"But every year I was involved with Tipperary I believed we could win a championship. I'd be surprised if that still isn't in the Tipperary manager's psyche right now. I think you're hard-wired to think that. All logic might say, 'you can't, you shouldn't, you won't.' But the hard-wired part of me says, 'we're Tipperary, and therefore anything is possible.' What are we if we lose that?"

That part is safe, come what may.

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2025/04/28/if-hurling-is-so-good-why-is-it-so-small/
If hurling is so good, why is it so small?
The GAA is still grappling with how to grow game into an all-Ireland sport
Expand
 
Hundreds of thousands of people tuned in to watch Clare take on Cork on the opening weekend of the hurling championship, but what will come of that interest? Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho
 
Denis Walsh
Mon Apr 28 2025 - 06:00
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This is the time of the year when hurling is placed on an altar for worship. Even the agnostic are curious. It is like when Wimbledon is on telly, or The Masters, or the Six Nations, or the World Cup – any World Cup. Everyone's eye is drawn to something shiny.
So, the Munster championship was launched to a symphony, the Leinster championship was launched to the sound of brass, and for the next while people will pay attention. The Clare-Cork game on the opening weekend attracted a peak viewership of 388,000 on RTÉ, and a staggering audience share of 42 per cent. For a bank holiday weekend, those numbers were far beyond the norm.
But it won't last long. In the Liam MacCarthy Cup 27 matches are stuffed into eight weeks, and then there will be just seven games for the rest of the season. Two of those will be mismatches in the preliminary quarter-finals, and five of them will be played on Saturdays. Ask the Leinster Council about the attractiveness of Saturday matches.
And then what? If we have convinced ourselves that this is a Golden Age for the game, what good will come of it beyond a few blissful weeks of spectacular matches and feverish coverage? Does it make anybody want to play in places where nobody ever really wanted to play before?
READ MORE
Inside Gaelic Games: The weekly GAA newsletter from The Irish Times

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"Complacency is a disease which is more lethal in hurling than in any sport," wrote Liam Sheedy as chairman of the Hurling 2020 committee, 10 years ago.
Wrapped up in that complacency is a streak of self-regard. As a community, hurling people have always felt superior. They like and admire other games but can't see one that compares with hurling. They're right, of course. But sometimes that can be a blinding condition. If hurling is so good, why is it so small?
Learn more
 
When hurling was booming in the late 1990s what was the dividend for the game apart from the excitement that coursed through the championship? Did it break down any of the GAA's local discrimination? No?
 
Offaly and Galway in action on Saturday. Photograph: Andrew Paton/Inpho
People who are immersed in the game are fiercely protective of it. Paudie Butler was appointed national director of hurling 20 years ago and excelled in the role for five years. His engagement with hurlers, or aspiring hurlers, in every corner of the island had a pastoral quality.
"I want every child to have the chance to hurl because they're Irish," he said to journalist Kieran Shannon in 2015. "I have this belief our game is a treasure like the Ardagh Chalice or the language. It's ancient and something unique to ourselves."
Nobody ever disputes the claim that hurling is a national treasure, whether it has safe harbour in your club or not. It is an easy thing to believe. Hurling never wants for flattery or lip service. In 2018 Unesco accepted hurling on to its Representative List of The Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and there is a similar list curated by the State.
In a long entry on the website, written for the uninitiated, one line has a particular resonance. "As custodians of hurling, the GAA believes that the best way to preserve the viability of hurling is to ensure that it is played as extensively as possible."
This has been the circular, intractable problem. All gains in areas where the game had no traditional home have been small and against the tide of entrenched local preference. In those places the game has always depended on the energy and endurance of people who often feel isolated and under-resourced.
The majesty of the game that half the country has just watched on television never seems to make a difference. While social media lights up with paeans to the spectacle, these people are deadlocked at the bottom of a hill.
Martin Fogarty was the national hurling development manager from 2016 to 2021, at which time the position was discontinued. Like Butler, he pounded the roads, offering support and looking for solutions. When Jarlath Burns established a new Hurling Development Committee [HDC], Fogarty agreed to come on board.
 
The GAA's hew head of hurling, Willie Maher. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho
From years of hands-on engagement he had an unparalleled knowledge of the clubs in the northern half of the country, from Mayo to Louth, who were trying to nurture the game. When the HDC considered doing a roadshow Fogarty produced a list of 102 clubs, divided them into four regions, and picked a venue that was no more than an hour's drive for everybody invited to attend.
He presented a draft itinerary for the meeting, which included "a motivational speech" by Brian Cody, and an opportunity for every club to outline their challenges to a listening ear.
That kind of outreach, though, has obvious limits, and Fogarty was conscious of that too. These clubs have been subject to scoping exercises many times before. During his time as the national hurling development manager, Fogarty was adamant about the need for greater funding. He was certain that the only route to progress was with targeted resourcing of clubs who had a sincere desire to grow the game.
By the time he resigned from the HDC last December he saw no evidence of this. In his 1,600-word resignation letter, seen by the Irish News, he accused the HDC of "going around in circles". How long has the GAA being going around in circles on this issue? Decades.
Willie Maher started as GAA's new head of hurling at the beginning of the month. Unlike Butler and Fogarty, his role will be less "operational" he said in an interview with John Harrington on GAA.ie, and more "strategic".
"It's been a listening exercise [so far] and will be for the foreseeable future as regards finding out what's going on and then drilling down into counties. So, what operational plan do you have? Where does hurling fit into that operational plan? How do we hold county boards and county games managers to account in terms of what we've agreed to do from a hurling development perspective? Is it being done or not?"
Is it being done or not? The answer to that question has damned the GAA for generations. At least Maher is talking about accountability. That would be a good start.

[Milltown Row2]

This is the sporting press giving off about the shorter condensed championship and leaving them with less to write about..

Hurling has thrived and more counties have developed it more, a lot of this is down to the lower championships were teams are competing for a title that they can actually win, instead of being lumped into a championship that they'll have little or no chance of winning.

The grading allows teams to move up, but it's on them to improve, Offaly (bar last weekend result) have shown that you can drop to Christy Ring and move back up to McCarthy cup, they might sustain it too..

The main reason for me that you have this hierarchy in hurling is that counties don't invest in it to the same level as your Corks Kilkenny Tipps Galway's and more recently Limericks, at club level Derry Antrim have been competing and winning games against these established counties, the Ulster teams at intermediate and Junior have also competed and beaten teams from these counties, so the basics are there, the skill set is available it's just that you need ten teams at senior that are competing for their championship and not the typical 3 in Antrim and one dominating team in the other countries..

Hurling is hard game, the skill set is different to football, this isn't a snobbery thing it's basic fact, it's easier to play football and kids will naturally take the easier option nowadays

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2025/05/01/joe-canning-red-card-for-darragh-mccarthy-raises-questions-about-tipperarys-mindset/
Joe Canning: Red card for Darragh McCarthy raises questions about Tipperary's mindset
Waterford might have the ideal chance this weekend to earn a win against Limerick


Thu May 01 2025 - 13:00

This might sound strange, but in my career, I didn't encounter much of the stuff that we saw before the throw-in in Páirc Uí Chaoimh last Sunday. Most of the time it was no more than the belt of a shoulder from my marker. I don't remember getting a dunt of a hurley. Definitely nothing like the craziness we saw in the Páirc.

As a forward, I never really wanted to get into it. I just didn't see the benefit of it for me. I always thought it would put me in the wrong frame of mind. If I went to shake hands with my marker and he hit me a shoulder, I'd hit him back, but that would be it. I would never be the aggressor in the first place.

I look at subs coming on and the first thing they do is hit their marker a shoulder and I always think, "What's the idea of it? Why bother?". I was always taught to hurt your man on the scoreboard, and if I was getting a bit of attention off the ball, I'd save my reaction for after a score.

What amazed me about the carry-on before the throw-in in the Cork-Tipperary match was that the Tipp forwards seemed to be the instigators at that end of the field. They were completely wound up. It was the same before the Limerick game a week earlier. What good does that do? In a championship match you must play with aggression, but most of all you must play with control. Having smoke coming out your ears isn't going to help that.

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Inside Gaelic Games: The weekly GAA newsletter from The Irish Times
Inside Gaelic Games: The weekly GAA newsletter from The Irish Times
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Former All-Ireland winner Lorcan Quinn earns scholarship to be American football kicker
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Joe Canning: Red card for Darragh McCarthy raises questions about Tipperary's mindset
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Niall Scully says Dublin ready to regroup and go again
Darragh McCarthy probably wasn't the only player to hit his marker with the hurley before the ball was thrown in last Sunday, but he was the one that was caught. Three weeks earlier Séan O'Donoghue had cleaned him out in the league final and maybe that was part of the context for what he did.

But McCarthy was man of the match against Limerick in Thurles. He's a brilliant young player who made the step up to senior hurling effortlessly. He must have fancied his chances against any of the Cork backs. What frame of mind was he in running out onto the pitch? Instead of thinking about the first ball, is this what he was thinking about? Is that what all the Tipp players were thinking about, giving their men a belt before the ball was thrown in?

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If it was, they went onto the field in the wrong state of mind. McCarthy and Tipp paid a heavy price. McCarthy is young and will learn. I wonder will Tipp learn.

Michael Kiely of Waterford is tackled by Adam Hogan of Clare. Photograph: Natasha Barton/Inpho
Michael Kiely of Waterford is tackled by Adam Hogan of Clare. Photograph: Natasha Barton/Inpho
The other big talking point from last Sunday was Adam Hogan throwing himself to the ground in Walsh Park, after Dessie Hutchinson tipped him on the arm with his hurley. Hutchinson was booked for making minimal contact with the hurley, but Hogan should have been booked for diving.

Hogan plays the hard man and is well known for verbals and trying to antagonise players off the ball, but there wasn't an ounce of toughness in the way he behaved last Sunday. That kind of stuff is becoming a blight on the game and the responsibility to stamp it out rests on everyone, not just referees, but players and managers too.

Brian Duignan didn't cover himself in glory either. Daithí Burke was sent off for hitting him on the shoulder under a dropping ball, and the hurley snapped in two. Duignan turned around and started pushing Burke and then, a few seconds later, he went down holding his head.

In these situations, I always think of Tommy Walsh in the 2009 All-Ireland final, when Benny Dunne hit him on the head under a puck-out. Dunne was correctly sent off, but in fairness to Walsh, he jumped back up as soon as he hit the ground. There's an onus on players to behave in a manly way. We're not seeing enough of that.

The issue here is the spirit of the game. I've noticed more players and managers trying to get opposition players booked. Diving is part of that. In soccer now they have a rule where if you ask for a player to be booked, that is a yellow card offence. If things keep going the way they are, the GAA should consider that.


Galway's Dathí Burke. Photograph: Leah Scholes/Inpho
Galway's Dathí Burke. Photograph: Leah Scholes/Inpho
The way the game is played now, with so much swarm-tackling and hard-hitting, referees have an incredibly hard job. I was part of the live coverage on RTÉ for the Kilkenny-Galway game a couple of weeks ago and we were hooked up to the referee's communication system, so we could hear his interaction with the other match officials and his conversations with players.

I haven't always been Séan Stack's biggest fan, but I was hugely impressed with the way he spoke to the players that day. From my experience, if a player is given a decent explanation from a referee they will take a decision on the chin, whether they agree with it or not. Referees can't be expected to explain everything, but with a contentious call, it is the only way to prevent frustrations building up. That kind of frustration makes a referee's job even harder.

There's only one game this weekend, but it's fascinating. Nobody really knew what to expect from Waterford last Sunday, coming out of Division One B in the league, but they were well worth their win over Clare.

Limerick will be a different test, but I'm not sure what version of Limerick we're seeing at the moment. When you look at some of the big names on the bench you're wondering if they're coming back from injuries, or if the team is moving on without them? To me, Limerick didn't seem to be at full throttle against Tipp, but maybe they don't have the gears they used to have.

It'll be interesting to see if they leave Will O'Donoghue at six and Kyle Hayes at 11. O'Donoghue is a good centre-back, but I think by playing him in that position, they're losing a lot in the middle of the field. His physicality and turnovers and link play in the middle third were huge for Limerick over the years.

A lot of these Waterford players have suffered at Limerick's hands in recent years, but if there's any good time to catch Limerick, this could be it. I think they have a serious chance.

[johnnycool]

From instagram...

After yesterday's hammering of Cork, coaches all over the country will start looking at what Limerick do in training, what drills and tactics they focus on.

But the smarter question is:

How are they coached?

Everyone talks about Paul Kinnerk and how he's changed the game but the most revolutionary contribution isn't his session content, games or drills—the real gold is in how he coaches.

It's not just drills or shouting from the sideline.

It's a method. A smart one.

Here's how a typical session works:

👉 Start with a tactical problem – like defending the central channel.
👉 Then set up a game in training that brings out that problem.
👉 Let it run. Then pause it and ask questions. Get players thinking. What are you seeing? What could we do better?
👉 After that, run a modified version of the game – make it tighter or add rules that isolate the problem even more.
👉 Then progress it again – maybe open it up, increase the pressure, speed or space.
👉 Finally, return to the original game and see if learning has happened. No cones, no lines – just real game learning.

That's what Limerick are doing.

Not copying drills.

Not overcoaching.

Just building smart players who play with a clear set of principles, understand the game deeply, make good decisions and solve any problem put in front of them.

A Games-Based Approach (laid out above) is backed by research and study, – it helps players make better decisions, build better skills, establish team/player principles and understand the game more deeply. It can work across any sport - MMA, soccer, gaelic games, basketball etc.

#GAA #Hurling #Limerick #LimerickGAA #LimerickHurling #GAACoaching #GameBasedApproach #SportScience #AthleteDevelopment #GameSense #IrishSport #PointTaken

[Deerstalker]

Obviously helps when you have some of the best players to ever play the game 

[seafoid]

Nicky English: Limerick showed All-Ireland intent in shaking Cork to their core
Issues in Cork full-back line laid bare by clinical Limerick
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Man of the Match Kyle Hayes with fans after Limerick's win over Cork at the Gaelic Grounds. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
 
Nicky English
Sun May 18 2025 - 21:52
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I believed going into this weekend that we would be watching the best two teams in the championship playing in Limerick. The scary thing, especially for Cork, is that may still be true but it's a long drop from first to second.
Limerick were savage on the day. You could probably put a best 15 from all of the other teams together and they wouldn't have been beaten here. That's as impressive as I've seen them in a couple of years – since the Munster finals in 2019 and 2021 and the '21 All-Ireland. It was that good.
[ Limerick show they haven't gone away by dismantling CorkOpens in new window ]
The question before the championship was would John Kiely have all of his players healthy and ready to go? He did on Sunday. Will they be all healthy in eight weeks' time? Who knows, but on this evidence, at their best they are untouchable.
Ominously, Will O'Donoghue and Gearóid Hegarty are still improving as well, getting closer to their best. Nickie Quaid was a likely non-starter in the championship – the Munster Championship, anyway – or so we though

________________________________________
Yet there he was, making outstanding puck-out decisions, and when Cork needed goals to stay in it in the first half, he saves from Patrick Hogan. The ball is worked up the field smartly to Hegarty, who scores a point at the other end.
 
Cork's Shane Barrett and Limerick's Tom Morrissey. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
In general, the improvement they showed against Waterford was not only maintained but the rate of improvement was as well.
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The first point that Tom Morrissey got came from a very snappily hit pass from Cian Lynch, which Morrissey took on the full and went on to score. It was like a declaration of intent and showed straight away that Limerick were really on their game.
I think it was a more important match for them than it was for Cork. Limerick lost the five-in-a-row last year when Cork beat them in the All-Ireland semi-final. I've heard O'Donoghue saying they just get over it and focus on the future, but obviously something like that hits deep and hard because they were probably the best team in last year's championship.
They played well enough to beat Cork but yet didn't manage to. Maybe it was the stress of the drive for five but they also had key injuries. Barry Nash, another who was outstanding this weekend, missed that semi-final.
Their depth is now enviable. Cathal O'Neill is a replacement because Tom Morrissey has improved and is capable of scoring five points in a match and because Adam English has been outstanding. O'Neill would be starting for any other team.
 
Adam English celebrates after scoring Limerick's second goal. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho
Kyle Hayes was named Man of the Match, and rightly so, but English for me was a close second. He scored a goal and a couple of points, but overall his touch was so silky and his footwork so neat. He also got on a load of ball and delivered it brilliantly in front of him. You'd love to be a corner forward with that quality of supply.
Aaron Gillane was on it from an early stage with his goal and ran amok. We've questioned the Cork full-back line in the past having previously been in trouble against both Limerick and Clare, and they were again under all kinds of pressure here with little option but to foul.
The Limerick defence, particularly with Hayes in front of the full-back line, were just winning every high ball that was incoming. By the time English scored the second goal, they were out of sight.
Will Cork get over it? It's a long way from the confidence of winning the league, so it's not going to be easy. A saving grace is that they're back on the bike very quickly against Waterford, who have their own issues and are probably an ideal match for Pat Ryan's men to start the recovery process.
The problem with that is there's a very ominous prize for winning, playing Limerick again in a couple of weeks in the Munster final.
If Limerick repeat what they did this weekend, there's nobody who will come near them. The All-Ireland is eight weeks away but this was a massive statement

[johnnycool]

Add to that, Seamy Flannagan, Peter Casey as well as Cathal O'Neill getting a few minutes here and there. they've a bit of cover in the forwards, defense less so with Deccy Hannon a bit part player at the minute. Lose Hayes or Dan Morrisey then they will need a serious rejig in there.

The biggest thing for me is the return to form of Lynch, I thought he was poor last year and for the few league games he played this year where he wasn't impacting games in the way that he can and showed on Sunday.
Unplayable at times, and when he gets on the ball the Limerick forwards know to make a run and he'll find them some way or other.

[Saffron_sam20]

Monaghan boss slams New York semi-final inclusion as an 'absolute disgrace'
https://www.rte.ie/sport/hurling/2025/0522/1514368-monaghan-boss-slams-new-york-inclusion-as-a-disgrace/?fbclid=IwY2xjawKdApNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHkQRbk6fP9qm5QkE1f2E3PNJpnZDFN1qWoaTvz7aAMR1ZWbdSwRh9CnCp_qY_aem_vP5tGN6MSzEUig--O4PVWw



Monaghan hurling manager Arthur Hughes has labelled the decision to hand New York a Lory Meagher semi-final spot without playing a game "an absolute disgrace" ahead of their clash in Mullingar on Saturday.

At Congress in February, a proposal from the Central Council and the CCCC passed allowing Richie Hartnett's side into the latter stages of the competition.

However, speaking in Gaelic Life, Hughes took aim at officials and felt it was another blow for the five counties, which didn't include Monaghan, who were close to being excluded from the National League following a GAA suggestion two years ago.

"I think it's an absolute disgrace. It's not that long ago the GAA were trying to get rid of five counties in Ireland from playing in the National League, and now the next thing they've done is bringing in New York.


"It's an absolute joke in my opinion – you don't know what you're coming up against, what level they're at, and it's completely unfair to just fly a team into the semi-finals. If you're going to participate in a competition, you should be there from the start."

Monaghan came through the group stages with one loss in five games and a late fightback against Longford last time out securing the draw needed to progress to the semi-finals with Cavan awaiting the winner.

New York come into the game with a number of notable names in their panel, not least former Galway player Johnny Glynn, and won the Connacht League for the first time in January 2024 after defeating Mayo in the final.

The New York footballers are also once again included in this season's Tailteann Cup where, as has been the case since 2023, they will enter at the preliminary quarter-final stage having been handed a quarter-final spot in the initial knock-out tournament in 2022.

In defence, now former Fermanagh manager Joe Baldwin, who won the Lory Meagher Cup last year, expressed sympathy for how the change in format has impacted Monaghan but said it was hard to see how else New York could be accommodated.

 "New York have a right, Gaels have a right, to play in it," Baldwin told RTÉ Sport.

"I suppose it's the only way to do it really. It's an amateur organisation and travelling back and forth to New York, it's not feasible.


Johnny Glynn is a key man for New York
"From a Monaghan point of view, it, it gets them another game, and maybe the game could be good for them, maybe the rest could be good for them. Only time will tell.

"But if New York are as strong as people are saying, it's going to be really disappointing for Monaghan.

"We knew about it at the start of the year. So it's one of those things you just have to get on with.

"But I'm hoping that Monaghan can get a result this weekend and we get a Cavan-Monaghan final."