Limerick IT stated their intent by demolishing UCD. The Davy Fitzgerald and Cyril Farrel coached team led by the scoring power of Galway sensation Joe Canning had too much class all round the field for the Belfield outfit.
This sets up an all-Limerick semi final as they’ll play UL who just overcame Cork IT thanks to a last minute point by Laois man Matthew Whelan.
NUIG caused a bit of a surprise by seeing off UCC. The Galway outfit, led by the sharp shooting of Tipp man Dara Egan and Clare man David Barret always held the edge throughout and pulled away at the end to seal the win.
DIT edged out St.Pats in the last of the quarter finals thanks in large part to the sharp shooting of Dublin man Kevin O’Reilly who hit 1-8 of his sides total. They now advance to play NUIG in the semi finals.
Limerick IT, winners 2 years ago, knocked out Waterford IT, the holders, in the last round so they must be among the favourites. Although the 4 big universities UL, UCD, UCC and NUIG always field strong teams.
Kilkenny made it 3-in-a-row of Walsh cup titles by beating Wexford in Wexford on a scoreline of 1-13 to 0-10. Co-incidentally this is the exact same score as the 2005 final, which started Kilkenny’s current run of success in the tournament.
Prior to their 2005 victory Kilkenny had shown little interest in the cup going back to their last victory in 1992 (when they beat Wexford again!). Indeed in 2004 they were hammered in the final by UCD on a scoreline of 2-16 to 0-5.
However it now looks like every game they play is a big one with the players realising that a drop in form in any match could see them struggling to get their place back in the team.
Continuing on from
the last post we can go back a few years for more proof of the importance of a good league run.
When Clare made the big breakthrough in 95 they did so on the back of a successful league. While they were well beaten in the final by Kilkenny the more important issue is that they won all but one of their group games and were in good enough form to make the final.
The following year, 96, Wexford made their breakthrough. While they were competing in Division 2 of the league that year they still had a good campaign, winning all but one of their group games to make the knockout stages. They made it to the semi finals where they lost to eventual league champions Galway.
Clare and Wexford were two of the biggest breakthroughs of recent times (in Clare’s case - the biggest undoubtedly) and the fact that they did so on the back of a strong league campaign should send a clear message to all other teams in similar situations that if you want to seriously challenge for the All-Ireland you need to be treating the league seriously and hitting 4th gear at least early in the year.
As the standard required for winning an All-Ireland has been raised significantly in recent times it’s clear that teams can’t switch on and off top form at the drop of a hat and even the great teams of the moment like Kilkenny and Cork have to carry and continuously raise their form all through the year.
Following on from last seasons clean sweep by Kilkenny everyone seems to be realising that a good league campaign is very important for a successful championship season. The rule isn’t 100% hard and fast but by and large over the last few seasons it’s held true. Lets have a look at how the All-Ireland finalists of recent times fared during the league. One thing is pretty clear, each year for the past 6, the All-Ireland champions have either won the league or at least had a great group stage.
2006 Kilkenny beat Cork in the All-Ireland.
Kilkenny won the league going undefeated
Cork had a mediocre campaign, winning 2, drawing 1 out of 5
2005 Cork beat Galway in the All-Ireland
Cork topped group undefeated, winning 5 of 5, but didn’t reach the final
Galway won 4 out of 5 group games but didn’t reach final
2004 Cork beat Kilkenny in the All-Ireland
Cork topped group undefeated, winning 5 and drawing 1, but didn’t reach the final
Kilkenny won 3 and lost 2, didn’t make the knock out
What’s going on in the Clare camp? Davy Fitzgerald at loggerheads with manager Tony Considine, the trainer and a selector resigning (or opting out or whatever they call it). All teams encounter a little turbulence during a season but that seems to be a lot happening in the space of a couple of weeks. Fitzgerald has opted off the panel which is strange. It certainly didn’t affect them last weekend as they thrashed Down but over the course of a league or championship he’d be a huge loss, he’s the best keeper in the country in my opinion and a source of inspiration to the team.
It seems like there’s a lot of strong minded stubborn people banging heads and no one wants to give way. Anyone else know what’s happening down there with the Banner ?
There seems to be plenty of hurling video clips on
YouTube, although at first glance it appears most of them are just shots of TV programmes from RTE so I’m not sure how “legal” they all are, then again that applies to an awful lot of content on YouTube.
Here’s one from the 1966 All-Ireland Final between Cork and Kilkenny
The news that Tipp have appointed John O’Brien as their captain for the coming year even though he’s out injured till July just reawakened my thoughts on the whole county captain issue. Particularly the idea that the current county champions get to choose the captain (as is the case with Tipp).
It makes no sense to me. Surely the captain is meant to be an inspirational leader not some token gesture to the clubs. Is winning the county title and representing your county in the club championship not enough of an honour for clubs? In several instances the county champions have little representation on the county team and you end up with someone who spends most of his time on the subs bench (or sideline) being captain. You want you captain to be a strong guy that the team looks up and listen to and who’s there to lead the team in the heat of the battle.
I know Kilkenny, Tipp and Cork (I think?) take this route so based on that you couldn’t exactly say it doesn’t work but the very top teams (i.e. Kilkenny and Cork at the moment) would probably win regardless of who captains them.
Ger Loughnane made sure to choose his own captain for his new reign in Galway. He always picked a great captain down in Clare so one can assume that David Collins will be another good one and who knows, he may even be lifting Liam McCarthy at the start of September!
Of course it should. It’s a national anthem and it has just as much right to be played as do any of the anthems for the rugby or soccer nations. The Soldiers Song is played in Wembley and Twickenham without any fuss so there’s no reason why we can’t do likewise. What happened in 1920 is long in the past and it’s time to show how much we’ve grown as a country and as a people by letting God Save the Queen be played without any interruption. Unfortunately the anti-English feeling in the country is being whipped up by the media and consequently people who know nothing about the history of the country or the GAA are getting into a fervour about the playing on the anthem.
Hopefully the match on Saturday passes peacefully and there’s no disruption while the English anthem is played.
I’d be more concerned about that awful “Irelands Call” being sung. That piss-take of an anthem shouldn’t have been allowed near Croke Park, it denegrates the values of our own great national anthem!
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