Meagher/Rackard/Ring Cup Finals

KevIRL

Are on today in Croke Park. Its a great pity that these arent been shown on RTE, rte.ie or TG4. A few years back RTE used to show them, when they were on as curtain raisers to all Ireland QF's.

Good luck to all counties involved, long may these games continue to be played in Croke Park, its only right that hurlers from the lower counties get their chance to play in our fine stadium.

Pride Fighter

Its a great chance for some non-traditional counties to win a national title. The idea for tiering the championship is great but I long for the day when it is not neccessary and the all Ireland is expanded to include all. Hopefully it will happen, I know its a long time away and the standard will have to improve massively in many counties but that should be the aim.

DDC1990

Come on Kerry! Would be fantastic to see Kerry win something in Croke Park

I mean the Hurlers of course.

KevIRL

Lori Meagher Cup Final result

Longford 1-20 Donegal 1-12

Deise Hurler

Agree that these matches should be shown on TV. What a great way for hurling in the competing counties and the three competitions themselves to be promoted. If children get to see their fellow countymen playing hurling on the tv in croke park it gives them something to aspire to. The GAA should make RTE, TV3, TG4 show these matches if they want to show the bigger games. (Read somewhere that RTE had to show The Confederations Cup last summer if they wanted to get TV rights for the World Cup). Big opportunity missed by Croke Park.

delta_bravo

I think a better thing would be to make the games free admission. I would say today there may be no more than 5-10k attending. Croker are going to make a loss from the weekend anyway so they may as well try and increase attendance by making it free in.

DDC1990

Armagh 3-14 London 3-11 at the moment. Tight game it seems.

KevIRL

Nicky Rackard Cup Final result

Armagh 3-15 London 3-14

Seems like a cracker there.

DDC1990

8mins gone. Kerry 0-03 Westmeath 0-01

DDC1990

DDC1990 wrote: »

8mins gone. Kerry 0-03 Westmeath 0-01

15mins gone. Kerry 0-06 Westmeath 0-03

DDC1990

Sounds like a great game so far. Westmeath have had 3 good goal chances, but Kerry's defence has held firm. Kerry 0-11 Westmeath 0-06.

Radio Kerry's Mike O'Halloran thinks Darragh O'Connell is the new messiah.

Just as I say it, Westmeath get a great goal. 0-11 to 1-06.

32 mins gone.

DDC1990

0-15 to 2-08 in favour of Kerry. Westmeath keep fighting back with goals.

EDIT: Actually level again. kerry goalkeeper making a terrible clearence straight to a Westmeath man.
0-15 to 2-09

DDC1990

Westmeath taking control now.

0-16 to 2-14.

Kerry backs poor.

10 mins to go.

DDC1990

Goal for Kerry:

1-16 to 2-14.

DDC1990

Kerry 1-18 Westmeath 2-14

3mins to go. Super game!

EDIT: Westmeath score again. 1-18 to 2-15

DDC1990

Kerry 1-18 to 2-16 ... Westmeath win.

Westmeath score win 10 seconds remaining.

Absolutly sick.

homerjay2005

just back from Croke Park. Sickened, bad call by the ref for the last score, should have been a free in for a throw ball, but he missed it and Westmeath scored with the last puck of the match from the resulting clearance. fantastic game however.

i did live tracker for the Kerry Website here for anybody who is interested in how the game went -

http://kerrygaa.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=3376

KevIRL

Are Westmeath promoted to the Liam McCarthy next year? Is there relegation?

SeaFields

To be fair I wanted to see Kerry win this. I know a few lads in Kerry that play hurling and they are in a very small minority in their clubs and face an uphill battle to even put out 15 players sometimes. I would have been good for the hurlers in the county.

Kerry are def on an upward trend and should be able to give a good showing in the early stages of Munster if they can continue the momentum in future years.

KevIRL

A very good post from An Fear Rua on this

So, here I am back from Croke park, and its been a bitter and cruel loss suffered by the brave caman wielders of Kerry. It was an exciting, close, end to end match, and so cruel a way to lose. Personally that to me looked like a definite throw ball to set up the winning score for the Lakemen, ten second from the end of added time. Yet, on balance Westmeath were probably the better team for the 70 minutes, but what character by Kerry to keep plugging away, and I hope a few hurling people around Ireland, will sit up and notice the strides Kerry hurling has taken these last two years and not be so quick to smile ironically, at the thought of Kerry hurling.

But the point I want to make is the disgraceful lack of publicity or even interest shown by the media or the GAA themselves in all three finals today.

It feel so odd, but so good to be walking up to HQ, wearing the Kerry jersey and knowing that you were actually going to watch them in a national final in hurling. Yet what notice was taken by the media for all six counties in finals today? In fairness to the 6:01 RTE news on Thursday they did do a 5 minute piece on Kerry reaching the Christy Ring final, and even went into a little of the background of hurling tradition in N Kerry and senior clubs there. But that was it. I got the Times this morning and not a word about any events in Croke Park today. The GAA section of the RTE website and GAA website last night was the same, no team info or previews. The matches not available to be watched online from the RTE website. TG4 has Wimbledon and the Tour De France listed for today, but no coverage of hurling. Dos anyone else think this is a disgrace lack of publicity and another, in a long list of own goals, by the GAA in this department?

Doesn't the GAA every year tell us that, with fevered bows, they agonise over how to spread and develop hurling outside the traditional powers. The Christy, Nicky and Lory Cups were designed for this purpose, to bring on counties and give them their day in the sun. But what do they do? Instead of each final being a curtain raiser for All Ireland senior quarter or even semi final, they are confined to some obscure Saturday before the summer has barely started. How dos this serve the spread of hurling? Most people would not even know matches were on in Croke park today. Look at strides Carlow and now Kerry have made, don't they deserve some attention. Doesn't the same go for Armagh and Longford, considering the domination of the football code in three of the four above mentioned counties. Asking Kerry people to be in Dublin for this final, and then travel back for Munster final in Killarney tomorrow was a bit much also.

The Championship in English soccer is big business, and their play-offs to get into the Premiership seem to be given wide media coverage at the end of the season, both in the UK and even in Ireland. Why is it our national games, second tier competition goes by with barely a raised eyebrow? Answers on a postcard please.

http://www.anfearrua.com/db.asp?a=topicdisplay&tid=855708

DH2K9

What do people think? Should the GAA put these finals back as curtain-raisers for the big games or put them out as triple-header?

Did anyone get official attendance?

Hearvee

DH2K9 wrote: »

What do people think? Should the GAA put these finals back as curtain-raisers for the big games or put them out as triple-header?

Did anyone get official attendance?

Official attendance up on the big screen at Croker was 3,300. But I'd say there were very few there for all three games, as Westmeath/Kerry fans came in later, and Longford/Donegal fans left earlier.

Great to see the six counties get a deserved day out at Croke Park, but the small attendance and lack of publicity towards it all did ruin it a bit. Was at the Westmeath/Carlow final in Tullamore a couple of years back, much better crowd, much better atmosphere.

But I'd say to be fair to the counties/players involved, the finals should be played at Croke Park/Semple/etc before some of the bigger games.

dartbhoy

These games should be played before provincial finals or All Ireland semis in my opinion. They would defintley get more media attention and more fans watching their games. Well done to all teams involved.

KevIRL

I think the games should be played at Croke Park no matter what, the GAA should insist on broadcast partners (RTE, TG4, TV3) showing at least one game each. Also the GAA needs to promote these games much much better, and be inovative in terms of doing so. All schools in the participating counties should get free tickets for kids. Adult tickets in the participating counties should be 2 for the price of 1, that kind of thing. Lots of media build up beforehand.

I kind of like them having their own day with all 3 games on, when games were on before semi finals, the Ring Cup final would throw in at 12 noon, which is a bit early. With the right promotion and work over a few years, the 'lower finals day' in Croke Park could become an event along the lines of Club final day

homerjay2005

They could defo be played before "bigger games" but it is hard to see where the gaps would arrive.

it is not clear now when the fixtures would show up, but i think the counties should be given the choice at the start of next year -

1. do you want to play stand alone on a random day in croke park or

2. do you want the chance to play as a curtain raiser, on 3 sepearate days, but not necessarily in Croke Park.

There definately is some scope to play before 2 of the hurling qualifiers, but best option would be Semple Stadium. It is unlikely that Croke Park would become free.

KevIRL

homerjay2005 wrote: »

They could defo be played before "bigger games" but it is hard to see where the gaps would arrive.

it is not clear now when the fixtures would show up, but i think the counties should be given the choice at the start of next year -

1. do you want to play stand alone on a random day in croke park or

2. do you want the chance to play as a curtain raiser, on 3 sepearate days, but not necessarily in Croke Park.

There definately is some scope to play before 2 of the hurling qualifiers, but best option would be Semple Stadium. It is unlikely that Croke Park would become free.

Previously they were played before all Ireland QF's or SF's at Croke Park. This meant a circa 12 noon throw in though, and the stadium was usually empty anyway.

I think the organisation needs to take some leadership here, its clear the players would like to play at Croker, that should be kept. But the promotion of the games as an occasion needs to be greatly improved. A bit of foresight and it would be possible to get about 20K in at the games within a few years.