Kevin Cashman

[AZOffaly]

Apart from the taint of the back door, one other very solid reason dictates that it would be altogether better for the game if Offaly were beaten today: with virtually no hullabaloo about it they have been for a few seasons prolific pullers of nasty strokes on opponents: just recall the belts suffered by Andy Comerford and Jackie Carson and Diarmuid O'Sullivan and several others. If that kind of thuggery had been dished out by Tipperary or Cork or Antrim, for that matter we'd still be hearing about it at the GAA's 150th birthday.

Jaysus that's a bit rough. I don't remember that Offaly side being in any way dirty. In fact a bit more dirt might have served them better. I remember duignan pulling wildly on a Clare lad, and Daithi Regan getting involved in a bout of fisticuffs with Comerford, but were the Offaly team of the 90s really dirty? I really can't accept that. They had a few tough men like Hanamy and Rigney, but they weren't a patch on the likes of Wexford.

[slow corner back]

I think i  general hurling, certainly back in the eighties and carried through to the nineties was more physical but with much less pace. There were less cameras at the games and players got away with more. I dont remember Offaly as a particularly dirty side although Kevin Kinihan was a bit of a timber merchant, in an old fashioned kinda full back way. That said Brian Lohan or Diarmuid O Sullivan were hardly shrinking violets either.

[AZOffaly]

I think i  general hurling, certainly back in the eighties and carried through to the nineties was more physical but with much less pace. There were less cameras at the games and players got away with more. I dont remember Offaly as a particularly dirty side although Kevin Kinihan was a bit of a timber merchant, in an old fashioned kinda full back way. That said Brian Lohan or Diarmuid O Sullivan were hardly shrinking violets either.

Nah, can't agree there. If there was one thing Kinahan wasn't it was a timber merchant.

[INDIANA]

I think i  general hurling, certainly back in the eighties and carried through to the nineties was more physical but with much less pace. There were less cameras at the games and players got away with more. I dont remember Offaly as a particularly dirty side although Kevin Kinihan was a bit of a timber merchant, in an old fashioned kinda full back way. That said Brian Lohan or Diarmuid O Sullivan were hardly shrinking violets either.

Nah, can't agree there. If there was one thing Kinahan wasn't it was a timber merchant.

Cashman wrote that becasue they beat Cork in the semi. Seriously he hated teams getting one over Cork. I wouldn't have had Kinahan as a timber merchant - Rigney was better at clipping.

[imtommygunn]

You definitely could not accuse that Offaly team in the 90s of being dirty.

They were a skillful team. None of them even struck you as being significantly hard, though undoubtedly they were, never mind being dirty.

You'd not see Brian Whelehan, Johnny Dooley, any Dooley in fact, John Troy or any boy like that pulling a dirty stroke.

Granted Whelehan got sent off his last game for Birr but there was no dirt in the man.

You were a team, IMO, you couldn't not like.

I liked Clare, for a while, as they were the underdog but they'd a few boys you'd not be too fond of.Kilkenny win so much you want rid of them and Cork have an air of arrogance about them (Tipp too). From the outside looking in Offaly would always have been my favourites by a long way in that era.

[Asal Mor]

I always thought that Offaly team were a complete joy to watch. Brian Whelehan, The 3 dooleys, Johnny Pilkington, Michael Duignan and especially John Troy were some of my favourite hurlers of all-time.

Dirty??? Raimeis.

[Bord na Mona man]

Apart from the taint of the back door, one other very solid reason dictates that it would be altogether better for the game if Offaly were beaten today: with virtually no hullabaloo about it they have been for a few seasons prolific pullers of nasty strokes on opponents: just recall the belts suffered by Andy Comerford and Jackie Carson and Diarmuid O'Sullivan and several others. If that kind of thuggery had been dished out by Tipperary or Cork or Antrim, for that matter we'd still be hearing about it at the GAA's 150th birthday.

Jaysus that's a bit rough. I don't remember that Offaly side being in any way dirty. In fact a bit more dirt might have served them better. I remember duignan pulling wildly on a Clare lad, and Daithi Regan getting involved in a bout of fisticuffs with Comerford, but were the Offaly team of the 90s really dirty? I really can't accept that. They had a few tough men like Hanamy and Rigney, but they weren't a patch on the likes of Wexford.

The Regan-Comerford incident was a belts being exchanged by both players, with Regan's punch being the icing on the cake.

The Jackie Carson one I've never figured. Him and Hubert Rigney had some keen tussles, however it was Carson who cleaved Rigney with a stroke to the leg in 1999 and left Rigney on crutches for a few days. In the same game Carson also took the fingers off Kevin Martin, meaning he had dispatched 2/3s of the Offaly half back line to hospital.
This was two weeks before Offaly had to play Cork, so Cashman could hardly complain.

The Diarmuid O'Sullivan one is pure Cork bias from Cashman. Early in the 2000 semi final, O'Sullivan carried out a two handed diving chop down in Gary Hanniffy's hand. Later in the game Hanniffy came in late on O'Sullivan as he cleared the ball and barged into him and as O'Sullivan was hitting the ground. John Ryan followed up with another shoulder from behind to send The Rock sprawling onto the turf like an overturned bear. As Cashman's mortal enemy Liam Griffin quipped in his commentary, "if you live by the sword..."

[Bord na Mona man]

DJ Carey is quite a good player. He is not, was not, the greatest hurler of all time nor even of the decade he inhabited.

oh yeah. Jaysis, how could I forget his DJ-bashing.

I could be wrong BW but I seem to recall he went too far in one article DJ related that got him into hot water. I could be wrong on that though. He couldn't abide DJ.

Yep, he had a dislike of Carey and in one article basically called him a money grabber and vainglorious.
Carey took the legal route and the Indo had to cough up something like £115,000.

Carey's biggest crime was to be compared to Christy Ring and we all know how precious Cork folk are about their sports stars! 

[Bord na Mona man]

That's odd. I remember him being absolutely scathing about the ills of Cork hurling in the mid-1990s, in particular in the aftermath of their hammering at the hands of Limerick in 1996.

True, but the thrust of such analysis usually boiled down to Cork not winning because X was picked and Y wasn't and Z being the manager.
It you find enough ways to impair the thoroughbred horse, he will end up losing to the shetland pony!

[seafoid]

.

The Jackie Carson one I've never figured. Him and Hubert Rigney had some keen tussles, however it was Carson who cleaved Rigney with a stroke to the leg in 1999 and left Rigney on crutches for a few days. In the same game Carson also took the fingers off Kevin Martin, meaning he had dispatched 2/3s of the Offaly half back line to hospital.

[/quote]

I was at that match. I thought 3 Offaly fellas went off injured. It was unprecedented. God be with the days. 

[Asal Mor]

That's odd. I remember him being absolutely scathing about the ills of Cork hurling in the mid-1990s, in particular in the aftermath of their hammering at the hands of Limerick in 1996.

True, but the thrust of such analysis usually boiled down to Cork not winning because X was picked and Y wasn't and Z being the manager.
It you find enough ways to impair the thoroughbred horse, he will end up losing to the shetland pony!

    Sounds like Reillers.

[INDIANA]

DJ Carey is quite a good player. He is not, was not, the greatest hurler of all time nor even of the decade he inhabited.

oh yeah. Jaysis, how could I forget his DJ-bashing.

I could be wrong BW but I seem to recall he went too far in one article DJ related that got him into hot water. I could be wrong on that though. He couldn't abide DJ.

Yep, he had a dislike of Carey and in one article basically called him a money grabber and vainglorious.
Carey took the legal route and the Indo had to cough up something like £115,000.

Carey's biggest crime was to be compared to Christy Ring and we all know how precious Cork folk are about their sports stars! 

that article I think finished his journalism career.

[bottlethrower7]

that article I think finished his journalism career.

its a pretty awful article alright. For a supposed preview of the 2000 all-Ireland isn't it amazing how many times he mentions Cork (and gets digs in at those he chooses not to like, most especially Limerick).

I think the Offaly thing was fresh on his mind at the time. Seeing the great Brian Corcoran humbled by John Troy can't have sat well with him, thus intensifying his dislike (lets not say 'hatred' because thats probably a bit too strong), and hence the rubbish he spews about them being dirty.

Kinahan was no shrinking violet but I wouldn't describe him as being anything more than tough. Certainly not dirty. And I too remember that game with Jackie Carson cleaving all before him. It was outrageous, and for Cashman to somehow suggest that he was the victim (if thats the game hes referring to), is a bit much.

And agreed on the incidents mentioned. Duignan's pull on Forde wasn't in character with the player that Duignan was. Apparently (and allegedly) Ger Loughnane held this over Duignan's head while doing TV punditry in later years, threatening him with it should Duignan focus on anything negative by his beloved Clare. We had a good laugh over the Regan-Comerford incident on here back at the time. It was a fair old haymaker and the only thing Regan did wrong was the fact that he got his haymaker in before Comerford got a chance to get one of his own in!

I can't remember one single incident by that Offaly side that I'd class as dirty, or be inclined to think less of them over. I recall them being on the receiving end of some blackguarding - such as John Troy getting his hand busted in a Walsh Cup game by a certain Dublin corner back, or a red-headed wing-back (whose name escapes me) being on the receiving end of an atrocious pull in a league game by Waterford's Eoin Kelly.

I think if Cashman were still about today he'd be hurling's George Hook. In otherwords, a bigger gobshite than he was back then.

[seafoid]

what happened to him anyway? Did he retire? does he still write about hurling?

[INDIANA]

what happened to him anyway? Did he retire? does he still write about hurling?

That article finished him off seafoid. No paper would touch him after that. 100k+ in damages is pretty steep and top that with costs as well.