Juggling hurling with football has worked out well so far for Clare star Podge Collins.
Okay he missed out on last Saturday's FL Division 4 final defeat to Tipperary because he was away on a training camp with the hurlers but the All-Star hurler is happy with how things have panned out this year.
"They organise the training," Collins explained to the Irish Times outlining the co-operation that exists between Davy Fitzgerald and his father Colm who is in charge of the footballers.
"They said at the start of the year that they'd take it off my hands and communicate with each other.
"It's grand that way. It's been a good balance so far. I've got enough of both. Seán (his brother) is the same. It works out ideally. There's no pressure on us."
The fact that he is no longer eligible for the U-21 grade is also a help.
"I think with the level of the GAA now, with eating, sleeping and how people are looking after themselves, it is achievable, in the right circumstances. If you look after yourself well enough, it is achievable.
"The key is not to get burnt out. When you're out of under-21 it's a big help. When you're in under-21, you've county hurling and football, club hurling and football at under-21 level, that's four extra teams. But when you're just senior, I think it's achievable."
The championship season looms over the horizon and Podge is looking forward to giving his best on both fronts.
"Promotion was the main goal at the start of the year. And I have enjoyed the football. We're disappointed with the hurling, losing to Tipperary in the semi-final was a big disappointment but we're very focused on the championship."
In the wake of Tony Browne's retirement, here are 16 fantastic reasons why Tony Browne is an absolute legend.
We hope you enjoy!
16. This is his 23rd season as a senior inter-county player. Respect
15. When he made his National League debut for Waterford in 1991, current Deise teammates Darragh Fives, Paudie Prendergast, Pauric Mahony, Jamie Barron and Jake Dillon were not even born
Waterford’s Jake Dillon. Pic: INPHO/James Crombie
14. Opposing managers respect him
Kilkenny manager Brian Cody consoles Tony Browne. Pic: INPHO/Patrick Bolger
13. Opposing players respect him
Tony Browne with Shane McGrath of Tipperary. Pic: INPHO/Cathal Noonan
12. And the Waterford fans love him
Pic: INPHO/Cathal Noonan
11. He was the only Waterford man selected in 2009 on the best Munster hurling team of the previous 25 years
MUNSTER HURLING TEAM: Ger Cunningham (Cork); Stephen McDonagh (Limerick), Brian Lohan (Clare), Frank Lohan (Clare); Tony Browne (Waterford), Sean McMahon (Clare), Sean Óg O hAilpín (Cork); John Fenton (Cork), Jerry O’Connor (Cork); Ben O’Connor (Cork), Gary Kirby (Limerick), John Leahy (Tipperary); Eoin Kelly (Tipperary), Jimmy Barry Murphy (Cork), Nicky English (Tipperary).
10. Noel Connors has dubbed him ‘The Bionic Man’
Pic: INPHO/James Crombie
9. He’s shown Kieran McGeeney some skills
Pic: INPHO/Lorraine O’Sullivan
8. He’s won silverware with his county
Pic: INPHO/Morgan Treacy
7. And he’s won seven county senior titles with his club Mount Sion
Pic: INPHO/Morgan Treacy
6. He’s got his face painted with Davy Fitz for the craic
Pic: INPHO/Morgan Treacy
5. He chills out by doing a spot of fishing
Pic: INPHO/Lorraine O’Sullivan
4. He’s able to pop up with a vital goal for Waterford
A new hurling team in Montana? No your eyes are not popping out of your head.
Well done to Naoise Waldron from from Freshford in Kilkenny who seems to have done a fantastic job in starting the first hurling team in Montana, USA.
When Naoise Waldron came to Missoula from Ireland last fall, few people at the University of Montana had heard of hurling. This weekend, his team will be playing on the biggest stage in town.
The UM Grizzly Hurling Club will play its inaugural home tournament in Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Saturday. The hurling match is the first known competitive hurling match to be hosted in Montana.
Waldron helps captain the hurling team and teaches Irish studies at UM.
He started the team after coming to Missoula last fall from Kilkenny, Ireland, when he discovered the school didn't have one to join.
“I just decided I’m not going to stay here for a year and not play hurling,” Waldron said. “With the tradition of Irish people around here, I knew there would be an interest.”
Hurling combines aspects of field hockey, lacrosse and rugby. Players use a lightweight stick known as a hurley to strike a baseball-like ball, known as a silotar, across a lacrosse-sized field.
Players score by hitting the silotar through or above goalposts that resemble a field goal, soccer-goal hybrid. The games often play fast and rough.
The physical nature of the sport can mirror the more physical elements of a rugby match. Hurlers wear a helmet with a face guard, but that’s about all the protection they get.
Hurling in Ireland is comparable in popularity to football in America. Big matches will draw thousands to stadiums on weekends.
Waldron met Brian Barry, another Irish language teaching assistant, once he came to Missoula. They decided to bring their favorite sport to Missoula this past fall.
Interest for the sport didn’t take off right away. The team recruited people through its Facebook page, Irish classes, and word of mouth.
Slowly they gathered enough numbers to field their first practice this last fall.
At the practice, they encountered another problem: They only could manage to gather four hurleys.
Teaching rookies necessary skills like scooping the ball and hitting also proved difficult.
The team slowly got better through a steady practice schedule and a growing roster. Through private support, fundraising and help from Sean Kelly’s, the Grizzlies were able to afford jerseys and equipment.
The club played in its first tournament in Albany, Ore., this past November. The team went 3-1 in the four-team tournament.
Barry said the game served as a good barometer for just how far the team had come from the fall semester.
“Some of the guys, who may have been able to hit the ball 10 yards before, were now smacking it 50 yards or more,” Barry said. “We’d come up in leaps and bounds.”
The hurling squad’s regular season started this spring. Montana participates in the amateur Cascade League where they are undefeated in conference and tied for first.
The club is coming off another tournament win in Portland this past March.
The Grizzlies edged out seven other hurling clubs from around the region to take home the Buffalo Cup, which is now on display at Sean Kelly’s.
Their success didn’t surprise Waldron. He knew what his squad was capable of. The achievement felt more like a validation for his squad and their chances.
“It’s not quite to the standard found back at home, but there’s not too many who aren’t far off,” Waldron said. “It’s been a massive improvement - even the other teams were saying they just couldn’t believe how good we got so quick.”
The McEneany Cup will draw two other teams across the region for an afternoon of hurling competition. The cup was given its namesake for Terry McEneany, the team’s initial financial booster.
Each team is guaranteed two matches during the tournament. An after party will be held at Sean Kelly’s.
The team will play in a tournament in Portland next weekend. In May, the team heads to New York to play in the Gaelic National Championship over Memorial weekend.
After nationals, Waldron will head back home to Ireland. He hopes to not be gone from Missoula for too long.
“I’d love to come back and help to keep it going.” Waldron said. “Especially if we do well at nationals. It'd be an awful shame to just leave.”
Doors open at Washington-Grizzly at noon Saturday. Admission is free to the public. A hurling demonstration explaining the game and rules will be provided before the contests.
The McEneany Cup will help break the tie between the Griz and Red Branch. Waldron said the team is looking forward to the rubber match.
“I’m confident enough,” Waldron said. “Our last tournament we were just getting on it, so I like our chances. I mean we’re at home - can’t really be losing at home now.”
Mayo’s Aidan O’Shea believes that we will see pay for play eventually in our games. Jim Gavin also spoke about this issue last week and said that if the GAA even lost its amateur ethos, we'd all walk away.
The Sky Sports Deal has put this topic back on the table however I for one was happy to see Paraic Duffy mentioning that making games accessible to the Irish abroad as the main priority in the Sky Sports Deal. I for one, welcome this deal, as I currently live in Sydney, Australia, and am one of thousands who try to watch every match back home.
What do you think?
Below is Aidan views which were highlighted in the Irish Examiner today.
Mayo’s Aidan O’Shea believes the inter-county GAA landscape is destined for seismic changes with smaller and weaker counties amalgamating and franchises emerging where players are paid for their services.
O’Shea was speaking on the back of tweets he posted last week where he welcomed the Sky broadcasting deal with the GAA while questioning why players remained outside the loop when it came to the money surrounding the modern game. He also added that the arrival of Sky would force RTÉ to up its game and claimed that the state broadcaster had become “lazy” due to their long-time monopoly of rights up to 2008.
“It’s going to go there eventually,” O’Shea said when asked at yesterday’s launch of the Electric Ireland 2014 Minor All-Ireland championships about the possibility of professionalism. “It’s not going to happen in my lifetime, but it will eventually. We all know that. Eventually. We are not going to have 32 counties playingGaelic football. It’s just not viable. It might be 20, 30, 40 years away but that’s the way it has to go. The way our country is set up, the way our population is, you are not going to have 32 teams.
“You will probably have franchises,” he said. “You are probably going to have to split the championship into a different structure. That’s the way it’s going to go, players will get paid eventually.”
Some teams at the moment are simply “pissing into the wind”, he added. It didn’t give him any pleasure to say it as baldly as that, he stressed, yet his case was one based not on allegiances or emotion but on stark economic and demographic realities.
O’Shea accepted that his scenario is not one that would be accepted overnight, but he made the hardly unreasonable point that amalgamations have been a fact of life at club level for years and he offered the timely example of Mount Leinster Rangers as prime evidence.
The Carlow side is an amalgam of three clubs — Rathanna, Ballymurphy and Borris. Founded in 1987, Rangers became the first Carlow side to win the Leinster Club senior hurling championship late last year and then reached the All-Ireland final last month when they fell to Galway’s Portumna.
“If you said to somebody 30 years ago, ‘if you all joined up together you can go and have a day in Croke Park’, they would laugh at you and say, ‘what are you on about?’
“You have to be realistic about the future of the game as well.”
He sees that as a future where players get paid to play. O’Shea has heard the argument that players should simply be ‘happy to wear the jersey’ and accepts that the Sky deal will mean more exposure for the top players, but his only gripe with the arrival of the British broadcasting giant is that players will again be overlooked.
O’Shea has sat at GPA meetings and listened to stories of inter-county players who don’t even receive their 50c a mile in travel expenses. He dismissed thegovernment grants players receive on the basis that they were good for little more than “a weekend away in Dublin”.
“My view is, it’s positive,” he said of the Sky contract. “The analysis of the games will go to another level, to be honest with you. That’s what Sky do. I think RTÉ are lazy. They probably got lazy as it’s been a monopoly for them and now they are going to have to challenge themselves a bit more in their production and their analysis.”
O’Shea voiced other issues with RTÉ besides.
Like many a member of the Gaelic football community, he has long looked at what he detects to be as the split personality demonstrated when it comes to analysing the big ball and round ball codes. He offered the example of the drawn Leinster SHC tie between Wexford-Dublin which he described as a “horrible” game but claimed that the pundits on duty merely complimented everyone for their effort.
“If that was the Gaelic [football], if it was the opposite way around, ‘worst game ever seen. Jesus Christ, what are we doing? We’re hand-passing, hand-passing, hand-passing. It’s unbelievable. Unbelievable.’
“We love to talk down Gaelic football whereas you’ll never see a hurling person talk down their sport. Which is great.”
* Aidan O’Shea was speaking at the launch of the 2014 Electric Ireland GAA hurling and football All-Ireland Minor championships.
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Monday, 14 April 2014
Has anyone ever thought Effin Eddie and Johnny Maher - both famous men in their own right would be on video together?
Clare’s Shane O'Donnell is lifted by team-mates after last year’s hugely exciting All-Ireland hurling final against Cork. The Sky deal is good for the GAA. Photo: Sportsfile
Three cheers for the GAA leadership of president Liam O'Neill, director-general Paraic Duffy and commercial mastermind Peter McKenna. The Sky Sports deal, which will see the satellite channel televise Gaelic games for the next three years, is great news for regular sports fans, Irish people abroad and local GAA clubs and players.
The deal will improve the televised product, stimulate long-term revenue growth and widen GAA audiences. In every business and voluntary organisation, there are two types of people: those who resist change and those who embrace it. The GAA is fortunate to have high-calibre leaders who are the latter.
They have the bottle to stand up to naysayers and vested interests. RTE engaged in public dis-service broadcasting in its analysis of the controversy, barely concealing their own agenda – whilst pandering to knee-jerk emotion.
The GAA top brass are regularly depicted as greedy grab all associates. Five Garth Brooks and three One Direction concerts are deemed to be insensitive to neighbours. Amending Rule 42 (open access of rugby and soccer) was also furiously resisted initially. It generated cash for grassroots GAA.
One could be forgiven for thinking the GAA wasn't a 'not-for-profit' organisation. All of the €55m revenue is for its own benefit, with 80pc seeping down to local levels. The television income of €11m represents the most important future platform, given the possible ban on alcohol sponsorship and the inevitable long-term decline of attendances.
The economics of including Sky Sports is a no-brainer, given every other sport's dependence on subscription channels. Enhanced sponsorship is now more likely for the organisation overall and for inter-county teams.
I'm not surprised Pat Spillane, Joe Brolly and Colm O'Rourke urinated on the Sky deal in their print columns. All dedicated sports channels, including Setanta, BTsport, RacingUK, AtTheRaces and Eurosport have revolutionised viewing experiences.
Over the past week, all sides derided armchair punters as some form of despicable couch potato, compared to 'real' club members. I am unapologetic about the fact that my most enjoyable dozen hours a week are spent watching sport on telly.
I would rather live in lesser accommodation, have a smaller car or do without foreign holidays than forego superb pay-per-view premium sports channels. I addictively flick between horse racing, football, rugby, Gaelic games, cricket, snooker, tennis, darts, Formula One, greyhound racing, golf, athletics and even cycling.
Quality and the extent of analysis, punditry, technology, HD, replays and constant innovation is vastly superior on satellite stations. Their content is indisputably preferable.
References to the diaspora's viewing needs have been rubbished by opponents of Sky. It's been argued that emigrants wanting to watch hurling or football matches can readily do so in pubs and clubs, particularly in the UK.
While living in Wales for 18 months, I missed not being able to access GAA games on television. I could only get radio coverage on the Sky TV network, as RTE and TV3 were excluded to householders in Britain. I was unable to get video services on my iPad. No pubs in Wales advertise or promote Sunday matches from Ireland. Even if they had coverage, most customers would prefer other sports.
Outside of London, Liverpool or Manchester, there is little awareness of our national sport. GAA coverage on Sky will be a godsend to those abroad. Inclusion of Australia Seven and the RTE player/GAA GO are all welcome digital remedies to those living beyond the UK. This will only promote the popularity of the GAA.
The amateur ethos of the Association is allegedly imperilled by including the evil Rupert Murdoch as a business partner. Nonsense has gone unchallenged about the nature of volunteers' work in clubs as mentors, sandwich makers and committee members etc.
The point was made that rugby and soccer are professional sports. However, it seems to have been entirely missed that at grassroots level the very same commitment is given to local soccer and rugby clubs. The vast majority of participants at community level in all sports see no remuneration.
It's an identical amateur culture in every parish across the country. Just because Brian O'Driscoll or Robbie Keane get rewarded handsomely doesn't butter any parsnips on the ground. Personally, I'd prefer if elite players/coaches were transparently rewarded with expenses and perks due to the exceptional nature of their commitment.
In 2017, when the next round of televised rights are negotiated, the involvement of premium channels will shake RTE from its cosy complacency in assuming that they will always have the lion's share of match coverage. They must raise their game in terms of quality output and resource commitment.
Assumptions they could always swat away TV3 by having all of the TV licence fee income, greater household penetration on the island and a heritage audience is now jeopardised. A bigger fish is swimming in their pond. GAA authorities would be stupid not to leverage such a game-changer.
By then, savvy Croke Park executives will have brokered sweetheart deals for clubs to sign up Sky packages at heavy discounts. Notions that this will drive young kids into alcohol dependency smacks of far-fetched desperation. What better way to watch inter-county matches than in your local club?
This TV deal merely amounts to the GAA joining the 21st-century. Parallel coverage of the top six matches on final road to Sam Maguire and Liam McCarthy means the best of both worlds. The Government can always legislate under EU broadcasting directives to curb excessive televising of Gaelic games behind a pay wall. It won't happen.
So references to Heineken Cup rugby, exclusively on Sky, are utterly irrelevant. Technology is revolutionising new viewing habits of drama onNetflix; sport can't operate in a time-warp.
Transfer deadline days teach us how Sky extends sport beyond the pitch side. Well done, the GAA. Ignore the begrudgers on Joe Duffy's whingefest, you ensure that kids' sporting idols are Gaelic players.
So what does everyone think of this deal? In my opinion, there has been both negative and positive reviews from both players and supporters alike. Would love to hear your opinions below so please feel free to post a comment and let's see what the consensus is.
Friday, 11 April 2014
Hurling is a fast paced sport where 30 spirited Irishmen
enthusiastically run around a field hurling a hard leather ball( a
sliotar) at each other at speeds of up to 100 mph using carved Ash tree
sticks (Caman's or Hurley's).
Just The Facts
The game is at least 2'000 years old.
It is the fastest field sport in the world.
To many outside of Ireland, the game
seems absolutely batshit insane and is regularly used as evidence that
Irish people are crazy.
Rules/Organisation
Hurling is played with 15 men on each team over 2
halfs of 35 minutes each. Putting the ball over the bar of the goal and
between two upright posts is equal to 1 point while placing it in the
goal proper, is worth 3 points.
Hurling is an inherently dangerous and rough game.
Players can expect to be tackled to the ground, wrestled, shoulder
charged, slashed, hooked and pulled. Early games had a tradition of all
players on the field, 42 in the early days, engaging in all-out
wrestling matches at the final whistle. The use of helmets is encouraged
but not required and most players will go without for many reasons.
Practically, they limit the filed of vision from players but in reality
many think it is more a matter of pride: after all you'd be kind off a
pussy to wear a helmet when your opponent doesn't right?
New
regulations introduced in 2010 have made the use of helmets mandatory
on all levels. Rather then being grateful for the opportunity to protect
themselves from 100 mph travelling bits of leather, numerous players
have retired rather then be forced to wear what is, essentially, just a thin shield of plastic.
"The concussion sucks but at least I don't look like a pussy..."
Croke Park in Dublin is the home of hurling and is the largest
non-soccer orientated stadium in Europe with an official capacity of
80'300. That's important to note as the largest attendance on record is
over 90'000, proving that what would be a strict seating limit in most
countries is taken only as a casual suggestion by most Irish people.
And its only used one third of the year too.
The striking of Caman against each other is called "The Clash of the
Ash" after the tree that the sticks are made from. Such strikes
invariably end with the two objects smashing to pieces and sending sharp
shards of wood flying in every direction because the game just isn't
dangerous enough already.
One of the key drawing points of Hurling is its amateur status at
every level. Every player, manager, coach and official takes part
without pay or wages. All players have "real" jobs, often coming from
the Agriculture, Army or Garda professions (because those jobs just
aren't stressful enough.) As such Hurling is viewed as a more pure sport
where the participants really are playing for the glory of their county
rather then monetary reward.
FOR THE GLORY!
History
Hurling's origins go back over 3'000 years and is thought to
have been first played by the migrating Celts. The mythical Irish hero
Cu Chulainn gained his name by hurling a sliotar down the throat of the
hound of Culann. He is also said to have been able to defeat entire
teams by himself.
Cu Chulainn: Hurling's first showboater
A law passed in Galway in the 16th century said, "At no time to use
ne occupy ye hurling of ye litill balle with the hookie sticks or
staves, nor use no hand balle to play without the walls, but only the
great foot balle" showing the English not only recognized the danger of
allowing the Irish their native games but probably also sounded
hilarious.
In the 18th century many rich landlords in Ireland would
create teams from their servants and tenants and send them out against
teams made by neighbouring landlords. While records of the time try to
portray this as just a good ol' bit of fun, when you think about it, the
English gentry were getting the poor Irish people under their control
and making them hit each other with sticks for their own amusement.
The modern game of hurling was organised with the creation of the
Gaelic Athletic Association in 1886 an organisation designed to promote
traditional Irish games while railing against "foreign" English games
like Rugby and Soccer seen as "soft" sports only played by "them across
the water." Hurling became a much more codified and officiated sport
then it used to be. It is important to note that the modern game, where
grown men hurl a hard leather ball at insane speeds and swing large bits
of wood at each other is a toned down version of the sport.
The 1939 All Ireland Final between Kilkenny and Cork is known as the
"Thunder and Lightning" final. Many think that this was due to the then
recent outbreak of World War 2 but it was actually so named because it
was played in weather that would get any modern sport called off, the
Irish considering the greatest war ever fought (or as we call it "the
Emergency"), to be far less important then 30 men running around in a
thunderstorm.
Pictured: Hurling and War. Or just War depending on where your from.
The All-Ireland
The main competition for the sport is the All Ireland Senior
Hurling Championship which takes place across Ireland from May to
September. The most dominant team at the moment is Kilkenny whose MO is
to allow the other team to be winning all the way to the last 10 minutes
when Kilkenny will effortlessly score at least 10 points without
breaking a sweat. Such tactics have allowed Kilkenny to win the last 5
of the last 6 All-Ireland Championships.
Not related, just amusing.
Other succussful teams include Cork and Tipperary as well as other
counties like Wexford, Clare, Limerick and Galway. Due to the Irish
diaspora, the GAA is able to include several teams from outside Ireland
such as New York and London. However geographical absence from the
motherland is clearly a factor in the game as they are considered the
worst teams in the tournament having only won 1 All Ireland between them
way back in 1901.
The Voice of Hurling
The
most famous commentater of the sport is Micheal O Muircheartaigh whose
style of play-by-play can charitably be described as "eccentric."
Muir-a-hurt-ig got the commentary job with Irish broadcaster RTE in 1940
despite having never watched a hurling game in his life. His trademarks
include frequently discussing players off-field professions such as:
"Anthony Lynch, the Cork corner-back, will be the last person to let you down - his people are undertakers."
"The stopwatch has stopped. It's up to God and the referee now. The referee is Pat Horan. God is God."
"Pat Fox out to the forty and grabs the sliothar. I bought a
dog from his father last week. Fox turns and sprints for goal... the dog
ran a great race last Tuesday in Limerick. Fox, to the 21, fires a
shot, it goes to the left and wide... and the dog lost as well."
"Stephen Byrne with the puck
out for Offaly. Stephen, one of 12. All but one are here to-day, the one
that's missing is Mary, she's at home minding the house..."
Baite, skhelps and sangwidges
Hurling players and supporters have, over the years, created
their own separate dialect, a crude mixture of English and old Irish. In
the event that you find yourself outside Croke Park, surrounded by
bloodthirsty Cork fans after they got trounced by the Cats, this handy
guide should keep you from being "warped" as a "F*ckin foreign panzy"
Give it a fokin Baite ya plank!
Put a fair bit of an effort into it, you idiot!
He looked fair stomached when he hooked him there.
He looked very surprised when a hurley was wrapped around his neck.
That puck was Mighty! Trust him not to make a hames of it!
He hit the ball quite well. You can trust him not to make a mess of that.
That centre half was bullin after I skhelped him,
That defensive player was extremely angry after I thumped him.
Half time. Come on, and we'll have a cup of tae and some hang sangwidges
Half time. Lets consume some caffeine and some ham sandwiches.
Fokin schmozzle there!
Several players are contesting the ball there!
McCarthy gave his Captain a real flackin at training last night.
McCarthy verbally abused his Captain in front of the team at training last night.
Namajaysus Ref!
In the name of Jesus Referee!
We horsed them out of it.
We intimidated the other team successfully.
Come up ta fock!
I am having difficulty rising the ball on my hurley!
Bollix ta ya!
Up yours!
Hurling On Television
Here's a typical Hurling broadcast by Irish television station RTE.
Irish reader's will find nothing remarkable about it at all, but
foreigners tend to be struck by two things:
1. The camera swings back and forth like a metronome on steroids.
2. Where the fuck is the ball?
Due to the small size of the sliotar, a typical field sport camera
can't pick it up very well from a distance, meaning that the easist way
to find follow the course of the game is to look for the biggest
concentration of players.
Also, if you skip to one minute in, that is exactly how the game
begins: the ref throws the ball in, backs the hell up in a hurry, and
everyone just piles the fuck in.
This writer invites people to imagine that their is no ball and that the players are genuinely crazy.
I'm pretty sure that guy in the white shirt isn't a player, he just wanted a better view.
