Ger Loughnane

blackbelt

Anybody who read this mornings Metro would have read what Ger Loughnane had to say about Galway and Dublin.

I thought it was disgusting and unsportsmanlike.Firstly,Galway were outclassed in Parnell Park by Dublin.Dublins defence were solid and Derek O Reilly was a big time contender for man of the match.Ger Loughnane goes on to say that Galway have made no progress and that they have still to play the two hardest games in the NHL.....fair enough.Then he goes on to say that if Galway played the way they did against Dublin,then they will lose to Tipp and Kilkenny by 20 points.

I take that as a dig against Dublin.Ger Loughnane can do three things

1.Accept that Galway were beaten fair and square and move on with training etc.

2.Recognize that he is not quite the manager he makes himself out to be.

3.Accept that Dublin are on fire in the league and are continuously improving and may pose a big threat in the championship and that hurling is starting to see new teams contend.

Ger Loughnane is an ass-clown,plain and simple.

aidan24326

blackbelt wrote:

Anybody who read this mornings Metro would have read what Ger Loughnane had to say about Galway and Dublin.
I thought it was disgusting and unsportsmanlike.Firstly,Galway were outclassed in Parnell Park by Dublin.

Not exactly outclassed, think you might be exaggerating just a little? Dublin did deserve their victory though.

Then he goes on to say that if Galway played the way they did against Dublin,then they will lose to Tipp and Kilkenny by 20 points. I take that as a dig against Dublin

It isn't necessarily. He was just being realistic. A preformance like that against KK probably would end in a hammering.

1.Accept that Galway were beaten fair and square and move on with training etc.

He has accepted as much. He described it as a 'massacre' and admitted that Galway were outplayed in the second half.

2.Recognize that he is not quite the manager he makes himself out to be.

This one will be interesting. His success with Clare was a decade ago and he also had a superb bunch of players to work with, and natural leaders in the likes of Brian Lohan and Seanie MacMahon. He doesn't have those type of players in this Galway team and there are signs that he's feeling the pressure already (witness his strange outburst against young Joe Canning)

3.Accept that Dublin are on fire in the league and are continuously improving and may pose a big threat in the championship and that hurling is starting to see new teams contend

Dublin have two very good results. It's a step in the right direction for sure but this Dublin team still have some way to go before they'll be challenging the big guns in Summer time. But it's a young team and they can only improve. Though I would like to know who are all these 'new teams' that are contending? I can't think of too many myself. Dublin are about the only second-tier team with any chance of making a breakthrough in the near future.

Ger Loughnane is an ass-clown,plain and simple.

I'll reserve judgement on that one. Methinks you should enjoy Dublin's good form and let Loughnane and us Galway folk worry about ourselves. It looks like he has a tough job on his hands.

Golferx

Galway would have been 20 points up at half time if they hadn't been hitting the ball straight at the Dublin goalie.

Loughnane is absolutely right, for once.

Kojak

Golferx wrote:

Galway would have been 20 points up at half time if they hadn't been hitting the ball straight at the Dublin goalie.

Agreed. Dublin deserved their win, but I feel it was a lot of arrogance on the part of the Galway team (and management) that lost this game for Galway. They seemed to think that all they had to do was turn up and they would beat the Dubs.

OP, Loughnane is always controversiol so if I was you I wouldn't pass much remarks of it. He was probably more p1ssed off at Galway's performance than anything else, considering the amount if training he's done with them. He's also annoyed (IMO) because he thought there was a stronger dept of talent in the county than there actually is - great hurlers, granted, but I'd question their "desire" to do what is necessary to win the All-Ireland (when I say "do what is necessary" I mean train extremely hard, put in extra sessions etc.)

blackbelt

Fair responses.

I was just a bit annoyed that Loughnane would go as far as to try and take away from Dublin.I think it was uncalled for.Remember,Dublin did draw with Kilkenny,so maybe 20 points was an exaggeration on ger's part.

Yes Dublin have a way to go come summer but these results are very encouraging.They will stand to them.We've been knocking on the door as far as being contenders is concerned with league wins over Offaly three years ago and some very tight matches following after.Dublin are certainly on top of the 2nd tier teams with counties like Westmeath not far behind.This is a relatively young team as well with Derek O Reilly and Ronan Fallon being 23 and continuously improving and the success from underage level.

Back to Ger.I think he was more bitter that his 100% record went down the pan to Dublin but we should not be surprised anymore to see Dublin topple the big teams.Hurling has needed this since the 80s at least.The whole country is tired of watching KK,Cork and Tipp dominate.I'd hope that the rest of the country would support Dublin in the championship if they make the final stages in the championship against the likes of Waterford,Offaly,Cork,kk,tipp,Wexford etc.

The Rooster

Quotes from Loughnane on hoganstand.com

"The scoreboard says we were beaten by two points but really it was a massacre. All over the field Dublin were better than us, they were first to the ball, they were better in the air, harder in the tackle. Maybe their finishing didn’t match all their good approach play but Dublin deserved to win this game, not by two points but by 10 or 12 points. It was an abysmal display by us, we were playing second fiddle all the way through and were just grasping at straws"

buck65

Rooster- I think this is what Ger really thinks, what was written afterwards was aimed more at his own players, Loughnane was quite gracious to Dublin.
Would love to see Dublin do well (as a Clareman) but really they will have to beat Wexford in the Champshp to prove anything, anything less is a failure in my eyes.

Be The Holy

Anyone in the know on the dublin hurling scene know where dave sweeney and steven mc donald( craobh ciaran)are? Both have given great service to dublin hurling over the years and deserve a bit of the good times. Both would be worthy squad members but would doing well to gain a place in the current team.

kevmy

Loughnane has apparently made up his mind on a number of players you played against Dublin. They weren't in the team for the Tipp match and I'd expect to see very little of them as the summer progresses. In his autobiography he stated that his opinion was if ya crack in training over the winter your definetly going to crack come Championship. And a sh1te day in Parnell Park is a bad day to crack.

I don't think Loughnane has the amount of leaders in Galway as he had in Clare but if he get Cloonan and the Keirns right and settles with a good centre-back he'll cause awful trouble come Championship. Galway still at a loss in that they don't have a local derby to get the team psyched for. It's a great motivator and focus for frustration which in Galway has turned inwards. Clare had Tipp, in the football Mayo have Galway, Cork have Kerry and Dublin have Meath

keithrus

Tyrone have Armagh...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Qoute from a dublin supporter... 'Ah jaysus... me ma could kick that over... and she has a bad leg'.... classic