Journalist Write-Off

[ONeill]

THE CHALLENGER

Ulster leading the way in terms of hurling inclusion
with Kenny Archer

For most gaels in Ulster, the Championship doesn't start until May 18, when Antrim host Cavan in the preliminary round of the senior football event. Some might say that match doesn't matter – but that's another matter. Yet the reality is that the Championship does commence this Sunday, and not only because there are games in Connacht and Leinster football.

It may have slipped below the radar of many observers, but the Ulster Senior Hurling Championship gets underway this weekend too. The matches may not exactly be mouthwatering, even if they are both derbies, with Cavan hosting Monaghan and Fermanagh at home to Tyrone. What is more important, though, is that they're taking place at all. For the first time ever, all nine northern counties will compete in the Ulster SHC; in fact, 10 teams will be involved, with London awaiting the winners of the Fermanagh-Tyrone tie in one of the 'quarter-finals'.

At a time when many have suggested that the Ulster SHC should be scrapped, especially after Antrim annihilated old rivals Down by 26 points in last year's decider (2-24 to 0-4) to win a sixth consecutive provincial crown, the Ulster Council had decided to do the opposite.

The number of teams involved has doubled, from five last year, with the addition of the four teams competing this weekend plus Donegal. At last, the province has a true Ulster Senior Hurling Championship. Sure, in all probability that won't affect the ultimate outcome, as Antrim will win their seventh successive title quite comfortably, but the level of competition will be closer beyond the final.

Armagh was a welcome 'newcomer' to the Ulster SHC last year, replacing New York, whose involvement had increasingly proved more trouble than it was worth, leading to the 2006 'Ulster' Final having to be played in Boston. The Orchard County hurlers were only beaten by a last-gasp point by Derry in the quarter-final. In turn, the Oak Leafers took Down to a replay in the semi-final.

Since the Ulster SHC was restarted in 1989, it's largely been all about Antrim, Down, and Derry. The Saffrons have dominated, of course, collecting 14 titles, including those last six in-a-row, with Down taking three (the last in 1997) and Derry two, in 2000 and 2001.

Intriguingly, the three beaten finalists in the last three finals before the Ulster Championship was put into cold storage in 1946 were somewhat surprising, at least to modern eyes – Monaghan (who actually took Antrim to a replay in 1944 before being thrashed 7-3 to 0-1), Donegal in 1945, and Armagh in 1946. It may take a long time before any of those three counties, even Armagh who have been working very hard on hurling, can make it through to an Ulster final, but at least the other six counties outside the recent top three have been offered some incentive and encouragement.

Ulster's lead should perhaps be followed by other provinces. Munster is highly competitive, with only Kerry sitting it out in recent years, but Connacht and Leinster could change and improve. Connacht has not even had a provincial final since 1999, after five years of Galway easily beating Roscommon (by an average margin of almost 19 points). That decider had only been revived in 1995 after a 73-year hiatus; it's no wonder that hurling has been so weak in the west. Obviously there's no point in Galway facing Roscommon, or even Mayo, who've overtaken the Rossies in recent years, while Sligo and Leitrim are very weak.

But perhaps those four counties could play off against each other before providing a 'best of the rest' to take on the Tribesmen, if only for the challenge? Doing anything would be better than doing nothing. Similarly, Leinster could bring back into its senior ranks the likes of Carlow, Kildare, and Meath, who had been involved intermittently in their SHC up to and including 2005.

At the moment, Leinster has only half its counties involved in its hurling showcase. Those three counties mentioned could at least compete in the earlier stages and even the rest of the eastern province, Longford, Louth, and Wicklow could participate as long as there was strategic seeding.

Ulster hurling does not often lead the way but the message is clear: it's better to promote than to demote.

[Gnevin]

ORIGINALITY 8
ENTERTAINMENT 9
INFORMATIVE 9
QUALITY  8


Comment:Very good article from start to finish , makes some good points , told me a lot i was unaware of one of the best GAA related articles i've seen in quite some time

[rrhf]

Posted by: Gnevin  
Insert Quote
ORIGINALITY 8
ENTERTAINMENT 7
INFORMATIVE 8
QUALITY  8


Comment: Positive thoughtful and factual articulation from Archer the anchorman.  Always a smattering of old school understatement and humiliity about his pennings - a journalist who just needs to "show for the ball" more often.  He looks primed for perhaps his biggest season yet - a worthy darkhorse.  

[ONeill]

ORIGINALITY 6
ENTERTAINMENT 5
INFORMATIVE 7
QUALITY  6

I have Archer just sneaking home ahead of Heaney. Season-long, Paddy will produce more match-winning performances but on this occasion he has been caught cold, perhaps taking his passage through for granted. Time for him to win a few nods yet though.

Archer's article was a little harmless piece, nothing special but good timing and the odd interesting snippet.

[Kerry Mike]

ORIGINALITY 4
ENTERTAINMENT 5
INFORMATIVE 4
QUALITY  5

Much improved on the Heaney piece.

Had heard about the UHC a few months ago but good to see it getting an airing, Just wonder if there was football on this week would it have made his column. Still the proof will be in the eating, will there be match reports after this weekend in the IN, and what will the attendances be like.

Were all his stats correct?

He could have given a bit more info on what happens the losers and whether they play in the CR or NR cups. And maybe explain about the likely outcomes of each game and nere a mention of any of the star players to watch out for from the 4 teams involved.  Anyway a decent read overall.

And we only sit out the hurling to concentrate on the football, we dont want to be too greedy, but 1891 makes us one of the few dual winning counties.

[AZOffaly]

And we only sit out the hurling to concentrate on the football,

In all fairness, that is a shameful decision by Kerry, in my opinion. There is Kerry hurling now spreading into Killorglin, with south Kerry lads heading up to play there, but the county board doesn't give two shites about it.

[Newbridge Exile]

Anyone bar Eamon O'Hara from the Irish News

[ONeill]

FIRST QUARTER FINAL WINNER: KENNY ARCHER

This is a real shock, sort of like Monaghan beating Armagh in 2003.

WEEK 2 - THE IRISH TIMES

Could I have nominations for 2 journalists form the Irish Times who have weekly opinion columns. A few have been mentioned on here - Seán Moran, Keith Duggan, Ian O'Riordan, Gavin Cummiskey, TH...... who are the 2, and 2 only, heavyweights? Majority rules.

[Louth Exile]

WEEK 2 - THE IRISH TIMES

Could I have nominations for 2 journalists form the Irish Times who have weekly opinion columns. A few have been mentioned on here - Seán Moran, Keith Duggan, Ian O'Riordan, Gavin Cummiskey, TH...... who are the 2, and 2 only, heavyweights? Majority rules.

I think that it has to Sean Moran and Keith Duggan

[KIDDO 4]

The only way is up after flat opening
IAN O'RIORDAN At Pearse Park

GAELIC GAMES: SHORTLY AFTER three o'clock yesterday, GAA president Nickey Brennan was paraded into the middle of Pearse Park. He ascended a large, round stage and declared the 121st All-Ireland championship officially open.

"Let the games begin," he exclaimed to rapturous applause from the sell-out crowd, and with that a 64-piece brass band led a procession of female flag-bearers representing all 32 counties. The match that followed was acclaimed a championship classic.

Actually, that's how we imagined it might some day be. For now, the GAA is content with humbler championship openings. So after a quick march by the Longford Pipe Band, the ball was thrown in, to lethargic applause, and the match that followed was the classic championship bore.

It was a drab, uneventful, negative sort of a game. Not my words, but the words of Longford manager Luke Dempsey.

I think we made every mistake in the book out there today. Not my words, but the words of Westmeath manager Tomás O Flatharta (for once, managers agreeing). The crowd was estimated at 8,000 and never did the place feel even half full.

At least we had a winner - although judging by the look of the teams leaving the field it was not entirely clear who that was.

The score read Westmeath 2-10 Longford 1-10. On the balance of play, that was a fair result. But it seemed as if the players were aware of the general mediocrity, all played out in front of a live television audience as well.

The match came alive only in the last five minutes. Longford had trailed practically throughout, surrendering two first-half goals: an Alan Mangan penalty and a dubious-looking effort from Denis Glennon. But when Longford's Paul Barden burst through on 65 minutes and put the ball in the net, and Brian Kavanagh and Diarmuid Masterson added points, it was a two-point game.

A year ago, Westmeath had surrendered a greater advantage, but now their nerves held. It was, incredibly, their first win in the Leinster championship since they won the title in 2004, but there was hardly a hint of a celebration.

Offaly, after all, are waiting in that dreaded long grass, and Ó Flatharta was aware of that.

Dempsey had other concerns. Longford are out again in the All-Ireland qualifiers on July 19th - a full 10 weeks away.

"It's a ridiculous sort of championship to be running," he said. "They (players) will go back to their clubs. Some may decide to go abroad. You'd be worried about that, especially with all the poaching that goes on with American clubs, and which I totally disagree with."

Meanwhile, only time will tell when the 2008 championship really feels like it has started.

[KIDDO 4]

Meath find extra zest

LEINSTER MFC QUARTER-FINALS/Meath 0-14 Dublin 0-10 AET - 0-9 to 0-9 after normal time: WHEN THE senior footballers of Dublin and Meath engaged in a brawl at Parnell Park last month, much media reaction touched on the example shown to children.

The good news is the counties' minors seem to have remained uninfluenced; they produced an entertaining mix of pace, power and skill for 80 minutes, again in Parnell Park, on Saturday.

Dublin, managed by the Meath legend Gerry McEntee, led by three points early in the second half, and Meath needed extra time to progress to the semi-finals, but thanks to their remarkable hunger and superior fitness they scored seven consecutive points from the 41st to the 76th minute despite being down to 14 men after David Ryan's red card.

Mark Collins got seven points for the victors and Michael Newman posted an incredible 47-metre sideline ball that was the talk of Donnycarney.

DUBLIN: G Bedford; M Schutte, D Nelson, L McHugh; J McCarthy, E Culligan, G Seaver; M Coughlin (capt), C Mullins; D Rock (0-3, two frees), D Higgins, E Keogh; D Stapleton (0-5, two frees), G McIntyre, G Sweeney (0-2). Subs: C Dorney for Higgins (28); D Moher for McIntyre (47); S Keane for Dorney (67); S Murray for C Mullins (67).

MEATH: P Curran; S O'Brien, S Curran, W Carry; E Nulty, M Battersby (0-1), J Kelly; D Ryan, D Carroll (0-1); M Newman (0-2, one sideline), A Tormey, M Collins (0-7, three frees); J Regan, H Silke, D Smyth (0-1). Subs: P Callaghan for O'Brien (38) Owens for Silke (40); P Gilsenan (0-1) for Regan (44); S Dalton (0-1) for Smyth (47); B Menton for Kelly (50); D Tobin for Regan (71).

Referee: Paul Kneel (Louth).

© 2008 The Irish Times

[ONeill]

QUARTER FINAL 2 - THE IRISH TIMES

TOM HUMPHRIES


(Allowed even though his content is soccer)

Leeds revival takes drear off Premier League fare

LOCKERROOM: All is well in the world of soccer as Leeds fans have a spring back in their step, writes Tom Humphries .

DOES ANYBODY else sort of run out of steam with this whole Premier League extravaganza? I mean round of applause and bouquets all round for coming up with a relatively exciting end to the season yesterday, but it just limps on so long and with so little romance that I can hardly feel my pulse at the end of it all.

I think I started to flag a little when I realised that not only was the football world shying away from inviting Leeds into next years Champions League as guests of honour/wildcard entries but they weren't even going to give us our 15 points back.

Does anybody really enjoy English football without having Leeds to hate? For Leeds fans it has been an odd season. In fact is has been a very odd century so far. The days of Davo and his babies have receded leaving nothing but a hard-to-remove fiscal stain and a tendency towards shuddering.

This season started off dreamlike as the boys razed everyone in sight. We say dreamlike but we mean it only as the sort of people who dream about being voted Least Unattractive Hobbit on a leper colony designed for the exclusive use of carnival freaks.

Still, winning is winning and for this Leeds fan it is the only time I feel like singing. It wasn't perfect of course. Ken Bates was and is chairman. Dennis Wise, who used to be his cabana boy or something, was manager. But the near-toxic levels of spivviness were offset by the presence of Gus Poyet. Gus is just a cool guy. Way too cool to be assistant to Wisey. So before Christmas he vamoosed southwards and, as we had feared, when 50 per cent of the management team left he brought 80 per cent of the brain power with him. Leeds were in freefall before an intervention from BizarroWorld.

Newcastle, who amusingly were restaging the whole Keegan as Messiah production, pulled up in a long limo with smoked glass and crooked a finger at Wisey and told him they would love to see him in a little suit, in a little office pretending to be a little executive. And Wisey jumped into the limo without so much as leaving a batch of fresh towels at the foot of Ken Bates's king size.

If Davo was our Ronnie Reagan, events continued to prove that all American political life imitates Elland Road. The Wisey administration gave way to the Gary McAllister era. Gaz is much beloved by all of adequate taste and sensibility and his appointment was as popular as, say, the departure of Ken Bates might be. And then Gaz announced his assistant manager. Stan The Gaffer Staunton. This was like the Bush administration making way for the presidency of Barrack Obama but Obama reaching out across party lines and appointing Dan Quayle as his veep.

(Have just been handed note pointing out that the Gaffer-sniping season ended some time ago. I am informed that it would be gracious to say that the appointment at Leeds allows Stan to develop a learning curve which should never have been tampered with by John Delaney. Point taken).

Anyway, Leeds revived themselves slowly, much one imagines to the relief of the football league, who must have been quietly chuffed when the club's early-season form looked like making the 15-point deduction a complete non-issue. The alarm bells must have been ringing in the countdown to the recent arbitration. Any decision to give Leeds back points which retrospectively altered the promotion or play-off standings would have brought an avalanche of lawsuits from elsewhere. A decision to deny Leeds their points refund had it cost them a play-off place would have invited all manner of Batesean shenanigans. As it was, Leeds made the play-off despite the deduction and despite the managerial input of Dennis Wise and Steve Staunton and this is quite clearly the footballing achievement of the season.

We mention this, the nascent stage of a new dynastic era for the world's most beloved club, not just that we might draw upon ourselves a shower of light-hearted and witty emails and letters from the banter-loving fans of lesser clubs but also to counterpoint the excitement Leeds fans have enjoyed with the drear of the Premier League. The Prem came to an end yesterday with - oh, be still my irregularly beating heart - Manchester United and Chelsea slugging it out for the top spot. Granted, as PLCs go neither Manchester United nor Chelsea have chosen to follow the economic model put forward by Peter Ridsdale and implemented by Davo at Leeds just a short time ago. Yes they can afford their foreign players and their Fancy Dan managers and their excursions into Europe and if that's the sort of thing they want well good luck to them. There is very little evidence, however, that this is what they want.

When Claudio Ranieri left Chelsea I thought he was hard done by. Can any man who sells Dennis Wise and brings in or brings through John Terry, Emmanuel Petit, Claude Makelele, Petr Cech, Eidur Gudjohnsen Arjen Robben, William Gallas, Frank Lampard and others be all bad? The smouldering Jose Mourinho came and went next. One of the best sideshows the Premier League had produced, I thought. And then Avram Grant, a genuinely interesting man of substance, it would seem. He has brought Chelsea to a Champions League final but only winning it by six or seven clear goals, three of which are scored by himself, seems likely to save his job.

What's the story? Poor Sven, who gave Manchester City the only good time the club has had since Quinny wore the Sky Blue, is also shuffling without dignity toward the revolving door. Reading, with whom many of us flirted shamelessly last year, are relegated and looking for a billionaire to buy them out. Roy Keane is making his angry face at the Drumaville consortium and will keep doing so till the pile of cash on the table is tall enough for the Drumavilleans to no longer be able to see the Throbbing Temple of Keano.

And as the season putters out, the talk was less of glory and romance than of profits and fees and agents and budgets. Which is a pity. We loved Christiano Ronaldo's exotic frippery, Drogba's Cathy-like pining for Heathcliff Mourinho and Kevin Keegan's straight face when offered the Newcastle gig again. We liked the reassurance of seeing Martin O'Neill's Villa progress under his cerebral promptings. And we loved Andy Reid finding a home at last in the northeast. We miss old Martin Jol at Spurs and it's sad to think of Chrissie Hughton being cleared out of there too, but maybe next year we will see the point of Juande Ramos.

We enjoyed David Moyes, wept (well not really) for poor old Derby County and swooned occasionally at Arsenal.

Not a bad Premier League season but not a romantic one, an exercise in the haves lording it over the have-nots while Leeds, a one-club morality play concerning the have-nots who pretended to have, gave us the only stuff worth dreaming about.

I know. Sad. Sad. Sad.

[rrhf]

This threads in danger of rapidly becoming the Sigerson cup - loads of illegal entrants methinks.  I could see heaney launching an appeal particularly in light of his improving column - an original if inspiring practice makes perfect contribution today - Is it a case of too little too late for the Derry wan.  To quote a soccor article is surely doing Tom Humphries a great disservice O neill, he'll never get through  with that. 

[ONeill]

Time waits for no man rrhf. It's obvious Humphries thought he'd confuse us to the point of awarding full marks simply because something so different has to be genius.

ORIGINALITY 7 - A diferent take on an end-of-season analysis yet a bit Archer/Liverpool love-my-clubish
ENTERTAINMENT 8 - Some fine metaphors and can paint a unique picture of events
INFORMATIVE 5 - Didn't really learn anything new
QUALITY  8 - Rich language

[ONeill]

QUARTER FINAL 2 - THE IRISH TIMES WEEK

SEAN MORAN

Games' culture in safe hands as fíor-Gael takes over

Bertie Ahern's interest in Gaelic Games was high-profile. He wasn't, however, as immersed in the GAA and its protocols as his successor, writes SEÁN MORAN .

JACK LYNCH, whose GAA connections helped get his political career off the ground, chose to mark the end of that career in the company of the GAA. The night of Charles Haughey's election as his successor saw Lynch in Jury's Hotel, Ballsbridge, as guest of honour at the 1979 All Stars presentation banquet.

The late Mick Dunne, whose idea the awards originally were, said years later that it was as if a weight had been lifted off the outgoing taoiseach (and six-time All-Ireland winner) that night, and that he was more relaxed than he had appeared for a long time - "amongst his own", as Dunne put it.

Similarly, when Lynch passed away just under 20 years later in October, 1999, his club-mate, an understandably upset Dave O'Brien from Glen Rovers, spoke to RTÉ's Breaking Ball: "Ring," he said of another legendary Glen hurler, "was a God, but Jack - Jack was one of our own."

Brian Cowen is the most dyed-in-the-wool GAA head of government for nearly 30 years, and in historical terms stands second only to Lynch, so it's unlikely there has been any fretting on Jones's Road about the new Taoiseach's elevation.

But it's timely to consider the association's interaction with the political world given that yesterday's chopping and trimming means that the new Government has been finalised. It's certainly a watershed moment. Fianna Fáil taoisigh average nearly 10 years in office, so relations with Cowen are likely to be an important issue for Croke Park in the foreseeable future.

His predecessor, Bertie Ahern, will be a hard act to follow in the GAA's eyes. Leading a government through the boom, Ahern wasn't slow to share some of the proceeds with Croke Park and his interest in Gaelic games was high-profile. He wasn't, however, as immersed in the GAA and its protocols as his successor. Last weekend, during a conversation with Offaly's All-Ireland-winning manager Eugene McGee, he conceded he had become a little weary telling and re-telling the story of how the new Taoiseach had nearly made that 1982 panel.

Apparently the young Cowen's legal studies made full engagement with the championship panel difficult and he didn't make the cut, but McGee also recalled what he reckoned was the only instance of Cowen's saying nothing for over an hour: a lift home from an under-21 championship match which Offaly had lost to Carlow. Even his election to the Dáil after a Laois-Offaly by-election triggered by the sudden passing of his father, Ber, on whose coffin was placed the black-and-white jersey of Clara, was tangled up in the GAA.

Fine Gael ran Offaly's All-Ireland-winning captain Pádraig Horan. "Brian Cowan, who I'm friendly enough with, had a huge sympathy vote and a very good machine," according to Horan in an interview with this newspaper, "so I knew from the word go I was up against it. I actually did better in Laois than in Offaly, and there was great hurling rivalry between the counties back then. My hurling suffered from the whole campaign because I couldn't mix it with campaigning."

So it proved when Offaly reached the Centenary All-Ireland final against Cork and Horan suffered another first-count defeat. He didn't pursue a career in electoral politics, but reflected on how GAA celebrity wasn't a universal currency.

"Fine Gael wouldn't always show a huge interest in the GAA," he said. "I remember after winning the convention, the first day of canvassing in Stradbally. I was standing around talking to Garret Fitzgerald who was the taoiseach then. After a while he said: 'Where is the bloody candidate. You'd think he'd be here by now.' I said, 'I'm here. I'm the candidate.' So he said, 'Oh, are you?' And he'd been at the convention, only a week before."

Conversely, Fine Gael at present have two of the highest-profile TDs with GAA backgrounds, Kerry's multiple All-Ireland- winner Jimmy Deenihan and current Mayo football manager John O'Mahony. (On an historical note, Blueshirts founder Eoin O'Duffy had been a delegate to the Ulster Council - don't try that at home.) The new Taoiseach has retained not just an interest in Gaelic games but a GAA sensibility.

Ten years ago, when the special congress to consider removing Rule 21 - the ban on members of the Northern security forces joining the GAA - was about to take place, Cowen spoke to RTÉ's Saturday View. The move, initiated by the association's president at the time, Joe McDonagh, was presented as a useful contribution to the new, post-Belfast Agreement world. Although it's safe to assume that the then Minister for Health had a strong opinion on the subject, he was as implacable as any member of Central Council, insisting that the matter was entirely for the GAA to decide itself without any external promptings.

Commenting on the interaction between the GAA and national politics in Ireland 1912-1985, Politics and Society, Prof Joe Lee made the following observation: "The success of the GAA, based on the co-option of intense local loyalties into a wider sense of national identity, reflected a capacity for organisation and a sense of communal coherence . . . The GAA served not only as a recruiting ground for republican activists, but as an apprenticeship for national organisers. The prevailing culture proved able to relate local loyalties to national issues."

At his weekend homecoming in Offaly, Cowen's speech about the need to cherish community and "reduce the tendency to self-interest and individualism" sounded like a GAA club manifesto. Judging by the uniquely Irish juxtaposition of a new Taoiseach's appointment and the wild scenes in Tullamore, Edenderry, Daingean and Clara over the weekend, and regardless of the Government's eventual outcome, the culture referred to by Lee is prevalent as ever.