Hurling championship 2021

Started by seafoid, April 27, 2021, 09:24:05 AM

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seafoid

Odds 6/5/21

Limerick   5/4
Galway    5/1
Tipp        11/2
KK          9/1
Cork       12/1
Deise      14/1
Clare       20/1
Wex        22/1
Dublin     50/1 
Laois   1000/1



https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/hurling/liam-griffin-hopeful-wexford-are-getting-closer-to-the-heady-heights-of-1996-1.4548101

Liam Griffin hopeful Wexford are getting closer to the heady heights of 1996
Former Model County manager believes cynical fouling needs to be cracked down on

Seán Moran

 
Liam Griffin is in characteristically good form. He's had a knee replacement operation and that is settling nicely.

"It's like Ned Wheeler said to me when he got his hip done. He said it's that good that although there's nothing wrong with the other one, he'd get it done anyway!"

His Laochra Gael programme is the last one in the current series and he is aware of the timing for Wexford hurling: 26 years since the glorious summer of 1996 when the future was one of endless possibility - just two years shorter than the gap that team closed all the way back to 1968, which seemed like an eternity.

Did he think that it would be this long again?

"No, not in my wildest dreams did I think that. For me, I thought that after '96 we would kick on. Maybe it wasn't realistic when you look back on it because we had some of the really good players who were already in their early 30s.

"So, we probably didn't dwell on that an awful lot, or enough really, but it is disappointing. A son of mine, Rory, he actually wrote a study on Wexford hurling, and earlier this year he sent me it, 'it won't be long now till 28 years,' - that's all he put on it."

He believes that prospects are better for Wexford now than in 1996 because the county is better geared towards player development. New county chair Micheál Martin has done a lot of work at Croke Park level to untangle the knots at underage levels nationally.

"So hopefully we are going to get up there. Hurling needs Wexford and I really believe that. And we need Offaly. We need everybody but hurling certainly needs Wexford."

Unlikely
Is it possible that someone could emulate Griffin's achievement by bringing a team from effectively nowhere to winning an All-Ireland?

"Unlikely I would say," he replies. "We worked a lot on sports science. We went through the whole year without having a pulled muscle. We worked very carefully on what we tried to do because we were not Brian Cody and Kilkenny, we did not have the riches they have.

"We put in a good system. Everyone was fit and we did a whole list of things to see if we could bridge the gap. We wrote down things that we could do. Why couldn't we be the fittest team in Ireland? Why couldn't we be the best hookers and blockers in Ireland? Why couldn't we do all the heavy lifting and workman-like team? Why couldn't we be the most disciplined team in Ireland?

"We put a lot of effort into getting that right and we brought in a sports psychologist as well because I was trying to do that and obviously I am not a professional. We tried to give ourselves every chance but if you did that today you would be matched by other people who are doing exactly the same."

The game has also changed, he says, ". . . possession has become paramount. A lot of the hurling is very good, I'm not saying it's not - I wouldn't have minded playing in this era myself - but the cynical fouling is an issue.

"It is not good enough because in 2019 the All-Ireland was 26 matches and the teams that won the most, fouled the most and that is just an underlying symptom of cynical fouling.

"The scrums, the rucks, ground hurling going out of the game - it's evolved. Some of it is very good and some of it is not so good as a spectacle but overall the players are good, the skills are good. The absence of goals is an issue and takes a bit of excitement out of the game.

"Some of the shooting is spectacularly good, but having an extra man means a lot of loose play as well. You have loose men popping up in places, as happened in the All-Ireland final last year."

Volunteers
He has plenty to say on other topical issues. An early backer of the Club Players' Association, he is content that their work as a lobby group 'to fix the fixtures' is now done - with a little help from the pandemic.

"We were completely volunteers. We weren't looking for anything except to get the fixtures fixed. That was it. But for Covid it wouldn't have happened in my opinion. We would have written to every county board at one stage, every single county board to say this is what we're trying to do. We never got a single reply. Not one. That was disappointing.

"There's no triumphalism from anyone on our side. That's it and we walked away when we said we would - when the fixtures were fixed."

A successful hotelier and businessman, he is adamant that the GAA need to deploy their huge asset base to raise funds by borrowing.

"What I don't want to see is that we're trying very hard in Wexford to keep a very good structure at underage and letting coaches go when you could borrow money and do some sort of a deal on it. I think that would be to undermine the game when it's already being undermined. You don't do a double undermining - that's not a great management policy!"

*Liam Griffin will feature in the sixth and final episode of the latest Laochra Gael series, on TG4 this Thursday at 9.30 pm.
"f**k it, just score"- Donaghy   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbxG2WwVRjU

johnnycool

Had the pleasure of his company a few times and he's always a good listen, passionate but intelligent with it.

One of our coaches managed to get himself on a Limerick hurling coaching webinar a couple of months ago and they have tackling and overturning the opposition a big part of their game so the flip-side of that is that frees will be conceded but they obviously think the gain is worth it.
Shoulder charges are a no, no as mistimed ones lead to red cards. They are more into the arm tackles, slow the man down till the cavalry arrives, which IMO are fouls all day long but referee's aren't blowing them as they'll be seen to not letting the game flow. The game isn't flowing anyway with this going on.

It's not just Limerick to be fair, Kilkenny were/are masters of the half foul, whereas the Clare lads are still inclined to throw out the old fashioned belt with the hurl  :D

As for Wexford, they've some great attacking hurlers but the way Davy lines them out they're looking to win by a deluge of long range points rather than feed balls into the forwards like Limerick do and last year they were truly flat. It'll be interesting if they show a kick or not this year.
Davy's teams burn fast and die off quick. He may have won a Leinster with them and that might be his lot..

imtommygunn

I would have a funny feeling Wexford have peaked with him. Just a feeling but like you say he burns them out. 


johnnycool

Quote from: seafoid on May 10, 2021, 09:16:14 AM
This is very good

https://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2021/0509/1217922-cusack-new-advantage-rule-needs-to-go-asap/

Don't see why the felt the need to change the advantage rule out the field. Being fouled in the tackle yet still riding it out and maintain possession only for a referee to blow the foul will have two outcomes. We'll have free takers coming way out the field to pop the ball over the bar from 80 plus meters. You'll have teams fouling if they lose possession to allow their defence time to get set.

The games over the weekend weren't great barring maybe the Cork/Waterford game and Antrim/Clare with freetaking fests for Tipp and Limerick. I think Tipp didn't score from play for almost 20 minutes FFS.

manfromdelmonte

hurling is gone so tippy tappy

only the top few teams are good enough to do it.
much better to let the ball in early to a bit of space and give a forward a chance.

johnnycool

Quote from: manfromdelmonte on May 10, 2021, 03:00:10 PM
hurling is gone so tippy tappy

only the top few teams are good enough to do it.
much better to let the ball in early to a bit of space and give a forward a chance.

Top teams don't leave much space for forwards to operate in, hence the long range points fests we're currently experiencing.

didlyi

Quote from: manfromdelmonte on May 10, 2021, 03:00:10 PM
hurling is gone so tippy tappy

only the top few teams are good enough to do it.
much better to let the ball in early to a bit of space and give a forward a chance.

You cant please everyone. Is that not hit and hope hurling that constantly gets berated around here?
Somehow I preferred it too.!

manfromdelmonte

Quote from: didlyi on May 10, 2021, 05:15:58 PM
Quote from: manfromdelmonte on May 10, 2021, 03:00:10 PM
hurling is gone so tippy tappy

only the top few teams are good enough to do it.
much better to let the ball in early to a bit of space and give a forward a chance.

You cant please everyone. Is that not hit and hope hurling that constantly gets berated around here?
Somehow I preferred it too.!
Never said hit and hope.
You need intelligent delivery into forwards

I see clubs trying to play this over complicated hurling. Not every panel has the players capable of it

Milltown Row2

Corks opening goal was a well work team effort which ran at the Waterford defence, runners coming off the shoulder and laying the ball either handpass or stick pass to the person in the better position to score, I don't see the problem with players playing to the rules and adopting their game and style of players to make it suit.

Not every team can win its own balls or spread it wide to the wings, possession is key nowadays and like basketball should you loose possession in your own half and the ball is turned over it will probably result in a score for the other team.

Cork were very good at the weekend so it'll be interesting to see how well they fair against the other big teams, Donal O'Grady back with Cork, seen him in the stands
None of us are getting out of here alive, so please stop treating yourself like an after thought. Ea

johnnycool

Quote from: Milltown Row2 on May 12, 2021, 02:39:40 PM
Corks opening goal was a well work team effort which ran at the Waterford defence, runners coming off the shoulder and laying the ball either handpass or stick pass to the person in the better position to score, I don't see the problem with players playing to the rules and adopting their game and style of players to make it suit.

Not every team can win its own balls or spread it wide to the wings, possession is key nowadays and like basketball should you loose possession in your own half and the ball is turned over it will probably result in a score for the other team.

Cork were very good at the weekend so it'll be interesting to see how well they fair against the other big teams, Donal O'Grady back with Cork, seen him in the stands

Well worked goal indeed but the Waterford defence was pretty generous as I think there were only two defenders inside the 20M line when Cork scored..

Limerick won't let them get that far, but we need a competitive Cork to throw into the mix to spruce it up a bit

Lehane and a few others let go and probably still in their prime, Kingston setting his stall out..

Antrim Coaster

I noticed some very high points tallies from last night's Antrim League results, along with high scores from the National Leagues.

The Mayo keeper put one over the Derry bar from his own 14 metre line.

This very high scoring has been a feature of the game this past few years.

Have the sliotars become lighter or has the interior material changed to make the ball travel further?

I know there was a change to the weight/structure of the ball 15/20 years ago and there were calls to revert to the older ball. DJ Carey and the likes weren't too happy with the new ball at that time.

Not sure if this a good thing. I think the days of the 1-7 to 0-10 results are long gone.

didlyi

When we had 1-7 to 10 people were complaining about the standard of hurling. The ball maybbe lighter but the payers are fitter and the hurleys are now much larger than before. The origin of hurley design was for ground hurling. Now that thats gone you wonder what kind of hurley will be used in 30 years time. Will they look more like tennis rackets than hurleys? For starters I wish they would implement the bos size regulations that I believe is documented somewhere. Doesnt Golf have a whole range of regulations for golf clubs.

Milltown Row2

Quote from: didlyi on May 15, 2021, 12:46:06 PM
When we had 1-7 to 10 people were complaining about the standard of hurling. The ball maybbe lighter but the payers are fitter and the hurleys are now much larger than before. The origin of hurley design was for ground hurling. Now that thats gone you wonder what kind of hurley will be used in 30 years time. Will they look more like tennis rackets than hurleys? For starters I wish they would implement the bos size regulations that I believe is documented somewhere. Doesnt Golf have a whole range of regulations for golf clubs.

Im pretty sure there is bos size regulation, is it being implemented/checked? No.

But tennis size will not be brought it, the sport has had a few changes, not much wrong with it other than ones trying to ruin it by making daft changes
None of us are getting out of here alive, so please stop treating yourself like an after thought. Ea

didlyi

No its not being checked. Why not?