Tomás Mulcahy's hurling rant in the paper

[Zulu]

I've played both too and I think that that is a bit of a myth. I've coached both hurling and football at underage also and I've found that many of the kids are better hurlers than footballers by the time they are 12.

Football is the easier game to make a fist of because kids have been kicking and catching a ball since before they could walk properly and the motor patterns required are therefore already half learnt by the time they turn up for U6 football. This isn't the case with hurling and most kids are learning completely new movement patterns at U6 hurling training. Football is like soccer, it is easy enough to do the basics but it is extremely difficult to master, hurling is a bit different in that it is difficult to get the basics but once you do it is easy enough to score, solo, strike accurately etc.

That is not to say one game is better than the other, or that one game is more difficult to play than the other. Both are great games, and like all sports require talent and dedication if you are to play them to a high level. I'm simply pointing out that there is a myth out there that football is easy to play and hurling is difficult to play and this myth doesn't serve either sport well.

[THE DADGA]

I don't see where Mulcahy is blaming football. He's blaming the GAA Administration for not putting as much effort into promoting hurling.

I agree with him on a few points. I think helmets shoould be compulsory up to Minor level. When a player is old enough to decide for himself he should be allowed to. Health and Safety rules ruin a lot of good things in this world.

I totally agree with him on the free taking rule - it basically amounts to banning one of the great skills of the game.

And referees do need to be respected and protected, not just in hurling and football (I play soccer and the refs get criminal abuse from players). Rugby should be the role model here - rugby has a very high standard of refereeing which stems from the respect that refs get from players. It's a far more admirable culture as a spectator too, than all the whinging and ref bashing that goes on in other sports.

Completely right there. Never blamed football, just the preference to football. Go to any conferences, coaching events, either National, Ulster or Connacht, and there is no emphasis on Hurling. Its token efforts being made

this is the situation in ulster anyway, the irony being-in south down anyway- that most football players will say " i would never go watch a club or county hurlin match in ulster, but i would never miss the all-ireland final. " but i wonder is this the attitude towards football in the likes of tipp or waterford??

[Onlooker]

There are many clubs in both Tipperary and Waterford, where football is the No. 1 game and would be the game followed most by people living in those areas.  Now Kilkenny would be a different story where you have to knock football at every opportunity to "prove" that you are real Kilkenny hurling man.  I believe that the members of the Kilkenny camogie team have been told that they can not play Ladies Football, even though Cork (the All Ireland Champions) have 5 or 6 dual players on their teams.

[Reillers]

There are many clubs in both Tipperary and Waterford, where football is the No. 1 game and would be the game followed most by people living in those areas.  Now Kilkenny would be a different story where you have to knock football at every opportunity to "prove" that you are real Kilkenny hurling man.  I believe that the members of the Kilkenny camogie team have been told that they can not play Ladies Football, even though Cork (the All Ireland Champions) have 5 or 6 dual players on their teams.

Ya but can you imagine how better off Cork would be with some of those players played dual. Cork have a lot of football and hurling clubs up and down the county. But it's one of the only dual counties left and both teams are, in one sense, worse off for it. But that is the beauty and tragedy of a dual county. But there's a reason why there aren't many left anymore.
The weaker teams have died off in a county. Dual players don't really exist anymore. And that's a pity.

To be fair on Mulcahy, he's got a point, there's little or no promotion of the game, and football seems to get more attention from the media.

[ha ha derry]

There are many clubs in both Tipperary and Waterford, where football is the No. 1 game and would be the game followed most by people living in those areas.  Now Kilkenny would be a different story where you have to knock football at every opportunity to "prove" that you are real Kilkenny hurling man.  I believe that the members of the Kilkenny camogie team have been told that they can not play Ladies Football, even though Cork (the All Ireland Champions) have 5 or 6 dual players on their teams.

Ya but can you imagine how better off Cork would be with some of those players played dual. Cork have a lot of football and hurling clubs up and down the county. But it's one of the only dual counties left and both teams are, in one sense, worse off for it. But that is the beauty and tragedy of a dual county. But there's a reason why there aren't many left anymore.
The weaker teams have died off in a county. Dual players don't really exist anymore. And that's a pity.

To be fair on Mulcahy, he's got a point, there's little or no promotion of the game, and football seems to get more attention from the media.

I would disagree, at club level in quite a few counties there would be an abundance of dual players. My own club has approx 12 at senior level. With the proper approach by management it is very workable. Why can this not be adopted at inter county level.

[Reillers]

There are many clubs in both Tipperary and Waterford, where football is the No. 1 game and would be the game followed most by people living in those areas.  Now Kilkenny would be a different story where you have to knock football at every opportunity to "prove" that you are real Kilkenny hurling man.  I believe that the members of the Kilkenny camogie team have been told that they can not play Ladies Football, even though Cork (the All Ireland Champions) have 5 or 6 dual players on their teams.

Ya but can you imagine how better off Cork would be with some of those players played dual. Cork have a lot of football and hurling clubs up and down the county. But it's one of the only dual counties left and both teams are, in one sense, worse off for it. But that is the beauty and tragedy of a dual county. But there's a reason why there aren't many left anymore.
The weaker teams have died off in a county. Dual players don't really exist anymore. And that's a pity.

To be fair on Mulcahy, he's got a point, there's little or no promotion of the game, and football seems to get more attention from the media.

I would disagree, at club level in quite a few counties there would be an abundance of dual players. My own club has approx 12 at senior level. With the proper approach by management it is very workable. Why can this not be adopted at inter county level.

Well I was talking really about IC level, I mean when it comes to club level and club games, then they really are inexistant, no coverage, no promotion.

[theskull1]

That is not to say one game is better than the other, or that one game is more difficult to play than the other. Both are great games, and like all sports require talent and dedication if you are to play them to a high level. I'm simply pointing out that there is a myth out there that football is easy to play and hurling is difficult to play and this myth doesn't serve either sport well.

Just to come at that point in a different way Zulu

Hurling is more difficult to coach especially in the early years and thats what creates the gulf in standards for years to come as those with the knowledge sail away from those clubs/counties that don't. A kid could learn to play football at a decent level by watching others play and then going out and booting a ball off a garage wall for years mimmicing what he seen on the pitch. Without proper instruction and constant focus on proper technique in the first 4/5 years a child could never do achieve any standard worth talking about in hurling doing the same (although once they have the technique a wall is the best way for them to develop their touch).

[INDIANA]

You can't compete with kilkenny if you're spending half your time playing effectively another sport. And vice versa for football. Mulcahy is playing to the gallery on that one. Even he doesn't believe that or if he does then he's seriously deluded.

Club level is different. Some small clubs wouldn't survive at one code without dual players.

[Reillers]

You can't compete with kilkenny if you're spending half your time playing effectively another sport. And vice versa for football. Mulcahy is playing to the gallery on that one. Even he doesn't believe that or if he does then he's seriously deluded.

Club level is different. Some small clubs wouldn't survive at one code without dual players.

Tell Cadogan that, the lads decided to play dual. Like I said, Cork football and Cork hurling would technically be better off for it if the other didn't compete at the level they do. Each side, especially the hurlers. would have a few more outstanding players, but they don't. I do think that it's possible to play dual. If the right plan is set out by both set of coaches then I think it's possible. I mean the Cork camogie team have a large group of football players, and like they're champions. Hasn't stoped them.

[INDIANA]

Its not possible Reillers in my view and Cadogan is going to fail in his attempt I think. Especially at hurling- where you need a hurl in your hand every day of the week. Kilkenny and Kerry players don't play the other code at county level thats why they win all-irelands all the time.

[Reillers]

Its not possible Reillers in my view and Cadogan is going to fail in his attempt I think. Especially at hurling- where you need a hurl in your hand every day of the week. Kilkenny and Kerry players don't play the other code at county level thats why they win all-irelands all the time.

Nothing impossible, dual players existed in the pass and it's a sad thing that they don't really exist anymore. I'm pretty sure the lad has a hurley in his hand every day, and playing football wouldn't stop that either. I wish more players agreed to it because there are some seriously talented hurlers on the football team that would be great on the hurling side.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blMWdu0iDj8..brilliant stuff.

Honestly I think it could be done. And if it's not well, as I've said before that's the beauty and the tragedy of a dual county.

Anyway, like I said the Cork ladies football and camogie players, both champions have a decent amount of dual players, and they're brilliant players. Can't see why the hurlers and footballers can't do it. I think it's a matter of wont than of can't.

[INDIANA]

Reillers you're not seriously comparing the modern game to the 70's. The pace of the games as increased 10 fold.

Spending half your time playing hurling will ensure you won't be fit enough for inter county football

Also you won't have the skills to look after lads like Eddie Brennan and Henry spending half your time playing football.

[Reillers]

Reillers you're not seriously comparing the modern game to the 70's. The pace of the games as increased 10 fold.

Spending half your time playing hurling will ensure you won't be fit enough for inter county football

Also you won't have the skills to look after lads like Eddie Brennan and Henry spending half your time playing football.

No, I'm just saying it was done before. And like I said the Cork women do it, and they are by no means average. Don't know if you've ever seen either side play before but they're some seriously talented players on their teams, and some of the best are dual playres.

It's possible for them to play dual, but I think it's a matter of wont instead of can't.
I'm not talking about Kilkenny lads, it's clear that their priorities are. But I genuinely could see Aidan Walsh, Ciaran Sheehan, Cussen, Cadogan..etc playing dual. They have all their lives, and if they really wanted to, and if they're commited enough they could still. When it came to the push Walsh, Sheehan, picked football, but my God they are incredible hurlers, and it's gutting for the hurling side that they picked football.
I mean Sheehan and Walsh are probably the best 2 U21 hurlers in the county and they choose football. I can guarantee you if you saw these lads play both, you'd know that it's a shame they only committed to football.

[Chris agus Snoop]

Once you learn the basics of hurling at 8 or 9,you'll never forget them, a bit like riding a bike.

And there is something very wrong with the championship structure in both codes. The provision system is meaningless but it takes up 6 weeks of the summer, then you have 8 or 10 knockout games in the space of one weekend, the knockout games are the ones poeple want to see.

[Reillers]

Once you learn the basics of hurling at 8 or 9,you'll never forget them, a bit like riding a bike.

And there is something very wrong with the championship structure in both codes. The provision system is meaningless but it takes up 6 weeks of the summer, then you have 8 or 10 knockout games in the space of one weekend, the knockout games are the ones poeple want to see.

True, but not playing for a while makes you rusty, very rusty, Aisake is a perfect example, he did okish last season for someone who hadn't picked up a hurley in a couple years, but after living in the ball alley since, apparently he's come on leaps and bounds. Ya, 2 seasons ago, Cork had to play Dublin, Galway and Clare on the bounce, 3 games, 3 weekends. It was a bit much and it always happens.
Never mind, on top of that, the shocking planning of club games, CCB take a bow.