Ger Loughnane battling leukaemia - Independent

[BennyHarp]

Best wishes to Ger - a GAA legend, lets hope he can beat this!

[magpie seanie]

Loughnane is a legend. I wish him all the best with this fight.

[johnneycool]

heard that this morning on the news.

Sorry to hear it and hope he pulls through.

[Roashter]

Best wishes to Ger, a true character indeed

[Declan]

Best wishes in the battle Ger

[heffo]

Hope he makes it through for a full recovery

[Croí na hÉireann]

Was out of the country and only seeing this now, hope he beats it. Cancer is a bastard, a son of one of the lads in work here has it bad, they are stopping chemo now as it isn't working, very sad.

[seafoid]

GAA : DUBLIN HURLING manager Anthony Daly put the build up to Sunday's eagerly-anticipated Leinster hurling final against Kilkenny into its sporting context yesterday when speaking about the ill health of his former mentors Ger Loughnane and Fr Harry Bohan.
It became public last month that Loughnane – an RTÉ pundit, principal of St Aidan's national school in Shannon and the former Clare and Galway hurling manager – had been diagnosed with cancer for which he is receiving treatment.
"That puts it all into perspective," said Daly yesterday. "There are more important things in the world. I've a first cousin who did his Leaving Cert last year and he is a year out in St James' hospital with leukaemia and to go in and see him there in the bed you have to pinch yourself at times and say your health is your wealth and enjoy the bloody thing and it's sport at the end of the day – make the best of it. It's very important to us obviously, a huge part of our lives but other things put it into perspective."
Loughnane, Clare's first All Star recipient as a player, was manager in 1995 when Daly captained Clare to their first All-Ireland title in 81 years. They repeated the feat in '97, again under Loughnane's guidance.
"It was a huge shock and Fr Harry is sick as well; a selector with me there for the three years with Clare (2003-06), a great mentor and friend of mine as well," Daly continued.
"And the two of them from Feakle, and I suppose the two most successful Clare hurling managers of all time. Fr Harry won the two leagues in the '70s with Ger playing and ironically they are both struck down – especially Loughnane because he is so fit.
"He'd be out hunting with the dogs there. You'd meet him and he'd be so enthusiastic, 'Well Dalo!' and jeez he'd know the name of the Dublin fellas. 'How's this fella going? He came on there in the 21s last year.' The brain on him is unbelievable sure.
"In some ways I always think of Loughnane as nearly indestructible, in his own sort of way. Nothing ever got to him. He has a fight on his hands but (when) he sent me a text back there at the weekend he said, 'It'll be tough but tough we can do, Dalo'.
"No better man, no better man. If anyone can turn it upside down he'll do it."

[imtommygunn]

Leukemia is much more treatable these days. I think there are varying degrees of it but I know a friend of mine's dad got it the other year and he's on tablets every day and lives a normal life. He has done so for the best part of 7 or 8 years.

All the best to Ger. He was always big on the mental strength when coaching, based on his book, so I've no doubt if it gets tough for him he'll be a battler. Hopefully it is a treatable form though and it doesn't come to that.

[Gaaboardmod3]

Lads, I have removed some posts here this morning, and a thread out on the main board. There are rumours flying about, but only rumours, so please do not post anything on this subject for the moment.

Thanks

[orangeman]

Mod 3 - I hope this is ok to post - good article -

Rumours of Loughnane's demise have been greatly, greatly exaggerated

By Conor Heneghan

Like most GAA fans around the country this morning, here in JOE Towers we were saddened and completely taken aback to learn of the death of one of the stalwarts of the association, Clare legend Ger Loughnane.

He had his critics, Lord did he have his critics, but even amongst his detractors there was always a deep respect for a man who dragged Clare hurling up from the doldrums in the 90s and more recently, provided some of the most entertaining, if controversial, GAA punditry of the modern age.

But hold on a second. Loughnane wasn't dead at all, but merely the subject of a vicious hoax on various social networking sites, notably Twitter. Great and all as it is for breaking news, the folly of Twitter is exposed in a situation like this, where a story gets legs and runs all over the place.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there. This is a man who, directly or indirectly, has given us some of the best GAA quotes we'll ever see, so we were just delighted Ger was still with us.

On his love of Tipperary, he once said: "I'm not giving away any secrets like that to Tipperary. If I had my way, I wouldn't even tell them the time of the throw-in."

There was also the testimony of an anonymous former player who was subject to Loughnane's notoriously difficult training sessions: "Ger Loughnane was fair," he said. "He treated us all the same during training – like dogs."

There isn't a better man for the battle. As he said to his former on-pitch lieutenant Anthony Daly in the aftermath of his leukaemia diagnosis, "It'll be tough, but tough we can do, Dalo."

Get well soon, Ger.  AND SO SAY ALL OF US.

[mylestheslasher]

I wish him all the best, he's a great character. I remember him busting his hole laughing at Marty morrisey after the 2009 ai final when cody went through him for a short cut. Get reckoned RTE better send someone down to the pitch to pick Marty up.   

[Bord na Mona man]

It reminds me of the "Where's Morrissey" incident in 1998. Its good to hear that Ger is responding well to the treatment.

[Hardy]

Ger, you are going to do it.

[lynchbhoy]

Best of luck to Ger , a true GAA Great !!