hurling debate from laois last week

stevemac

Top 'small ball' aficionados stick the boot in
Wednesday March 2nd 2005
http://www.unison.ie/sportsdesk/stories.php3?ca=14&si=1350602

THE English are sometimes mystified at the level of Irish enmity built
up towards them, particularly in matters of sport. No Irish crowd ever
fails to greet news of a defeat for an Anglo rugby, soccer or even
cricket defeat with a hearty cheer. It's an enmity that is rarely
reciprocated.

Such hostility isn't just confined to Anglo Irish affairs or even the
shared use of a sports stadium within this country as anyone who
wandered into the Heritage Hotel in Portlaoise on Monday night last to
listen to the 'Great Hurling Debate' would have discovered.

Gaelic football and hurling are purported to be sister sports, run by
the same organisation through the same structures, played by the same
numbers on the same pitch dimensions with rules that differ only through
the nature of the games themselves. The fundamentals are much the same.

But hurling has a problem with football that isn't reciprocated to the
same degree. And when 'hurling men' get together on the one platform
their distaste for the big ball game is accentuated in no veiled terms.

The 'Great Debate' attracted some great men. Ger Loughnane, Cyril
Farrell and Brian Cody, all managers of All-Ireland winning teams,
Michael Duignan and the celebrated Brian Whelahan from neighbouring
Offaly, Laois county team manager Paudie Butler, Humphrey Kelleher from
Dublin and Cork's All-Ireland winning captain in 1990, Tomás Mulcahy.
Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh compered.

Over 400 attended but anyone from a football background could have been
sinking in the chairs from an early stage as the bullets flew. It was
the central theme of an enjoyable night.

Loughnane spoke of 'interference' from football being a drawback for
hurling as he pushed the idea for a separate department for hurling in
Croke Park.

In almost Paisleyesque style, he demonised football to the delight of
the aficionados present. He had help from the top table. Ó
Muircheartaigh recalled how former Waterford great Ned Power claimed
that there were 129 skills in hurling, Kelleher chipped in that football
had just two - catch and kick!

Kelleher spoke of how only 'special people' hurled because hurling was
such a special game.

The blows kept coming and the big hitters were waiting. "It doesn't
interfere with us in Kilkenny and that's the way it should be," said
Cody.

"They are two totally different games. Hurling is strong in Kilkenny and
it just can't sustain both games. We get all sorts of flak about it
from Croke Park. We're told now that we have to enter teams in the Tommy
Murphy Cup this year.

"I'm speaking for myself but we're not interested in playing football at
any major level in Kilkenny. We compete at underage level play our
schools competitions and it's grand. Fellas enjoy it. But we're a
hurling county and we intend staying that way."

It got worse. Mulcahy recalled how a similar forum in the Cork football
heartland of Clonakilty heard a former Rebel great proclaim that if he
had his way he'd 'puncture every football'.

Mulcahy himself was more tolerant. He did after all make an appearance
in a Munster football final.

But he remained true to his belief that 'football was a game for bad
hurlers', a tongue-in-cheek comment that drew delirious approval from
the floor and a mild rebuke later from current Wexford football manager
and Laois native Pat Roe.

Michael Duignan courted football and hurling but managed to enjoy a half
decent football career at inter-county level despite very little
underage coaching or activity.

Hence football was an easier game to master than hurling. "You catch it
and kick and that's it," he noted dismissively.

After a debate about hurling's best players and candidates for this year's
All-Ireland the panel agreed that only three teams could win the Liam
McCarthy Cup in 2005 and this point introduced another strand.

Are the game's rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer? Yes was
the unanimous verdict though Loughnane qualified his comments by
claiming that the standard of the top teams is better than ever though
the top tier was shared by too few now.

Butler recalled a recent exercise he did when he traced the county
origins of the players on the eight Fitzgibbon Cup teams that started
four quarter-finals earlier this year.

Out of 105 players most were from Galway, Cork, Clare, Kilkenny,
Tipperary and Wexford. Limerick and Offaly were down to a trickle, Mayo
had a sprinkling and Kerry had one.

Galway's possible presence in the Leinster championship drew a mixed
response.

"If I was Galway player I would want to play there because it would mean
more matches," said Cody whose own personal preference was for an open
draw and the abandonment of the provincial championships.

"Galway should have been compelled to play in Leinster," argued Farrell
but Loughnane explained that there was no rule to compel them to do so.

"Galway gave the HDC three reasons why they wouldn't go to Leinster when
they were asked," he explained. "There was no financial incentive for
them, Leinster meant nothing to them and they had a bad experience in
Munster before."

On the possibility of a video referee being introduced for Gaelic games,
the recent Leinster club final controversy between James Stephens and
UCD was touched upon. The Kilkenny champions scored a 'point' that wasn't,
UCD manager Babs Keating complained and didn't go down well with Cody,
himself a James Stephens man who described Babs' complaints as 'tragic.'

On the dual player issue, Loughnane has changed his tune. The man who
once stopped Ollie Baker and Frank Lohan from playing in a Munster U21
final in the same week as an All-Ireland senior semi-final, now feels
that those counties outside the very top tier (i.e everyone except Cork
and Kilkenny) should play their best players no matter what their
interests are.

Naturally Kelleher agreed given the situation with Conal Keaney and
Shane Ryan but the panel was unanimous that football had no place in
hurling preparation.

Back to the theme of the night again!

Colm Keys