All Ireland Silver Medalists

[magickingdom]

really good idea this, its hard to believe that kerry or tyrone players will walk away empty handed this w/e after all the effort they put in...


Waterford hurlers deserve medals

Madam, - For the past decade the players of Waterford have lit up the hurling scene with their performances. This involved many sacrifices for the men and their families, not least the months spent in intensive training. After all, these are amateur players whose disappointments are not mitigated by monetary rewards.

It was sad, therefore, to see them go away empty handed - and demoralised - from the recent All-Ireland final. I don't think anyone in the vast crowd felt that this team, which could well have won an All-Ireland in the past 10 years, did itself justice.

In the light of this situation, I should like to make a suggestion regarding the awarding of medals. The winners of the All Ireland series should win gold All-Ireland medals, the runners-up silver, and the two other semi-finalists bronze. This would follow the pattern of the Olympic Games and give a wholly positive orientation to the immense effort of getting to an All Ireland final or semi-final. Olympic athletes celebrate a medal of any colour and, I believe, our Gaelic players would feel similarly. This mode of awards could be extended to all All-Ireland competitions, including, of course, the women's championships.

Finally, could this new dispensation be applied retrospectively to this year's championship, so that the gallant men of Waterford can be duly honoured? This is the ardent wish of this Kilkenny man - and I doubt if I am alone in such a desire. - Yours, etc,

JAMES O'HALLORAN, Lower Drumcondra Road, Dublin 9.

© 2008 The Irish Times

[Over the Bar]

And how about Cracker-Jack Pencils for anyone who gets as far as the quarter-finals?

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Well intentioned, but meaningless, until every team that gets to a particular stage has played an identical number of games (excluding replays, with symmetrical paths).

[Denn Forever]

The county board may present some medal to show that you've reached the final but you willl always want the first prize.

I will remember a team talk that Joe Kernan gave to Crossmaglen that was shown many moons ago when he thumps a table in the middle of the dressingroom and asks the players, "What do losers get?  F%ckin nothing".  Still recite this with friends but at this stage, I couldn't swear that I actually saw but that about sums it up.

I think it was shown the first year that Crossmaglen won the Armagh championship.  Doe anyone remember it?

[Bord na Mona man]

The losing All Ireland team already get medals.
From about '00 to '02, when Armagh invaded the pitch again, the losers used to get presented with their medlas on the field, before the winners got the trophy.

[Kerry Mike]

Worthless, its winners take it all, no one makes anything out of a losers medal, unless you are Joe Kernan  

I'm sure Tony Browne or Ken McGrath would have little meas in a losers medal after the walloping dished out to them by the Cats.

[blanketattack]

If the runners up get nothing what the hell did Joe Kernan throw on the ground at half-time in the 2002 final? Something one of his sons did up in woodwork class?

[Doire abú]

If the runners up get nothing what the hell did Joe Kernan throw on the ground at half-time in the 2002 final? Something one of his sons did up in woodwork class?

I think it was an All-Ireland runners-up plague from 1977. The county board probably presented them to the team at the end of the year (I'm guessing).

[JMohan]

The county board may present some medal to show that you've reached the final but you willl always want the first prize.

I will remember a team talk that Joe Kernan gave to Cross that was shown many moons ago when he thumps a table in the middle of the dressingroom and asks the players, "What do losers get?  F%ckin nothing".  Still recite this with friends but at this stage, I couldn't swear that I actually saw but that about sums it up.

Was that not the film with DJ Kane with Down in the Croke Park dressing room in '95?

[Norf Tyrone]

If the runners up get nothing what the hell did Joe Kernan throw on the ground at half-time in the 2002 final? Something one of his sons did up in woodwork class?

Good point!

[JMohan]

If the runners up get nothing what the hell did Joe Kernan throw on the ground at half-time in the 2002 final? Something one of his sons did up in woodwork class?

If you read the post ... he did say Cross not Armagh ...

[blanketattack]

If the runners up get nothing what the hell did Joe Kernan throw on the ground at half-time in the 2002 final? Something one of his sons did up in woodwork class?

If you read the post ... he did say Cross not Armagh ...

I was talking about the original Irish Times letter.

[Over the Bar]

I think the only benefit of a losers medal would be motivation to not come up short again.  If I was John O'Mahoney I'd make the Mayo players wear theirs day and nite from now till next year and I think he'd get a better performance than he did against Tyrone this year.

[thewingedlady]

If the runners up get nothing what the hell did Joe Kernan throw on the ground at half-time in the 2002 final? Something one of his sons did up in woodwork class?

Good point!

They all got one, they must have been given to them by the county board. A fellow Armagh 77er showed me his own same plaque that he received and it was like f**k all squared. Ok, it was 25 years old, but looked terrible.