A reason why Hurling doesnt flourish in non traditional counties

krazyklown

LAST Thursday night’s County Minor hurling final between Castlebar Mitchels and Tooreen at McHale Park ended in controversy when referee Charlie Collins abandoned the game 13 minutes into the second half due to fading light.
There was disquiet that the floodlights at McHale Park weren’t used to allow the game to finish but Mayo County Board PRO Aiden McLoughlin said it was not possible to have the lights operational at such short notice.

Link to article.

I spoke to someone i know involved in hurling circles in Mayo. He said they were told going in the gate that the lights wouldnt be switched on.

This is despicable imo.
Just put yourself in the mind of a young hurler, playing a county final in front of the new stand and on the new pitch. And then to have to trudge off wondering why couldnt they use the lights. You wouldnt feel very valued by the association now would you!

And just for the record:

A Central Council grant of €5m for the McHale Park project is also laid out in the Mayo GAA Board Balance Sheet, as is a Central Council loan for €1.5m

Link to funding article

longpuck

Thats a joke. A friend of mine was playing county championship hurling in Kerry at the weekend and the game went to extra time it was almost dark before they put the lights on despite the fact it should have been done about hanf an hour befroe hand

ondeball

I remember reading before that the reason that hurling developed where it did is linked to the ash plantations in Ireland.

The first county, other than Dublin which attained success due to migration from the country, to prosper outside of these areas was Offaly in the 1980s.

Of course it this has nothing to do with the attitude of counties to hurling today but it's an interesting point all the same.

c_man

That's pretty bad. Though isn't the lighting problem due to difficulties they're having/had with the local residents?

munchkin_utd

talk about selective quotations!

the reason that the floodlights werent turned on were outlined also in that article

“The situation is that the lights work off a generator and that takes 40 to 45 minutes to heat up,” he told The Mayo News. “It was not a cost issue, 100 per cent.

“It wasn’t a slight against hurling either. If we had the same scenario in a minor football final, the same thing would happen. The difference would be the game wouldn’t be fixed for 7.15pm. It shouldn’t have been fixed for that time by the [hurling] board.

now, if thats the case the game should have been fixed to an earlier time OR the lights switched on for the entire game.

Sunset is currently 8pm! http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=78
Why ever the game was scheduled by the hurling board for such a late time without the hurling board ensuring it was going to be bright enough for the game to be completed should be the question.
Its their competition so they are responsible for ensuring proper facilities are laid on and arrangements made.
(Just the same as a junior board, or ladies football board, or schools soccer or whatever body fixes fixtures and organizes grounds. )

Even if they have no internet, the independent publishes sunset times every day along with the weather!!
Madness.

krazyklown

munchkin_utd wrote: »

talk about selective quotations!

the reason that the floodlights werent turned on were outlined also in that article

now, if thats the case the game should have been fixed to an earlier time OR the lights switched on for the entire game.

Sunset is currently 8pm! http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=78
Why ever the game was scheduled by the hurling board for such a late time without the hurling board ensuring it was going to be bright enough for the game to be completed should be the question.
Its their competition so they are responsible for ensuring proper facilities are laid on and arrangements made.
(Just the same as a junior board, or ladies football board, or schools soccer or whatever body fixes fixtures and organizes grounds. )

Even if they have no internet, the independent publishes sunset times every day along with the weather!!
Madness.

Muchkin

- all fixtures are made by games administeration committee. There is no hurling county board. There is a hurling subcommittee. They have no power when it comes to fixtures except to make reccomendations as to when they would like to see games played.

- I would accept your point if there were no floodlighting, but there is, so what difference does it make what time it gets dark at?

-also note the hurling PRO remark

“Requests were made to have the lights switched on when it became clear that darkness was closing in rapidly. Our county secretary was told at one stage that the lights would not be turned on.
“Earlier, during the first half, I personally spoke to the County Board chairman (Paddy McNicholas) about the potential need for the lights to be switched on. He said it (daylight) was looking okay, that it would be fine.

If they were switched on at that point then the game would not have been abandoned.

- I know anecdotally that they were told going in the gate (before the game commenced) that the lights would not be switched on.

krazyklown

c_man wrote: »

That's pretty bad. Though isn't the lighting problem due to difficulties they're having/had with the local residents?

I think that is resolved. Mayo played Down in the league under lights. It was a very big issue at the time though.

Fr Tod Umptious

krazyklown wrote: »

I think that is resolved. Mayo played Down in the league under lights. It was a very big issue at the time though.

Yea they were due to open the NFL in 2010 under lights v Galway but the fact that they had not received retention planning for the lights because of objections from residents meant that the game had to be moved the the Sunday.

They eventually played an NFL game v Down under lights a year later.

ontheditch2

ondeball wrote: »

I remember reading before that the reason that hurling developed where it did is linked to the ash plantations in Ireland.

The first county, other than Dublin which attained success due to migration from the country, to prosper outside of these areas was Offaly in the 1980s.

Of course it this has nothing to do with the attitude of counties to hurling today but it's an interesting point all the same.

I was always told Hurling is strong where the land is good e.g. not rocky, boggy, hilly. All the munster counties would have good land, apart from Kerry. But look within counties. Cork, the hurling is weak down west where the land is poor. Kerry strong hurling is in the north, where the land is better. How many good hurling teams are in the Burren region of Clare, compared to the rest of it. East Galway has the Hurling, while the boggy land of West Galway is football. Even going more extreme Burt, in Donegal is on a decent bit of flat ground.
Obviously there are exceptions, but its interesting.

ondeball

ontheditch2 wrote: »

I was always told Hurling is strong where the land is good e.g. not rocky, boggy, hilly. All the munster counties would have good land, apart from Kerry. But look within counties. Cork, the hurling is weak down west where the land is poor. Kerry strong hurling is in the north, where the land is better. How many good hurling teams are in the Burren region of Clare, compared to the rest of it. East Galway has the Hurling, while the boggy land of West Galway is football. Even going more extreme Burt, in Donegal is on a decent bit of flat ground.
Obviously there are exceptions, but its interesting.

Doesn't explain why counties like Wicklow and Carlow are rubbish though.

I have a the 'History of Hurling' book at home and it goes into some detail on it. I'll have a look later and see what they come up with there.