John Mullane: Joe Canning can't continue to carry Tribe on shoulders

Galway's Joe Canning stretches for the sliotar after losing his hurl in a tangle with Kilkenny's Aidan Fogarty at O'Connor Park, Tullamore. Photo: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE

Eamon O'Shea and Anthony Cunningham will walk into the last-chance saloon in Thurles next Saturday evening, sit down and order a drink that could well be their last.

Defeat is unthinkable for Tipperary manager O'Shea and his Galway counterpart Cunningham in a massive All-Ireland senior hurling qualifier at Semple Stadium.

For the loser, it's his last game in charge of his native county. And as former Tipp manager Liam Sheedy noted at a county board meeting, playing careers are on the line too.

Galway suffered from the concession of too many frees against Kilkenny on Saturday night.

And four of their forwards – Niall Burke, Joe Canning, Johnny Glynn and Joseph Cooney – didn't score from play. That tells a tale. Much of the spotlight will fall on Joe, once again.

I can relate to what he's going through in these situations.

Going out week after week with that almost unbearable pressure to deliver must be so difficult. And I suspect Joe puts a huge amount of the pressure on himself to perform.

It's a recurring theme. If Joe doesn't play well or is below par, it's almost certain Galway will lose. That's unfair on Joe, but until Galway find two or three players of a comparable quality, they will continue to struggle. And if they don't find them, they're going to struggle for a number of years.

I remember carrying that burden of scoring responsibility during my time with Waterford. It became like a noose around my neck, weighing me down and affecting all aspects of my life.

I'd miss inter-county hurling on match days, but retiring brought relief. I felt like a new man. That weight of expectation had lifted.

I remember leading up to games that I'd be narky and edgy. I felt I had to keep on top of everything. My preparation for games was meticulous. I couldn't lower my standards for a second in training. It's not a nice pressure to have.

Joe probably knows that if he doesn't play well or doesn't deliver the type of cameo performance that illuminated the drawn match against Kilkenny, Galway are not going to win. He's watching other players around him that were hitting the heights in 2012 but have dipped since then. That's affecting the lad too and he's asking himself: 'Why should I be the one to carry the can?'

Conor Cooney is playing well but other players need to step forward and take some of the heat off Joe.

Look at other successful inter-county teams and they have four or five marquee forwards. Galway have just one, and if Joe's not playing well and there's nobody else to bail the team out, I'm sure that's upsetting for Joe and it will affect him.

I'd get him back on the frees too. Cooney's dander is up, he's full of confidence and he'll score from play but the more Joe is involved, the better it is. If he gets a couple of early frees, his confidence will follow. He's captain, too, and that brings added pressure. It's time for the Burkes – Niall and David – to finally deliver.

If Galway are to stay in the championship, these two really need to rediscover their form from 2012.

How Galway react to defeat will go a long way towards determining the outcome of Saturday's showdown.

Three games in as many weeks can work two ways. Galway have momentum and match practice but they'll find it difficult to lift themselves. However, they're coming up against a Tipperary team in a similar boat – low on confidence and racked by uncertainty.

It's all set up for a cracking tie and I'm backing Tipperary to achieve that first championship win under O'Shea.

They have a better selection of players and a couple of marquee forwards who can do damage if they get going and get that bit between the teeth. Tipperary by two or three points for me and if that happens, Anthony Cunningham is out of a job.

Still, Galway isn't a county renowned for managerial longevity and Cunningham is just the latest man to step on board the merry-go-round.

Magical night for Ken the icing on great Deise period

It's been a great few days for Waterford hurling. Our minors are through to a fifth Munster final in six seasons, Ken McGrath's benefit match was a roaring success and our seniors produced an efficient display to bounce Laois out of the championship on Saturday evening.

To the minors, first. They'll be underdogs in the Munster final against Limerick but after winning just one of the previous four provincial deciders, we could do with another.

Friday night then and what can you say? More than 7,000 people turned up to pay tribute to Ken and they came from all over the country. And what about the people of Waterford?

A fantastic response and it just goes to show that when difficult situations arise, there are no better people to rally round each other. It was no more than Ken deserved.

The highlight for me was playing alongside my idol – the ex-Limerick player Ciaran Carey.

I went out of my way to get my photo taken with Ciaran and it was just one of those magical nights that I'll never forget.

PRESSURE

Waterford's victory over Laois capped off the weekend. Make no mistake, this Waterford team – and manager Derek McGrath – found themselves under massive pressure before the game.

It's evident now that supporters are going to have to accept that a style of play is in place – and it's not going to change any time soon.

It would have been difficult for Derek to tinker with it. He's after going with something for the best part of six or seven months and supporters will have to accept that this is the way forward.

Laois tried something similar, with that extra man at the back, and it failed. If they had gone a bit more direct, they could have put in a better performance but I was pleased with Waterford.

Arriving at Walsh Park, I was worried, but it seems that if you take Laois out of Portlaoise, they don't offer very much.

They remain a work in progress but the Laois supporters were disappointed with that showing, which was their worst of the year.

Waterford had their homework done and a lot of the bigger players really stepped up to the mark. Kevin Moran, Brick Walsh and Pauric Mahony were very good.

Shane Walsh chipped in with a couple of goals and the pressure is off Waterford now. Derek's after getting that first championship win and if they get a bigger team in the next round, they'll go in as underdogs and have a right crack at it.

Faithful comeback proves they really do care

That was a massive victory for Offaly in Ballycastle yesterday. And it just goes to show that the Offaly players DO care about their county.

They rolled up their sleeves when it was really needed, coming from five points down to hit 1-4 without reply.

Offaly are probably at their lowest point for a long number of years, but to go to Ballycastle and produce late heroics like that is testament to their character. Antrim manager Kevin Ryan will be disappointed. He's after doing tremendous work up there and I still believe that Antrim are going in the right direction.

Their U-21s were in an All-Ireland final last year and they beat Laois in Portlaoise. OK, they gave a below par performance against Wexford and it would have been a massive boost to win yesterday, but Offaly needed this one more.

Read The Original Article At The Irish Independent

The Great Debate: Does hurling need the black card?

Jonathan Glynn of Galway is brought down by Kilkenny's Cillian Buckley, resulting in a late Galway penalty in last week's Leinster SHC semi-final. It was the sort of challenge that would have resulted in a black card in Gaelic football. Picture credit: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE

No, says Donnchadh Boyle

The black card was introduced to football after probably the most extensive consultation process with various stakeholders undertaken in the history of the Association, but that doesn't mean it is needed in hurling or that it will work.

Part of the problem in football stems from how it was refereed. Slowly things like body-checking became the norm, and the black card was brought in to deal with problems that had developed over a number of seasons and across several teams.

Hurling is much different. While there are examples of cynical play, it has yet to become part of the furniture as it was in football. It's not that hurlers are less likely to commit such acts or that managers are reluctant to bend the rules, it's just much harder to employ such tactics when the ball moves at such pace and can travel from one end of the field to another in a couple of seconds and scores can be taken from great distance.

Using the new interpretation of penalty regulations as a crutch to prop up the argument for the introduction of a black card doesn't wash either.

Admittedly, penalties are harder to score now, with the ball having to be struck from the 20-metre line, so defenders might take their chances and concede them a la Cillian Buckley last weekend. The Kilkenny man decided hauling Jonathan Glynn down was a better option than letting him get his shot away as he bore down on goal.

There's a simple solution to that that does not require major change.

Either bring the penalty spot in closer or reduce numbers on the line to give the attacking team a better chance of finding the net. That way, conceding a penalty wouldn't be as attractive as it is now and that should sort that argument without the introduction of any new set of rules.

Secondly, there are the practicalities of it. Would any such motion get through?

Not a chance. It's not too long ago Eddie Keher was calling for the use of yellow and red cards to be scrapped and his comments helped spark the formation of a group to review hurling.

In that light, what are the chances of another card being added? The black card was only narrowly passed in football after the Football Review Committee lobbied hard and made a presentation to delegates at Congress. It's hard to imagine any such move getting the required support at ground level.

Down the line, managers might come up with new ways to side-step the rule book but at the moment the black card is neither needed nor welcome.

Yes, says  Cliona Foley

Sport is full of anomalies. Chewy Luis got hit by a new 'three bites and you're out' rule yesterday and the Twitter machine exploded.

It was quickly pointed out that Suarez has been banned for 34 games since 2010 without receiving a single red card; further proof, if needed, that discipline in sport regularly stretches the findings of the rule books.

You could argue that if a Gaelic player sank his teeth into an opponent (and it has been alleged in the past year, though not proven) then he would have had the 'Treor Oifigiuil' thrown at him and been banned for six to 12 months for bringing the game into disrepute.

But within the GAA's own disciplinary system, at the moment there is one howling anomaly that should be addressed.

When Cillian Buckley took down Jonathan Glynn to concede a penalty in the dying minutes of last week's Leinster hurling semi-final your automatic reaction was 'black card, ref!'

Only, of course, this was hurling, where there is no such thing as a black card.

But why the hell not?

The introduction of a black card to Gaelic football this year was designed to punish deliberate, cynical fouling and only the most entrenched die-hard could argue that it hasn't had some success.

Yes, there will still be times where players will 'take one for the team' this summer, as Sean Cavanagh did when he rugby-tackled Conor McManus last year.

But we are no longer seeing the plethora of rugby-style blatant pull-downs that used to pepper the final five minutes of any inter-county football game of consequence.

Yet, hey ho, it's not a problem if hurlers do it, which they do regularly, especially close to goal.

Hurling may be threatening to give us another second golden summer but, no matter what the purists tell you, it is not without its own dark arts.

Catching an opponent's hurl with your hand or elbow, and the cynical use of the 'spare hand', are among the skilful transgressions in the new mile-a-minute modern game.

Referees, thankfully, have got better at spotting these slick fouls but, under hurling rules 5.17 and 5.18, a deliberate pull-down or trip still only warrants a yellow.

Every time the GAA makes a rule change it ruminates long and hard over whether it can be applied in the 'club game,' arguing you can't have one rule for some and not for all. So how then can they have different disciplinary rules for their own two codes?

A pull-down is a pull-down. A deliberate trip is a deliberate trip, a 'deliberate collision' after the ball is what it says on the tin.

If you think those only happen in football you're not watching much hurling.

If you get a black card for deliberately taking out an opponent in one code then you should get it in the other.

To quote Dougal: "That's mad, Ted!"

Read More Of This Article At The Irish Indepndent

Galway are capable of catching fire when you least expect it

Joe Canning shows his disappointment after Galway’s defeat to Kilkenny in the 2012 All-Ireland 

final replay. Photo: Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE

"Well there's no time for Galway to feel sorry for themselves!"

In the RTE commentary booth, Ger Canning's words could have been the credits starting to roll on a disaster movie. We had just witnessed a jolting, four-point turnaround in the 2012 All-Ireland hurling final replay.

Within seconds of Joe Canning's shot rebounding to safety from the butt of a Canal End upright for what would have been an equalising goal, Cillian Buckley had struck a Hill End point for Kilkenny. The natural thought process was precisely the one now being articulated in the commentary.

To wonder about Galway's capacity to cope. Seconds later, Cyril Donnellan swung recklessly on JJ Delaney in front of the Cusack Stand – splitting the Kilkenny man – and, after consultation with Barry Kelly, James McGrath sent him off. Between Canning hitting the post and Donnellan seeing red was a stretch of precisely 56 seconds.

Is that the length of time it took this Galway team to die? Anthony Cunningham's inaugural season as manager brought a first Leinster title and, maybe more thrillingly, evidence of innovation and ruthlessness in Galway's hurling.

They humiliated Kilkenny in the provincial final, exploding from the traps to lead by a startling 14 points at half-time.

Everything about them seemed a repudiation of caricature. Because Galway – with their three-man midfield, rotating forwards and a tactic of breaking high ball rather than attempting to engage in an unwinnable fetching match with Kilkenny – had found a way of hurling on their own terms, not the opposition's. Cunningham was overseeing revolution.

SLAUGHTER

But in the time it took the on-screen digital clock to travel from 47.05 to 48.01 on September 30, 2012, everything unravelled. And, in the next 13 minutes, they would be out-scored by 2-6 to 0-1. A game that looked to be building towards something epochal lurched suddenly into slaughter. Kilkenny won by 12 points; Galway slipping home to old, familiar noises.

Twenty one months later, is there still life in the Cunningham revolution? Nobody knows. On Wednesday, Tony Keady found himself drawn into hurling talk with some people in Oranmore, but pointedly dodged their invitation to make a prediction for tomorrow.

What could be argued with any certainty? Keady was one of the great centre-backs of the game and a man who, through his 1980s pomp, seemed to become emboldened by the pressure of big hurling days.

He is now a selector with the county U-21s and someone who believes implicitly in Galway's capacity to pull lightning from the sky. But tomorrow in Tullamore? He feels no wiser than the next man.

What can be said with certainty is that Cunningham's Galway has not summoned a truly compelling performance since September of 2012.

They have exited successive National Leagues at the semi-final stage (both times to Kilkenny) and lost championship games last year against Dublin (Leinster final) and Clare (All-Ireland quarter-final) by an average margin of nine points.

Their recent struggle to evict Laois from the Leinster championship bore echoes of a similar struggle last summer, only this one being more pained and decidedly more dramatic.

So the search for progress seems to be leading down blind alleys again.

When Conor Hayes took them to the '05 All-Ireland final against Cork, the team was, rightly, lauded for an attacking spontaneity that had swamped Kilkenny in a high-scoring semi-final. Yet Hayes suspected that the fuel of anger would not go amiss with certain players and, in the week of the final, a video analysis session offered repeated viewings of John Allen's championship preview for 'The Sunday Game' the previous May.

The intended verdict of the session was that Allen, Cork's manager, had been dismissive of Galway's prospects. It made no difference, Cork winning the final by five points.

When Ger Loughnane then replaced Hayes as manager after a flat championship in '06, he targeted what he'd previously identified in his punditry as a lack of on-field leadership in Galway. Or "men of substance" as he put it.

That winter, Loughnane pushed the Galway players ruthlessly over Paudge O'Connor's all-weather gallops in Tubber. He'd salt the agony by having them run with hands in the air and, after training, introduced them to the delicious torture of out-door ice-baths.

Loughnane's view seemed to tally with an outside perception of Galway hurling that the players were soft. That, in crisis, they would equivocate.

A modified baseball pitching machine was also brought in to help deal with their perceived weakness in the air. And the sports science expertise of Ger Hartmann was referenced to ensure that mistakes made in Loughnane's final year as Clare manager – i.e. over-training the team – would not be repeated.

Yet, in the '07 championship, Galway fell meekly to Clare at Cusack Park in a vaguely surreal qualifier, then went toe to toe with Kilkenny for a wonderful hour in an All-Ireland quarter-final only to end up losing by 10 points.

One year later, they seemed to have regressed again, the qualifier defeat to a 14-man Cork pre-empting Loughnane's departure.

This was the day that signalled Joe Canning's arrival on the big stage, the 19-year-old Portumna kid delivering 2-12 in only his second championship game for an otherwise subdued team.

Canning would be named Young Hurler of the Year for his efforts and win the first of three All Star awards.

Rightly acknowledged as one of the most naturally gifted hurlers to grace the game, he is Galway's captain this year. Yet he missed all bar the latter stages of the league through injury, Conor Cooney thus inheriting the job of free-taker.

A feeling seems to be growing in Galway that Canning is now prone to drifting to the periphery of games in which they need a marquee presence, albeit his performance for a beaten team in last year's Leinster final was heroic.

Over the last two seasons, his scoring return from play in league and championship (he has started 11 games) is 1-19. An average of exactly 0-2 per game. To beat Kilkenny tomorrow, Galway – almost certainly – will need more than that from Joe.

True, they retain a capacity like few others to spook Brian Cody's men as their championship victories of '01, '05 and '12 will signify. Yet, hindsight gives those victories the status of scratch-card wins today. They return as random guerilla strikes, thrilling aberrations in the general tenor of the rivalry.

After all, in the 26 years since Galway's last senior All-Ireland win, Kilkenny have stockpiled 11.

Keady was a stalwart of that '88 team, a side with a name for being hard-nosed and outwardly self-confident. Cunningham was part of it too, albeit cursed with the role of perennial substitute.

When the Galway walls came tumbling down in that 2012 replay, Keady says he was with his wife and children "grinding my teeth" in the Davin Stand. He'd been thrilled by the quality of Galway's hurling all summer but, now, watched the dream die "in less than a minute".

And the status of that dream now?

"If they don't put up a good performance against Kilkenny in Tullamore, it's gone," he says. "That is for sure. We need to know what direction we're going after Sunday, that's the bottom line. Last year was a total disaster, we just want to forget about it completely.

"Like if you look at Joe Canning, Mother of God, at 18 and 19 he was considered our finest of all time. But the years are flying by. What is he now? 25 going on 26? It's unbelievable what's happening. So we really have to push the boat out on Sunday to see where we are."

They made mistakes in 2012, no question. The decision to play goalkeeper James Skehill in the replay just two days after dislocating his shoulder in training was ill-advised. Similarly, Canning's comments between draw and replay about Henry Shefflin's sportsmanship sparked ire across Kilkenny that, whilst never directly referenced in a Cody team-talk, created palpable tension.

But it must be remembered too that Galway hurling had to cope with far more than regret last winter. The tragic loss of Niall Donoghue in October devastated team-mates for whom the pursuit of a Celtic Cross must suddenly have seemed crushingly unimportant.

Few doubt Cunningham and his players to be one of the groups that could, conceivably, lift the Liam MacCarthy in September. But those ruinous 56 seconds of September 2012 may have scarred them and it is worth asking, what did they signify? Bear in mind that as Eamonn Taaffe scored the goal that effectively won the '95 All-Ireland final for Clare, Loughnane had a slip of paper in his hand to have Taaffe replaced by Alan Neville.

"I was looking out on the field to see where the referee was to see if I could come on to make the switch," he subsequently remarked in his biography, 'Raising The Banner'. "The next thing I saw the Clare flags hitting the sky at the Canal End. I thought it was Fergal Hegarty who had scored the goal." The deities smiled on Clare that day.

Is Galway's greatest weakness just being cursed with rotten luck?

You have to wonder what the width of that post inflicted upon them two years ago? Maybe Kilkenny would have won regardless, but a Galway goal at the time would have meant they had taken six out of the game's last eight scores to tie the contest. It would have equated to serious momentum.

Their story has been strikingly underwhelming since, yet Keady will go to Tullamore tomorrow clinging to familiar hope.

"People are seriously hard on Galway," he says. "And I suppose the way things are gone, the fans are aching for something. I'd say a lot of them would be nearly happy enough if Galway got beaten by three or four points and put up a performance.

"But the bottom line is they have to perform. And you know I don't think anyone could say for certain that they won't win. Like everyone is talking them down, but Galway hurling is never that far off the track! They're always capable of catching fire when you least expect it."

Until they do, though, that cold question will remain. Did this team's future die in 56 seconds?

Read The Original Article At The Irish Independent

Damien Cahalane – watching the 2013 Cork hurling heartbreak and helping the 2014 success

Source: James Crombie/INPHO

DAMIEN CAHALANE FELT the heartbreak experienced by the Cork hurlers in 2013 but is delighted to be pitching in with their success for the Munster campaign in 2014.

Cahalane was part of Cork’s hurling plans in 2012 before decamping to the football squad last season. He watched on during last September’s epic two-game hurling saga in Croke Park and shared in the pain as Cork fell short in their efforts to claim the Liam MacCarthy Cup.

This season Cahalane has opted this year to juggle commitments to both Cork setups. After playing a starring role in the hurlers latest win on Sunday over Clare, it’s a decision that is paying off.

“These are the days you play for with a massive Cork following  there. It would have been selfish to say I felt I should have been there last year. I didn’t feel I should have been there, I wasn’t part of the panel.

“But I had been part of the panel the year before. I felt the lads heartbreak after losing those finals. I was absolutely disgusted for them. Sunday is just a small step along the road of putting things right.”

Cahalane battling with Clare's Peter Duggan for possession.

Source: Cathal Noonan/INPHO

Working hard at the coalface of the Cork defence and repelling the Clare rearguard were Cahalane’s primary duties on Sunday. But in the first-half he even managed to pitch in at the other end, blasting over a monster effort from the right wing in the 28th minute. It was his first hurling championship score for Cork and Cahalane savoured it.

“I don’t think I’ve ever found myself that far out the pitch before,” laughed the St Finbarr’s club man. “It was a great ball from Aidan (Walsh), I found myself in a bit of space but there were lads rushing towards me so I felt I’d better hit the shot quick. I got it off and it went over. I was just delighted to see it go over.”

With the hurling victory parked, Cahalane’s attention shifts to next weekend’s football assignment with Cork against Tipperary. But the prospect of a unique Munster hurling final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh against Limerick next month excites Cahalane. Three years ago he was part of a Cork U21 team that fell short against Limerick in a wondrous and epic provincial decider.

Cahalane in action in that 2011 game which Cork lost by 4-20 to 1-27 against Limerick.

Source: James Crombie

“It would be wrong to say that we weren’t thinking about it,” admits Cahalane. “It is a massive incentive. The last Munster final to ever be played down there.

“It was something to really set your eyes on and say that you wanted to win on Sunday to get to that. It’ll give the Cork fans a day out in the Páirc. I don’t think I’ve ever been at a Munster hurling final there so it’ll be interesting.

“Limerick have been coming strong with U21 teams with a long while. They’d a massive win over Tipperary and they’re looking in good form. They’re very intense and very aggressive so it’ll be a huge challenge.”

The Tipperary and Waterford players before the 2011 Munster senior hurling final.

Source: James Crombie

Read More At www.thescore.ie

Hurling rules clarification proposes to ban 'Anthony Nash free'

Cork goalkeeper Anthony Nash has raised several green flags with his signature lifting style

The GAA's Management Committee has proposed clarification of the rules on penalties and 20m frees in hurling, which would mean the end of the 'Nash free'.

The recommendations would ensure that in most instances shots are taken from the full 20 metres out with no rushing the ball from defenders.

Controversy has arisen following the style of penalty/20m free pioneered by Cork goalkeeper Anthony Nash, whereby the ball is lifted forward several metres before striking towards goal.

Last Sunday, in an attempt to negate that advantage, Waterford goalkeeper Stephen O'Keefe charged from his line once Nash had lifted the ball and saved from close range.

The referee ruled that the ball was in play once Nash had lifted it and that O'Keefe was within his rights to advance, but there was controversy over whether lifting the ball counted as 'striking'.

The new clarifications proposed confirm that it is not and seek to stop defenders advancing from the goal-line while also forcing the attacking player to strike the ball no closer than 20 metres out.

The attacking player may still lift the ball forward before striking, but must bring the ball back from the line (up to seven metres) to do so.

Central Council is expected to rule on the proposed changes before the weekend.

GAA Statement in full:

The Management Committee of the GAA has asked Central Council to consider and adjudicate on the following recommendations for Interpretations of Rule in relation to the Playing Rules of Hurling 2.2 Exceptions (i) and (ii), 2.3, 2.5 and 4.16(b)

The terms “taken” or “retaken” in Rules 2.2 Exceptions (i) and (ii) and 2.3 shall mean the ball being “struck”.

A player taking a penalty or a 20m free puck, may bring the ball back up to seven metres from the 20m line for the purposes of making a traditional run at the ball, but shall strike the ball on or outside the 20m line but not inside it.

Exception: In the context of Rule 2.5, if a player taking a penalty or free puck on the actual 20m line fails to lift the ball at the first attempt or fails to strike it with the hurley, and that action causes the ball to marginally cross inside the 20m line, the player, as provided for in this Rule, shall be allowed to strike the ball on the ground without delay.

(a) The players defending a penalty or free puck awarded on the centre point of the 20m line shall stand on their goal-line and may not move towards the 20m line until the ball has been actually struck. ‘Lifting’ the ball with the hurley does not constitute ‘striking the ball’.

(b) The players defending a free puck awarded on the 20m line at a point other than on the centre point of that line shall stand a minimum of 20m from the point of award of the free and may not move closer to that point of award until the ball has been actually struck. ‘Lifting’ the ball with the hurley does not constitute ‘striking the ball’.

This Interpretation shall, in accordance with Rule 3.43, Official Guide Part 1, have the force of Rule until Congress 2015, when the issues will be further addressed by way of Motion(s).

Go to www.rte.ie for this and more news

LIMERICK PROTEST: Making a point

Sky had their cameras pointed the wrong wayon Saturday. While Kilkenny were busy splattering Offaly like a bug on a windshield there were some dramatic scenes playing out at the same time in Limerick.

Hammy Dawson, of the St Patrick’s GAA club, staged a one-man sit-in protest Limerick City Junior A hurling final between Na Piarsaigh and Crecora in Clarina. Dawson’s issue was with his club being forced to give Crecora a walkover in the semi-final of the competition last weekend as eight of his fellow clubmen were on duty with the Limerick senior and junior footballers.

Attempts to reschedule the game, including an offer to play on the Bank Holiday Monday, all failed. Dawson told the Limerick Leader: “Fixing that game made no sense but refusing to reschedule was worse, showed no respect for either hurling or football, certainly showed no respect for this club or for the players involved. We don’t blame Crecora, we blame the City Division board. They were wrong from day one to fix the match for that date.

“But if they try to go ahead with that I will lie in the middle of the pitch – that game will not take place. I’ll do everything I can physically to make sure of that. It’s a disgrace.”

As good as his word, Dawson turned up and lay in the middle of the field, his protest lasting two hours before the Gardaí eventually persuaded him to leave the pitch. It’s fair to say by that stage he had clearly made his point.

Here’s the ‘Limerick Leader’ piece on the intervention of the Gardaí, complete with pictures. http://iti.ms/1jeZcP1

Here is the link to original article and more

It's always better tomorrow - Eddie Connolly's courage has inspired all those around him

Eddie Connolly: ‘I’m in flying form again. Please God, I can fully recover and they can find a 

place for me again.’ Photo: Gerry Mooney

Eddie Connolly strode onto the pitch at O'Moore Park in Portlaoise, started kicking a ball and 20 minutes later, for the first time in six months, he felt a burn.

"I had made two or three runs," he smiles. "And the burn spread right across my chest. It was bloody brilliant."

That was at the beginning of May. A week earlier, Connolly had taken a phone call from Richard Poole from Portlaoise who was looking for cancer patients to play in a charity football match organised by former patients of St Luke's and St James's Hospitals. On match day Connolly walked into the St Luke's dressing room, greeted his manager Brian Cody, and felt like he belonged again.

"Every player there: Martin McGrath, Joe Deane, John McGrath, they had all suffered cancer in some form. The difference was I was the only player still receiving treatment," Connolly added. "I was due in for chemo the next day. The others were looking at me as if I had two heads."

Spend even a few minutes in Connolly's company, however, and you won't be surprised at anything he does. A born winner and competitor, he carved out a serious reputation as a hurler and footballer for both Tipperary and his club Loughmore-Castleiney, winning dual county minor titles in 2002 and building from there with a succession of teams.

As Tipperary play Limerick in the Munster championship opener this afternoon, Connolly still holds onto the dream that he could make the squad again. In 2011, the tenacious defender was drafted onto the senior hurling panel by Declan Ryan and also figured for John Evans' footballers in the Kerryman's last year in charge.

In 2012, he captained Tipperary to the All-Ireland intermediate hurling final and then set about reclaiming his place in the senior set-up. As recently as last October he looked right on course. Loughmore were pushing hard on two fronts, en route to an historic double of hurling and football titles. The same 15 players were more or less the team's backbone in both codes and Connolly was impressing every weekend.

It was only in the latter stages of their county hurling quarter-final against Borris-Ileigh that his dream season turned to devastation. With 10 minutes to go, a high ball was lobbed in around the square and Connolly lost his man, Brendan Maher, who rose above him to flick the ball home. "I just blanked for a second," Connolly recalls. "I lost the ball but worse still I lost Brendan and that was just not me. I never ever lost the man."

They won, but he walked off the field with a thumping pain in his head. He took a shower, asked the team physio for two Nurofen and headed back to the stands to watch Nenagh éire óg and Kildangan in the other quarter-final. But he could neither focus, nor follow the ball. Somehow, with his vision blurred, he lasted until five minutes before the end before asking a team-mate to drive his car home. "I spent the entire journey concentrating on not getting sick in my car. At home, though, I vomited violently four or five times. You know how you often feel better after getting sick? Well, I actually felt worse."

His family knew something wasn't right. Eddie's sister Fiona, a physical therapist, brought him to Shannondoc. From there he was switched to South Tipperary General Hospital, Clonmel and put on a drip, but his condition deteriorated. The doctors saw the scratches on his arm and wondered if he had meningitis. They forgot he was a hurler, just after a championship match. The scratches were merely wounds of battle.

"By then, though, I was in a critical condition and rushed to Cork. There was a drip in my arm and any time I moved a machine would beep and drive me mad. The pain in my head was unreal; I couldn't hold my arm still, so it kept beeping. I remember roaring at the poor nurses to take the fucking thing off me."

He was stabilised, told that a shadow on his brain had been detected and that surgery was required. But he spent the next 10 days waiting for the operation. "I was waiting and fasting; losing weight. I was on a list and absolutely pissed off. It was the Saturday week before the county final and I said I was off home if they didn't have a place for me in the theatre. My sisters were down visiting and I insisted on going home with them. Fifteen minutes before they left, I was called to theatre. I was delighted."

Connolly remembers being asked a flurry of questions when he woke up, but the only thing he could mutter was that he was starving. He asked for toast and when the nurses came in to check on him an hour later he was on his feet heading towards the toilet. The nurses were aghast and tried to whoosh him back to bed. A tumour the size of a golf ball had been cut out of his head; the surgeons had taken as much as they could without affecting the brain, but as far as Connolly was concerned the recovery had started.

"I was lucky," he says frankly. "I had the tumour on the front right. If it happened on the front left, where all the movement and reflexes are centred, I could kiss goodbye to sport or hurling and football again. So I just got up and at it. I don't feel sorry for myself; there are people in way worse situations than me. I was lucky to be so dehydrated in the match, that the pain was so intense, because it meant the condition was detected early. Imagine if I didn't play sport? The tumour could have festered for another six months."

It hit his family and the locality hard, but typically the GAA fraternity rallied around. Connolly received get-well cards from every corner of the country. A Mass was held for him and the parish priest visited him in hospital and jokingly scolded him because they had run out of Communion that evening. On the Tuesday after the operation, he was released from hospital and tipped up to Templetuohy to watch Loughmore train. There, on a bitterly cold night, he was warmly welcomed back and embraced by his team-mates. It was an emotional reunion.

He hoped to watch them win a county title but the day before they played Nenagh he woke up with another blinding headache. He tried to force some breakfast down, but couldn't. The thoughts of missing the final filled him with fear so he tried to tough it out. The pain, though, was too severe. With his vision again blurred it was straight back to Cork. The diagnosis was swift – a build-up of fluid was causing increased pressure.

He made do with following the county final on Twitter; watching deferred highlights on TG4 with his brother and sister-in-law. On the Monday he asked to go home and was told he could, but to summon his parents down first. The news, he sensed, couldn't have been great.

"There was just silence inside the doctor's office when the tumour was said to be cancerous. I just remember one line – 'it won't go away on its own, but it won't spread'. In the car on the way home there was nothing but silence. It was just like: fuck it."

That evening he hooked up with his team-mates, by now deep in celebration mode following their win over Nenagh. In need of a pint, Connolly joined them, relaying the news and explaining how treatment would be required for the next nine months. It hit them hard, but as the initial shock sunk in, a player from a rival club approached Connolly. "Eddie," the opponent said. "If I could pick one lad to fight this it would be you. You are the one mentally strong enough to beat this."

He decided to undergo chemo and radiotherapy in Dublin where he had lived since he was 18, having studied architecture at DIT before joining AIB Head Office and working his way up to assistant manager.

"I love it up in Dublin; I'm living with three lads from home – Derek Burke, Paul McGrath and Kieran McGrath – and one fella from Laois and we actually have three cars going up and down home for training so I had plenty of help and support."

He underwent six weeks of combined chemo and radiotherapy, five days a week, before taking a break for Christmas. Only twice did he have to take the bus to St Luke's Hospital. Everywhere he turned a friend or neighbour from home was waiting with a car, ready to ferry him over and back. The treatment knocked him for six and lying flat on a table for 10 minutes at a time with a mask on his face was the worst part.

"I described it as a really bad helmet," he laughs. "It was beat into me. If you were claustrophobic you were in trouble. I lost my hair as well, but that didn't bother me. I shaved it all off. It's mostly back now."

He got word that his former Tipperary team-mates were organising a 6km run, days before Christmas, and sought to join that run. It's an amazing testament to him that, just seven weeks after having a brain tumour removed, he finished it in 30 minutes.

More importantly, on a dirty day in December, the people of Tipperary showed Connolly their appreciation, with thousands across all age groups turning out in atrocious conditions to run with him and lend their support. Each time he paused for breath, another hurler would urge him on. It galvanised everyone; the players insist that apart from raising funds for North Tipp Hospice it helped bond their team. They hope that unity will prevail when they tackle Limerick this afternoon.

Quietly, it also lifted Connolly. "Just to see so many familiar faces," he smiled. "Just to be back in and around the Tipp boys again . . . it was a big lift." And another step in his recovery. Another step closer to resuming his life and career; to shaping his own destiny.

"You must do whatever you have to do to make your own way. I don't like this 'why me?' attitude," he shrugs. "I have a great fighting chance and hopefully I'm taking it. I never really had dark moments, or broke down at any stage because I had such support."

He's back in the gym since March and already ramping up the free weights. He returned to work with AIB three weeks ago, easing himself in with half days. He wants to climb the career ladder further and once he gets a clean bill of health has that marked down as a priority.

"Playing the GAA charity match was another milestone," he reckons. "There is an incredible video from that game with stories of life after cancer. People can find it on YouTube or by hitting www.charitygaamatch.com. It will inspire others. For me, it was just brilliant getting back to play. But I've been getting boosts like that all along."

None more so than when Mickey Harte came to visit him last November. "I got great encouragement off Mickey and to see how he dealt with my parents who, like him, are very spiritual, was unreal. Mickey gave me a card with a prayer and when he later came down to present Loughmore with our medals another thing he said stuck in my mind. 'Tomorrow is another day'. Mickey's right – if I ever have a bad day tomorrow is another. And I always try to be better tomorrow."

All going well, and if the doctors agree, he'll be back hurling in five to six weeks. In 2013, before he went on the hunt for those two county senior titles, he had already spent nine months out of action after completely tearing his groin off the bone.

"I'm only a three-month man anyway," he laughs. "I usually only come back in July when the heavy stuff is done. Look, that's the plan – to get back soon. I'm in flying form again. Please God, I can fully recover and they can find a place for me again."

Of course they will. Even though he's not been around he's become their heartbeat.

Read Original Article on the Irish Independent