posted 27 August 2003 06:36 PM         

2. There are -- if not many -- things more important than hurling. After myself, Dianaimh’s mother would probably be the most fanatical of the eight of us: about, in general, Kilkenny hurling; about, in particular, the rivalry with Tipp. A good camogie player in her day, and still a great woman to shout on a sideline, she pointblank refused to live within Co. Tipperary when her husband gave some time in a GP practice in Carrick on Suir. Although much less convenient in several ways, she insisted on decamping for the six months to outer Carrickbeg. Her husband, a Sligoman (who played for them in the Connaught C’ship), was just a bit bewildered.

Always very fond of her, this insistence endeared her to me even more -- bizarre as some will find that insistence. I hope the day will come when I’ll see their five-year-old son out in the black and amber of Lismore (and the white and blue of Waterford, maybe). He has good pedigree (and I get him, of course, tipping around out the back, to stop gripping LHOT since he’s right-handed and right-footed...). Even if their county doesn’t improve at camogie, there is high-level gaelic football for the two girls. As remarked before, I’ve come to a great liking for West Waterford.

Anyway: Sunday evening, elated at our victory, Dianaimh’s mother was driving home to Lismore, having left her three up for a few days. THEN: a drunken eejit drives straight out of a pub carpark in front of her, somewhere between Leamybrien and Cappoquin. The airbag and good decision-making saved her -- non-inevitably -- from serious harm. My blood went to proverbial cold when our mother told me on Monday afternoon, out of earshot of the older two, what had happened Sunday evening. Louder, much louder, the noise of bees.

Life is very fragile, especially in a car. August 17, 2003: could mean something far different in our family. Next time I’m there, I shall offer a prayer in Mullinakill that it doesn’t.

3. That decision to live out in Carrickbeg was, in its small way, emblematic of the relationship that has obtained between the hurling cultures of Kilkenny and Tipperary: far more ‘pride and prejudice’, there, than ‘sense and sensibility’, as Mulcair so brilliantly put it. Longer ago than I now care to remember, I promised Exile and HOH that I’d put up my own take on Tipp hurling on AFR. I haven’t done so (and my sincere thanks to those who didn’t give me a hard time about that non-show). That’s not because I lacked material. Au contraire: ferocious amount of stuff hanging in the hard-drive, bent to that topic. The admirable irrationalism of local attachments is a fascinating question, all the way from Isaiah Berlin to Babs Keating. Please accept what follows as a sort of belated delivery on that hasty promise.

4. What’s stalled me is the fact that my own attitude towards Tipp hurling has enormously changed over the twelve months or so that I’ve been contributing to GAA boards. Basically, I’ve had to invigilate my own prides and prejudices. Obviously enough, as ye’ll obviously have discerned, that reassessment has been prompted in large part by a great admiration for the knowledge and the intelligence half a dozen or so Premier contributors bring to hurling matters. Privately, several of them have been most gracious in the teeth of a terrible defeat. It’s also fair to say that Mulcair (who is Tipp to the absolute hilt, in all sorts of ways) will go down -- or so I fervently hope -- as one of the game’s great historians. I’m vain about my ability to spot excellence, whatever colours it wears. And Christy Ring was right: hurling without them is poorly clothed. If you love hurling, win or lose (and I wept bitter tears after ’91), days such as last Sunday week, as a very shrewd Tipp man said to me before the semi-final, are the days you want. A version of the sublime, I suppose. Wordsworth sums it up: “Fostered alike by beauty and by fear”.

5. The emphatic nature of our victory was important as well as pleasing -- important for future balanced debate about hurling’s future, as well. Had it been closer, there would have been talk of ‘Leinster hurling’s in-built advantage’, ‘three weeks off’, ‘Philip Maher’s injury’. All they could do, that not being the case, was drive for the exits.

While it is very difficult to envisage a goal such as Tommy Walsh’s one being scored on Maher’s watch, it is nigh impossible to imagine that Tipperary would have been good enough to do it even with Maher at no. 3. Sure enough, Paul Curran made a bad mistake for Walsh’s goal. But it is important to remember Mulcair’s argument about Galway-Tipperary in 1989: Sean Treacy was the Westerners’ best man. Likewise, Curran has been one of Tipp’s most solid performers since May. It was also good to see Eamonn Corcoran hurl -- and hurl so well -- after the extremely raw deal he received earlier in the year.

If we’d won by two points, say, then there might have been some rationale for certain patter -- ‘Leinster hurling’ and all that jezzetry (such nonsense, anyway, was scutched by the stats put up on ch.com by Lory 1 and others) -- but a 12-point defeat (that could easily have been a 20-point defeat) truncates. Sneer about Wexford, however much you like. But they could genuinely feel that 11 points flattered the Kilkenny performance

6. To their discredit (certainly as regards their credibility as hurling analysts), certain individuals came on here after the Leinster Final and spoke of Wexford as on a par with Tranmere United, Exeter City and such like. Though some of those individuals were from Co. Waterford, soccer analogies, in the wake of Wexford’s victory in Nowlan Park, were noticeably thin on that Monday’s ground. To our credit, no-one from Kilkenny came on here last week comparing Tipperary to Yeovil Town. We’ve seen the good days and the bad days. We remember what it felt like in 2001. Things can go for you on the day, as they did for us on August 17th -- and as they didn’t for our opponents. Though we are better at the moment, we are not twelve points better a team than Tipperary (I forecast a seven-point margin, egging a bit due to player-manager friction). We should know that to be the case. Hopefully, that recognition will be an important resource over the next few years: we are better than no-one unless we beat them well, such is the ever-circling scorn of ‘Leinster hurling’.

7. Had Tipp beaten us, I would have hoped they’d go all the way. That sort of shocked me about myself -- and has nothing to do with Cork’s tilt of 28 titles. That’s to do with grappling with Mulcair’s fundamental point: there are no two counties more alike than Kilkenny and Tipperary. Also, Cork’s preening this summer has really got on my wits.

8. Why do people so dislike Tipperary and Tipperary hurling? That’s the core point and the one that gets backs up. I mean: in comparison to Cork hurling and Kilkenny hurling. I mean: in comparison to Kilkenny hurling, in particular. I’ve thought about this issue a lot, especially after I was a bit too quick to promise (and to repromise) that AFR post. Until I went to England, I thought intense dislike of Tipperary was a Kilkenny thing (most of my friends in UCD weren’t GAA people -- though dislike of Tipp was certainly evident in UCG). Then, going into Setanta pubs and so on, I found that Tipp hurling was intensely disliked by lads from Donegal as well as by lads from Galway. You will find no stronger admirers of Kilkenny hurling, by the way, than the Connemara men.

9. It has to be the followers, since Tipperary is a great republican county and should naturally, on that foot alone, be a delight in GAA circles (much of Kerry’s pan-appeal, I suspect, derives from the ‘Munster Republic’ ticket): “Bad losers and worse winners”, as the father says (though that has changed a good bit post-’87, I’d say: certainly, young Cork fans seem to covet the mantle of overbearing conceit). Colombia rather than David Trimble is probably representative now (though Trimble hasn’t gone away, you know).

10. Still, I remember the League quarter-final in ’94, when Pat O’Neill first evinced what was to become of his ‘career’. Michael Cleary was standing over a 65, the game well won. Arsa a Tipp lad in his fifties, beside me: “Puck it wide Cleary! Puck it wide, and don’t be humiliating them altogether!” I’ve never come across that vein in so embedded a fashion in any other county. It is very unattractive. When I lived in Galway for a spell, a couple of years before that match, I once, blitzed one night, downstairs in The Castle, hooked up with a very fetching wan from Golden or thereabouts: she just came over and presented me with a purple lollipop. Back in Corrib Village, I noticed she had a Tipp jersey on the wardrobe door: a first cousin had played U21. I made her put it on when she’d taken everything else off. She didn’t demur. And so I will always associate the number 12 with Galway’s particular pleasures.

11. It was remarkable to read the comments after the semi-final of Gunther -- an admirable admirer of Coreahln -- in this regard. “Why are people grudgeful?”: so Mark E. Smith has it. Equally: why do people so hate Tipp? It can’t be the clamour of success, really, this long time. My own place has been much the most successful hurling county in the lifetime of the vast majority of people who use this board. Kinvara’s Passion started a thread just after last Christmas about the popularity of individual counties. It was remarkable how well Kilkenny fared by comparison with Tipperary and Cork. Why so?

12. I’m not bringing up these thematics so as to snig. One time, I admit, that would have been a strong impulse. It must be the followers -- and the ghosts given voice through them. One recent contributor on PVDF -- with whom I have no personal beef whatsoever: better out than in, as I’ve long said, about controversial posts -- laments the fact that Tommy Walsh and Eddie Brennan weren’t at least “timbered” on August 17th. Better to go down with two men sent off, festooned with the pleasure of watching impotent bullying (who in the current Tipp backs would risk timber -- or would desire to essay timber to anyone, in fairness? -- with Henry, Dougal or Gorta? answers on a postcard to Holycross...). That would be more echt Tipp -- or so it goes from one of their own.

13. I made some loose remarks during the summer and was, correctly, pulled up on them. So it seems to me that when Tipperary folk wonder about their hurling’s lack of popularity, they have to ponder the acceptability in their culture of remarks -- no Tipp man had objected to it, last time I looked -- such as the one noted above. Did anyone come on a GAA board after Galway beat us fair and square in 2001 and regret that Kevin Broderick didn’t receive a few right flakes, once the game was definitely lost? In fact, a Williamstown friend of mine says his admiration for Kilkenny hurling went up tenfold when Eamonn Kennedy didn’t crease Broderick -- as he so easily could have done -- and Broderick doing his showboating ‘flick over the head’-type stuff. That’s not to say the current Kilkenny team, as Mulcair notes in his end-of-term report, is shy of using the the physical side of things. Not at all: which is obviously occasioning highly complicated feelings in Tipperary circles.

14. Sean O’Faolain wrote in THE IRISH (1947) of the near singular culture to be found in Co. Kilkenny, especially in the Nore and Barrow Valleys. Here, beneficially, the Norman influence most sweetly flowered: “In such counties as Kilkenny, where this influence lasted long and was least disturbed, even by the disastrous upheaval of the Reformation, the very nature of the people is patently different to that of the contiguous county of Tipperary.” Tony O’Malley, one of Kilkenny hurling’s great followers, used speak of the county’s fundamental attraction as a legacy of its amalgam of Norman and Gael. Kilkenny people, it seems to me, and especially South Kilkenny people, are fierce easy-going. Possibly, that’s the convergence of cultures. You have the obvious Norman cast of an environs like Kells. Then there is the Gaelicist overlay of parishes such as Tullogher-Rosbercon and Mullinavat, places amongst the last in which Gaelic was spoken in Leinster. Often enough, I have coveted the sort of ruthlessness that ushered Tipperary hurling to its greatest days, doubting, at least so far as hurling is concerned, the Norman finesse. The 1964 A-I Final was closer than people now think. It was simply that, once Ollie made a key mistake, spooning a ball into the net, Tipp, in the specific shape of Donie Nealon, put them to the sword. There will, I suspect, be no greater admirers to be found than in Mid Tipp, however hunched and silent their demeanour, of Kilkenny’s ruthlessness on August 17, 2003.

15. It is -- needless to say, I hope -- very much to Tipperary’s credit that they didn’t ‘lower the blade’ when the game had gone away from them last Sunday week. We’ve seen other counties go that road in the not-so-distant past. Their refusal, of course, is in large part a legacy of Babs Keating’s reign: ‘the five Ss’. Fair play, in all senses. And no serious Premier follower, while they obviously should be concerned at the near ubiquitous implosion of team-spirit, should lament the passing of any such imperative or any such individual impulse. Ye had to drop Sharkey to win an A-I.

16. Always the stock dig at Tipp, of course: systematic dirt. I was reared on that shovel. A few months ago, I had the great pleasue of spending some hours in Tony Wall’s company. He is an enormously impressive individual and it was very easy to see how he became Paddy Leahy’s righthand man. Now, you would have to take seriously someone like Ned Power, especially at the remove of four decades on, still wishing to deem John Doyle et al. “amateur terrorists”. It’s an extraordinary phrase. Nor can Power’s assessment be deemed sour grapes, the bitterness of someone who never saw his team defeat Tipperary in the C’ship.

I’ve no doubt that Tipperary teams in their classic era, especially in the fullback line, were fearsome in the physical stakes. Wall named a Sarsfields and Premier colleague of his as the dirtiest man, in his opinion, he ever saw play. Yet the same man was never even booked once in his career and was a gentleman off the field.

Wall made a very coherent point to me about Tipp’s supposedly unsavoury tactics (he raised the topic, since it obviously still irked him): if Tipperary were so dirty, why did they concede so few frees?. The Munster Final of 1963 aside, this observation, so far as I am aware, is a fair one. In fact, he told me that their gameplan for the ’64 A-I Final was very straightforward: deny Eddie Keher the sort of opportunities from placed balls Waterford had gifted him the year before. That gameplan certainly succeeded. Furthermore, Mick Burns -- who was, as Wall pointed out, conceding over a stone in weight to his immediate opponent -- hardly gave Keher a puck.

Tipperary weren’t angels, by any manner of means. Yet they weren’t the only ones. As a young fella of eleven or so, I remember the father telling me of a time he gave working in Dunmore East. Babs Keating arrived in to them one day in the lorry. Talk, of course, turned to hurling. After a bit, Babs lifted up his shirt to show them how, in a recent League match, Pa Dillon had absolutely scurged him with the handle of the hurl. I’ve always found that a haunting moment.

Probably, in fairness, a lot of animus against Tipperary on the basis of their supposed unsavoury tactics issues from a simple fact: success. If Kilkenny had won 5 titles in 8 years (and it could easily have been a greater haul still), what would be said of them? Certainly, the ’63 fullback line of Fan Larkin, Cha Whelan and Martin Treacy wasn’t there for the elan and panache of their strokeplay. Equally, people love to sneer about Tipp going out of it when ‘hurling with helmets’ came into it. But how do we account for Wexford’s slump? From what I’ve heard, Keher preferred to play Premier backs than to encounter some of the Model boys. Also, who could forget the cowardly blow Pat Delaney received in the 1969 A-I Final?

It must be the followers, so.

We have so much for which to thank Fr Tommy Maher. A statue should go up in Gowran at the appropriate time. One of the main occasions of gratitude must be that, scenting the way hurling was going, Fr Tommy reorganized Kilkenny’s style of defence post-1965.

Of that period’s teams, only Waterford could claim that they tried to hurl at every point in the field.

17. What are ‘traditional’ counties for? It seems important to ask. We can’t ever claim that we are ‘due’ an All-Ireland, obviously enough. Therefore it seems to me that the so-called ‘Big Three’ should particularly look to pressing the envelope of achievement: putting things back to back, winning things in a row. To an extent, though I wouldn’t have said so at the time, it’s kind of unfortunate that Tipperary didn’t win the three-in-a-row that was within their capabilities between 1989 and 1991. The same, mutatis mutandis, could be said of Clare between 1995 and 1998 -- and to the nth degree, since such a fiat would have immediately catapulted them into a very select category (I’m mindful here, too, of Mulcair’s point about the significance of Offaly’s missed opportunity for a two-in-a-row in ’95). As a result of having to go back for a three-in-a-row to 1978 -- neolithic times, for most, it seems -- this current Kilkenny outfit’s ambitions seem stalled at a two-in-a-row. Excellence breeds excellence, even at a remove. However funny it will seem to give this opinion, Tipperary’s failure to achieve a three-in-a-row in ’91 -- along with, of course, the failure by Kilkenny to do so in ’94 -- probably hinders the ambition of current teams. Had Tipp won in 1990, it would, in a funny way, if we manage to beat Cork on September 14th, make it more rather than less likely than we’d do a three-in-a-row in 2004.

I get this way of looking at things from two factors, I think: (a) being a county boy from Ballyhale: intimate ambitions; and (b) being a devotee of Walter Benjamin’s writings: the flower that is rising in the sky of history by dint of "secret heliotropism".

18. It’s always important, especially when you win well, to look at the counter-arguments. So, at any rate, I tried to do last September in ‘The Year of the Cat’. Journalism has correctly instanced John Carroll’s poor striking when an obvious goal chance beckoned at the start of the second half. Tipp wouldn’t have won, any more than Wexford did. But he should have slotted it. It’s also fair to say that Peter Barry could have got a red card for the wild pull he drew at Conor Gleeson in the first half (drawing “smoke” out of his ankle, in Mulcair’s memorable phrase). If not malicious, it was reckless. And anything, if you’re reckless, can happen.: you must own it, in all senses. It would have been harsh for Barry to get the line -- especially after some of the uncensured swipes Darren Stamp has essayed this summer -- but it was a hinge that went our way. Equally, Eamonn Corcoran’s brilliant pass to Eoin Kelly probably deserved to end in a goal. Referees need to be consistent about these quck puck-outs.

19. August 17, 2003 must give more glory to Nicky English. It is increasingly clear, as I said a long time ago, that he extracted the maximum out of a very uneven group of players, a group in which there was a big gulf between an excellent half a dozen or so and the following ten or so. I grew up with the merit of 1963’s win being queried. Tipperary’s victory in 2001 now looks rather different for not having met us in the course of that year. However he did it, English made purses out of sows’ ears (Tom Costello, David Kennedy, Lar Corbett) and got average enough hurlers (Paul Ormond, Mark O’Leary, John Carroll, Brian O’Meara) to hurl very well. Damien Fitzhenry did them a big favour, you have to think.

20. I said privately to a Tipp acquaintance that I was sort of delighted when Michael Doyle got the manager’s job, since I reckoned it made a Premier A-I less rather than more likely. That conviction came from a number of factors. It weighed with me that Exile didn’t fancy him, having had him close at hand in Nenagh. It also seemed, from everything you heard, that his style would be very different to that of Babs and Nicky, both of whom were very much players’ men. That spelled trouble, in my book. And so it proved. It might be right or it might be wrong to take this or to to take approach with players. Pride in the jersey should be enough, as Mulcair pressed, whoever’s in charge.

End of day, though, the ne plus ultra is to get the maximum out of your players. English -- ever more clearly -- did that. Doyle hasn’t. I queried before the Clare match and before the semi-final whether the players would ‘die’ for Doyle on the pitch. They didn’t, either day. Have a look at Tommy Walsh’s goal on video. Keep your eye on the top of the screen. Look at Tommy Dunne ambling back. Look at Tommy Dunne come to a halt, whilst Eamonn Corcoran is frantically trying to intervene. Look at Dunne stand still, even though he could easily have got back to hook -- one of his great skills, after all -- Walsh’s scoring stroke.

It doesn’t seem to me that a man described in Keating’s autobiography as a reluctant trainer -- as well being fond of a drink and a heavy smoker -- is very well placed to urge anyone, least of all twenty-something hurlers, to greater efforts and sacrifices. Tellingly, Keating said that Doyle could have done a job at centreback. Informed opinion in Tipp will have read that as a subtle twist of the knife. Lack of a coherent centreback was probably the single greatest factor in that Tipperary outfit not winning more titles.

And so I say: give Mr Doyle -- who was, enjoyably, far from gracious in defeat -- three more years. Doyle, as a Bruree friend of mine would have it, very seems a one-club golfer.

21. Thomas Kuhn wrote a study called THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS (1962). The gist of this hugely influential work -- which popularized, amongst other effects, the phrase ‘paradigm-shift’ -- was that developments in science don’t follow a smooth evolutionary path. Often, they are disjunct and unanticipated. Changes, when it comes, oftten comes very quickly, if at all.

I feel that such a shift -- unanticipatable just over 12 months ago -- has now taken place between my county and its greatest rival. And I feel that the reach of that alteration was facilitated by a son of Holycross being in charge. Had we lost, it would have been all the more searing for the implicit ‘back to the future’-type aspects which would have attended the defeat -- aspects to which certain Tipp fans would not, understandably, have been slow to give explicit articulation.

22. The same, of course, is true in reverse. There were men of a certain vintage around me hoarse with shouting about 1964, 20 minutes of the second half gone. One of the brothers, sitting above me in the Upper Hogan, overheard an instructive cameo from a Kilkenny supporter of the same vintage, Tipp support driving in droves for the exits: “Close the gates! Don’t let the fcukers out! Make ’em watch it!” It was notable -- and very surprising, given the blandness with which any opinion is typically ventured in his journalism -- that John Knox revealed Paddy Prendergast’s pre-match opinion last Wednesday: Kilkenny would win easy. Another player who played in the forwards on the ’82-’83 outfit -- someone not in the slightest known for bullishness or swagger -- gave exactly the same opinion as he made his way around the county on foot of his work in the week before the game.

23. Such conviction on the part of two ex-players is very striking. It will filter down. It seems the traditional dread of Tipperary has gone, evaporate before the heat of last year’s C’ship win and this year’s League Final. The latter match was particularly important, I believe. Perception is as important as fact, having like agency. Traditionally, that was a match -- or so traditional perception, however skewed, went -- Tipp would have won: not entirely deserved, not clearly the better hurlers, but nevertheless garnering the prize through a mighty finishing kick in which mental resolve, physical power and deft skills were plaited into a noose for brittle ambition. As John Doyle said to Tom Walsh after a big turnaround in a non-C’ship encounter, unimportant save for its broadening of the pattern: “Fcuk it Walsh, ye’ll never beat us!”

24. Tipp didn’t, last Sunday week, really seem to believe that they could win. Rather like 1991 in reverse, in fact. Of the many wonderful elements which conjoined on August 17th, this is the one that pleases me most. A paradigm has shifted. That ex-player I mentioned is of the opinion that history is going to be rewritten over the next decade: we will meet Tipperary a lot (especially given the presence of the ‘backdoor’); we will, all in all, be stronger in that period; and we will, ball and ball, beat them a lot.

25. Wouldn’t go that far myself. But the fact that such an opinion occurs to a sober and knowledgeable individual speaks for itself as to the magnitude of change in Noreside mindset. I have no fear of meeting Tipperary now. Respect and worry? Yes, assuredly -- and ongoingly. But the fear -- that was worth a goal start to Tipp, I reckon -- is gone.

26. I got a certain amount of flack for holding that Offaly could beat Tipperary. Fair enough. But I think the reasons I came to that view are now rather less eccentric. Rewatching the match at home before the semi-final, I was struck by how bullish Ger Loughnane was about the Faithful’s chances. They had the personnel -- if they’d performed -- to beat Blue and Gold. Big pity, since Offaly seem to stuck in a sort of mindset about Tipperary as obtained about Kilkenny in 1979. That is one of the notable points of the summer’s hurling.

27. More specifically, regarding the players and the match:

(a) First off: James McGarry hasn’t got anything like the credit he deserves for an immaculate display. The run-up to John Hoyne’s point showed how difficult it is to control this new sliothar. Once again, McGarry was exemplary, in his unfussy way, as to control and handling. The rustiness that flecked his Leinster Final performance appears to have been flensed.

(b) Much to Michael Kavanagh’s credit, he recovered from an uneasy start, during which O’Meara troubled him in the air. His composure must be worth an awful lot to the men who hurl beside him. Earlier in the year, I broached the notion that Kilkenny’s chances of winning the A-I might be intimately linked to Kavanagh’s chances of HOTY. He wouldn’t, at the minute, be one of the real frontrunners (although: who they? 2003 is a bit like 1991: MOTM in A-I Final is likely to be HOTY). It would never be easy for a cornerback to be HOTY. With Kavanagh, however, it is still possible.

(c) Noel Hickey was indifferent to poor. That’s the truth. He was very culpable for Carroll’s goal chance, for instance, spilling a delivery he had every chance to control. I would be more worried save for the way Hickey appears to play to a contrapuntal rhythm: ropey game followed by an assured display. Also -- or at least according to Enda McEvoy’s report on the League game with Cork -- Joe Deane finds the going hard enough on the Dunnamaggin man, needing the deliveries into him “bespoke-tailored”.

(d) James Ryall wasn’t as bad in the first half as people seem to feel. Against a forward of Eoin Kelly’s brilliance, plied with high-order deliveries from his halfbacks and midfield, anyone would struggle -- particularly in their second big match. It is up to Ryall’s colleagues out the field to shield him from having to defend against quality ball. He seems a good enough stickman (and gives, if only on grounds of stature, a long-awaited second option at fullback). And it is to his credit that he improved throughout the match. That said, he did bullock one awful wide from distance in the first half when a cute low delivery was definitely the percentage ball. Not brilliant. But not a liability.

(e) Sean Dowling, in a way, is a remarkable hurler, as evidenced by the amount of two-touch hurling -- trap it on the stick and move the sliothar on without taking it to hand -- he played in the semi-final. Even Tommy Dunne, flawless of technique, would be chuffed with so frequent a recourse to that tactic. Even Gerald McCarthy would. It is an awful pity no coach took Dowling in hand as a young fella. His changing of hands on the hurl -- in no. 5 fashion (same as Paddy Mullally) -- inevitably makes you wonder what he could do if someone had insisted on the orthodoxy of technique insisted on by one of Babs Keating’s coaches. Inevitably, the attrition is on ground strokes and striking on the run. Also, watch the way he clears sliothar: very poor, as The Blues says. He’s getting away with it for the moment because of sheer physical power on the part of Hoyne and Shefflin. But watch the way the hurl seems to vibrate in his hand after the stroke: brute effort is the motor, not ease of technique. That can’t work forever.

Still, while all Dowling needs to do is fetch, make ground and clear, he’ll be reasonably okay, being a strong fetching man. Anything else, and he’s in bother. Nothing about Timmy McCarthy’s game over the last few years says he has the equipment to haunt that lax coach.

(f) Peter Barry doesn’t have much hurling. We all know that, now. He can’t even take a free. But we will never doubt his leadership and positional sense. Gleeson’s stand-up style (and fair play to Gleeson for his efforts) ultimately suits Barry, for all the hurly-burly. Gleeson will never deliver a killer goal-scoring pass, a la Joe Cooney. Niall McCarthy will be a different challenge with his running. Probably, McCarthy will do well in the first half and be substituted with 12 minutes to go. Barry will not allow McCarthy to run through him. And so a key goal is unlikely to accrue.

(g) J. J. Delaney is a class act. A blinding performance in the Final would see him a very credible contender for HOTY.

(h) Paddy Mullally did well -- very well for a man who’d been out of the intercounty frame for so long. Tasty and slick, especially with the height of his deliveries. How good would he be if he wasn’t handicapped by barked technique?

(i) Derek Lyng hit some really poor wides in the first half. But you couldn’t say he did bad. Unless the first effort goes over, however, he should pick a man in the fullforward line unless the next one is an absolute gimme. If ever there was a forward sextet that bore out the proverbial ‘Take your points and the goals will come’, it’s the current Kilkenny crowd. People queried whether he’d be that important a mover in the game due to this new sliothar making midfield still more redundant. He was, picking up broken ball around the halfback line. As I recall, the second -- and decisive -- goal came form a Lyng play. Worries about him are pretty much gone. He just needs to up his decision-making on the ball.

(j) Absolutely correct call to put Henry on Paul Kelly: stickin out. Bad wides, of course, which is sort of baffling. Again, however, was involved in lots of decisive things. Seems to be building up to something. Hurling very much within himself, which is sort of terrifying. Must buck up, even though he has scored a goal a game this season.

(k) “BIG JOHN HOYNE!”: so roared Barrie Henriques, as replayed on Radio Kilkenny the next day. That says it all, really. He had a job to do. He did it. He is limited in a most liberating way for his colleagues (as Henry always stresses). No reason why he can’t stride on, so long as he is given clearly defined tasks.

(l) Halfway through the first half, Shefflin had to offer Tommy Walsh a few stern words, pointing to where he should be (and where he wasn’t and where he hadn’t been: in his given position). I mentioned in the run-up to the match that Walsh is ill-suited to hurling, generally, at wingforward and, particularly, on Eamonn Corcoran. Tommy just doesn’t hold his ground. He was right over the other side of the field when Corcoran picked his brilliant delivery to Eoin Kelly for the goal that was disallowed. Tommy is an absolute dinger. But he is not a top-class intercounty wingforward -- although he meets that adjectival challenge (and more) in three other lines of the field. As it is, he might end up scrapping for a place in the Final with Mullally. Dougal, on the face of it, is made for Ronan Curran’s catch-and-clear style. Shefflin would be a right ask for Tom Kenny. And, so arranged, would not Jimmy Coogan or Conor Phelan be the man to ask questions of Sean Og? An interesting one.
Also, had we lost, it should be noted, the scenario of Tommy being put in at no. 13 for about 15 minutes before halftime would have sharpened many knives.

(m) D. J. is hurling like a man preoccupied. He just doesn’t seem fully to be engaged with the flow of the game. Still, it is a mark of his enduring class to slot so blithely those crucial 65s.

(n) Gorta was an unsung hero. Again. It is wonderful to have the option of bringing him out to wingforward (as was taken before halftime). There is not a team in the country that wouldn’t love to have him. He gives us -- and will continue to give us -- great flexibility. Gorta won’t let us down.

(o) As we sat down in our seats, I said to the Donegal friend that was with me: “I’d say today is going to be a good day for Eddie Brennan.” Just couldn’t see Costello being able for him (especially since he’d wouldn’t be as psyched up as he’d be if marking Carey). 2002’s Munster Final laid bare a coarseness in Costello’s game that is not going to go away at this stage. Brennan suits him even less than Carey, since Brennan is more direct. For whatever reason, the G-BC man removed his infuriating habit of coming from behind the cornerback. That being the case, the necessary ability, as we’ve all long acknowledged, is there. Eddie has, if he goes well next month, a right chance of grooving his name deep in Kilkenny hurling history. I liked the point about him putting his fist up as he was substituted by Carter last year. Get out in front. Scare them. Score then. You will. You will.

(p) ’Tis quite something to win by twelve points, pulling up, and to still be going into an All-Ireland Final in which Noel Hickey, Derek Lyng, Henry Shefflin, Tommy Walsh and D. J. Carey all have serious points to prove.

(q) I have had some harsh words to say about Brian Cody’s decisions over the course of this summer (and beforehand). Be that as it may, I said to Hattons Grace before the semi-final that no knife was being sharpened on my part: win, lose or draw. Cody is the best man for the job: I have always said that. Although I wasn’t entirely happy -- shall we say... -- with his method of conveying said implicit conviction, it presumably was our manager’s belief that we didn’t need Charlie Carter to beat whoever. Was far from sure about that fugitive credo: and was mistaken, in fairness. Will also admit that I am one of those people who really like to be right: a fault of mine. But never was I so happy to be wrong, in whatever fashion. The manner in which Cody seems able to form a TEAM is remarkable. It could not be said yet to be a team of great hurlers (though J. J.’s progress and Tommy’s arrival has bulked up that quotient). As a unit, however, they are now dwellers on the threshold of greatness.

28. One of W. B. Yeats’ most memorable phrases came when he acknowledged “the eternal virginity of the soul”. Every Kilkenny match I attend on a do-or-die occasion reminds me of how right he was. Ormonde blood, of course.

29. The team-talk couldn’t be more straightforward. Grown men don’t quickly forget coming off a train in tears in front of a crowd of thousands.

posted 27 August 2003 06:56 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by Arrigle:
1. Ten days ago, as pleasantly hungover as I’ve ever been, I was wandering around the garden at home, entertaining my 20-month-old niece, Dianaimh.

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HALLO?! YA GREAT BIG DIRTY DOG!

posted 27 August 2003 08:23 PM         

quote:

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Originally posted by rorschach:
ps. look out for me own sizzling "30 memories of that horrendous day", coming real soon, folks.

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posted 27 August 2003 09:00 PM         

quote:

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Originally posted by LimerickNomad:
Will it be 6584 (six five eight four) words long too, R?

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posted 27 August 2003 09:29 PM         

- in relation to Tommy Walsh's positioning for Tipp's dissallowed goal. Brian Cody will have to take a little flak for that. He called over Walsh to issue him some instruction.Then Cummins pucked to the unmarked Corcoran. The rest, as they say, is history.

- you made a comment that 'excellence breeds excellence' then backed it up very well. That is so true, and is probably the single biggest factor preventing the games development in weaker counties. Unfortunately I have no suggestions how they can breed excellence (in mind as well as evreything else), without currently possessing it.

- your point about the Tipp supporters. I wonder if the recent painful memories for all of us Kilkenny supporters (and lets face it losing an all-Ireland final is infinitely more painful than an exit at any other stage of the championship) has us all humbled somewhat?? Just a thought.

posted 28 August 2003 11:01 AM         

a few points

- your dig at Cork preening is unwarranted in my view, I have rarely seen a more low key Cork side and management. I wonder if thats not simply a pre-emptive in advance of September.

- for someone who seems to think a lot about hurling and over many years, it seems strange than you alter your views on the basis on a number of one-off comments by various contributors on assorted GAA boards, not thats its wrong to change but that you appear to do so so readily.

- it appears to me your summary of Tipp/KK rivalry may be summarised after reading what you post as Tipp are essentially ungracious and bitter folk while KK are of sound temperment and from better breeding. Fine words can't hide the real intent, no matter how you attempt to qualify it!!

still all in all - much, much to admire, if not quite to believe.

posted 28 August 2003 11:18 AM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by Aragorn:
Great stuff Arrigle, your attention to detail is quite remarkable, and more importantly thought-provoking.

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Agree Aragorn, very thought provoking and way too much to respond to in one go. But sure thats what the Winter is for.

posted 28 August 2003 11:42 AM         

- First and most importantly whats a purple lollipop? Allegory for something else ?

- I disagree with you on Paul Curran. If you think he performed badly for Tommys goal, take a look at the video again and watch him for Henrys final goal. He's not an intercounty full back, maybe corner...The full back lays down the marker for the full back line as a whole. He's not a leader. Tipp were also very weak here against Clare (who's full forward line does not inspire). I dont count the Offaly and Laois (or Galway) games (as they transpired ) as proper tests.

- Paul Ormonde is an above average hurler, by any standard.

- You use Tommy Dunne as an example of the player who most showed an apparent lack of appetite. A bit unfair, I think he's performance was more indicative of a player who'd been on crutches for 4 weeks previous to the encounter. Bear in mind he left the field with cramp in both legs. Agree with the general point though

- Peter Barry not having hurling ? Better than Eamonn Kennedy, better than Canice Brennan and more effective than Pat ONeill, your last 3 incumbents. Be thankful ye have him, few scores ever come off him and aerially he dominates his position.

-Agree with you on point 30, first time I've seen you admit it so openly.

- One final point, was one of those watching Mars late last nite. The red tinge amongst all that black and amber reminded me of nothing else but Brian Lohans helmet.

posted 28 August 2003 01:53 PM         

In the interests of social science maybe you should consider wearing a Tipperary jersey to a Munster Championship game next year. I’d be interested to see what you’d make of the “banter” that is directed at Tipp supporters and whether it is worse than that received by other counties (or is it just my paranoia?).

posted 28 August 2003 02:06 PM         

1. Arrigle has a view of Kilkenny as the Master Race, which he can't hide though he tries. What made me realise that some time back was that he called a Kilkenny lad here -very intelligent - and then said that this was - very Kilkenny. That is an arrogance which gets into all his writing.

2. It is funny to read the underlying insults about Tipperary, and the Tipp boys are praising him! That is funny.

3. Are Kilkenny getting a little carried away over beating Tipp? They beat Wexford by 11 points. Cork beat them by 13. They beat Tipp by 12. Cork would beat them by at least that. The likes of DJ Carey and Tommy Walsh will not frighten Cork. Can you see Eddie Brennan doing much off Sherlock? Paul Kelly will not be there to be exposed by Shefflin.
Kilkenny are in for a short sharp shock, if this is their attitude.

4. Wasn't 6,000+ words an awful lot to write and say very little.

posted 28 August 2003 02:38 PM         

quote:

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Originally posted by Truth:
4. Wasn't 6,000+ words an awful lot to write and say very little.

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posted 28 August 2003 02:47 PM         

quote:

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Originally posted by Truth:

2. It is funny to read the underlying insults about Tipperary, and the Tipp boys are praising him! That is funny.

[This message has been edited by Truth (edited 28 August 2003).]

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posted 28 August 2003 02:48 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by Truth:

A few haphazard thoughts on these haphazard thoughts.

1. Arrigle has a view of Kilkenny as the Master Race, which he can't hide though he tries. What made me realise that some time back was that he called a Kilkenny lad here -very intelligent - and then said that this was - very Kilkenny. That is an arrogance which gets into all his writing.

2. It is funny to read the underlying insults about Tipperary, and the Tipp boys are praising him! That is funny.

3. Are Kilkenny getting a little carried away over beating Tipp? They beat Wexford by 11 points. Cork beat them by 13. They beat Tipp by 12. Cork would beat them by at least that. The likes of DJ Carey and Tommy Walsh will not frighten Cork. Can you see Eddie Brennan doing much off Sherlock? Paul Kelly will not be there to be exposed by Shefflin.
Kilkenny are in for a short sharp shock, if this is their attitude.

4. Wasn't 6,000+ words an awful lot to write and say very little.

[This message has been edited by Truth (edited 28 August 2003).]

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Truth, a couple of things.

Firstly, why 'Truth'? Surely this is one of a number of aliases you set up on this board. Are you that ashamed of your opinion that you wouldn't put them beside your regular handle?

Secondly, yes Cork beat Wexford by 13 points. Thats an average of 6.5 points per game. If Kilkenny played Wexford again do you think the average winning margin might be more or less that that??

Thirdly, no Kilkenny are not the master race, but no harm in being proud of where you're from

Fourthly, do you think Paul Kelly is a bad player? I certainly wouldn't mind if he was from Kilkenny.

Fiftly, agreed that Sherlock will be the stiffest test that Eddie will have faced all year. This game can really be the makings Eddie. For such a sound lad as he is I truly hope things go his way.

posted 28 August 2003 02:59 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by fishermansfriend:

Truth, a couple of things.

Firstly, why 'Truth'? Surely this is one of a number of aliases you set up on this board. Are you that ashamed of your opinion that you wouldn't put them beside your regular handle?

Secondly, yes Cork beat Wexford by 13 points. Thats an average of 6.5 points per game. If Kilkenny played Wexford again do you think the average winning margin might be more or less that that??

Thirdly, no Kilkenny are not the master race, but no harm in being proud of where you're from

Fourthly, do you think Paul Kelly is a bad player? I certainly wouldn't mind if he was from Kilkenny.

Fiftly, agreed that Sherlock will be the stiffest test that Eddie will have faced all year. This game can really be the makings Eddie. For such a sound lad as he is I truly hope things go his way.

thats it.

---

Firstly, why Fisherman's Friend? Why Truth? Who cares?

Secondly Cork beat Wexford by 13 points over two games. Kilkenny beat them by 11 this year and two last year, which averages 11 as well. Okay maybe you'll give them a game after all.

Thridly, I know Kilkenny is not the Master Race. But it's not me that needs telling.

Fourthly. Yes, Paul Kelly is a bad player. Why do you think Sheff was put on him? DUH!

Fifthly, so you agree with me?

Sixthly, don't be so fcuking jumpy about a few casual remarks.

posted 28 August 2003 03:53 PM         

Completely disagree with your theory that our AI victory in 2001 now should be revised in light of us not having met Kilkenny en route. We won 2001 fair and square, and if Kilkenny weren’t able to beat Galway that year that’s no reflection on us. That we have deteriorated since shouldn’t diminish our victory in any way, or reflect it in a different light either. I’ve made my feelings on this sort of issue abundantly clear on another thread. Similarly I cannot understand how your enjoyment of KK’s 92/93 victories could be lessened by the fact that they didn’t get to beat Tipp in 1993.

Must say I’m surprised at your description of John Carroll and Paul Ormonde as “average enough hurlers”. They’re both fine players with no little skill, especially Carroll, even if his fitness problems are completely compromising his current performances. Also, apart from the 2001 Munster Final, Brian O’Meara’s onfield contributions to Tipp’s run that year were negligible enough.

I’m quite amused at the opinions concerning Tipp which are held by your father and sister. I’d imagine that a night spent in Ballyhale’s hostelries trying to knock some sense into ‘em could be fun – maybe I could get Eamonn Corcoran to accompany me as backup.

I can’t understand either why our supporters are held in disdain by so many. PE could be right, we border every hurling power except Wexford, maybe that has something to do with it. One thing is certain, and it’s been repeatedly stated before, our followers are no better or worse than any other county’s, this may be a cliché but it’s true nonetheless.

posted 28 August 2003 05:13 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by rorschach:
arrigle,
a fairly well-written little dissertation, as always.
but can i just say - am i am NOT being funny, or sneery, or sarcastic - but i have to say...
even though i love the blue and gold, and watching tipp has defined my life in many ways, and provided me with my happiest and worst days ever, so i do understand the passion, love and almost obsession involved here...
but...
man, you take these things WAY too seriously.

ps. i couldn't quite understand one fundamental point: do you like tipperary, or not? are you happy at our current beknighted state, or not?
and what, exactly, to you, is unpleasant in tipperary followers' behaviour that doesn't occur in every other county? or do you, too, believe the MYTH (frankly unsustainable, on any sort of cultural, social, genetic, geographical, historical or otherwise grounds) that tipp fans are, somehow, freakishly, bigger @ssholes than everyone else?

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posted 28 August 2003 05:17 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by rooter:
A great post fair minded and honest to your feelings, but.....
I think you should have kept the dissertation on Tipp and the analysis of the Kilkenny hurling team for seperate topics.unfortunately I didn't see the game ,such is life, and someone taped over it grrr.
Whatever about you, the sister does seem to take it to a quare level, women and logic?
No disrespect here , but Dianiamh ??
Is it a traditional name in Kilkenny, Sligo or West Waterford ?
Or is it some kind of tribute to Princess Di?
Kids have it tough enough these days without being lumped with such monikers.
"Better out than in ..." I don't know about that

---

Dianaimh, I believe, means 'flawless' in Old Gaelic. I think it's a beautiful name. Whatever else, we would be very far from a family given to naming childen after the Windsors and their brood mares.

The other two are called Abhainn and Ruarcc. Last is a great name for a boy, methinks. Husband is from Riverstown: hence the eldest's name.

posted 28 August 2003 05:20 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by clare fan:

thats a very interesting piece, I admire the time you have to be able to craft something like this

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posted 28 August 2003 05:23 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by clare fan:

- for someone who seems to think a lot about hurling and over many years, it seems strange than you alter your views on the basis on a number of one-off comments by various contributors on assorted GAA boards, not thats its wrong to change but that you appear to do so so readily.

---

This is extraordinarily wrongheaded. If any criticism was to be made of me, it would surely move to note how rigid I am on certain pet topics -- Peter Barry's strokeplay, Lar Corbett the performing flea -- and so on.

Don't be so mealy-mouthed. Better out than in. Give me both birrels, so to speak.

posted 28 August 2003 05:25 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by Arrigle:

You're an awful begrudger... So it's only "time" that's a factor in such posts.

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Credit where's its due, whether somebody agrees with his sentiment or not, the manner in which you put it is all important. In that light, I have yet to see anybody approach this lads penmanship.

That's the KK man I'm on about by the way

posted 28 August 2003 05:26 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by clare fan:

- it appears to me your summary of Tipp/KK rivalry may be summarised after reading what you post as Tipp are essentially ungracious and bitter folk while KK are of sound temperment and from better breeding. Fine words can't hide the real intent, no matter how you attempt to qualify it!!

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posted 28 August 2003 05:30 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by paulm:
Nice one. I wouldn't be able to compose such a piece so I have a few Q's and points of further discussion, (rather than criticisms)...

- First and most importantly whats a purple lollipop? Allegory for something else ?

NO. IT WAS JUST A PURPLE LOLLIPOP. I LICKED AND IT TASTED OF BLACKCURRANT.

- I disagree with you on Paul Curran. If you think he performed badly for Tommys goal, take a look at the video again and watch him for Henrys final goal. He's not an intercounty full back, maybe corner...The full back lays down the marker for the full back line as a whole. He's not a leader. Tipp were also very weak here against Clare (who's full forward line does not inspire). I dont count the Offaly and Laois (or Galway) games (as they transpired ) as proper tests.

FAIR ENOUGH.

- Paul Ormonde is an above average hurler, by any standard.

BY THE CURRENT STANDARDS OF TIPP CORNERBACKS, PERHAPS (ALTHOUGH M. MAHER HAS UPPED MATTERS). BUT NOT BY THE STANDARDS OF CANNING, SHERLOCK, KAVANAGH ET AL.

- You use Tommy Dunne as an example of the player who most showed an apparent lack of appetite. A bit unfair, I think he's performance was more indicative of a player who'd been on crutches for 4 weeks previous to the encounter. Bear in mind he left the field with cramp in both legs. Agree with the general point though

OKAY.

- Peter Barry not having hurling ? Better than Eamonn Kennedy, better than Canice Brennan and more effective than Pat ONeill, your last 3 incumbents. Be thankful ye have him, few scores ever come off him and aerially he dominates his position.

FAIR ENOUGH.

-Agree with you on point 30, first time I've seen you admit it so openly.

- One final point, was one of those watching Mars late last nite. The red tinge amongst all that black and amber reminded me of nothing else but Brian Lohans helmet.

It's a sign, next year is ours
NO HARM, IF SO.

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posted 28 August 2003 05:31 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by spuds taxi:

You may or may not like Tipperary, but you don't seem to like Waterford.

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posted 28 August 2003 05:33 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by Premier Emperor:
Arrigle,
some good points and some questionable ones, but all interesting and eloquent. Your comments on earlier Tipperary sides are particularly welcome. On the question of Tipp fans and their perceived gracelessness in defeat, it is my opinion that this is as much to do with the abuse Tipp fans take as anything else. When you wear the Tipp jersey (as a supporter, I’ve not had the honour as a player) people on the street seem to look at you differently and automatically assume you are a bog trotting troglodyte and like to get their retaliation in first. Though not entirely blameless ourselves, when faced with abuse we respond in kind usually doing ourselves no favours but there you go. The only graceless comment I received from a KK fan 10 days ago was leaving by the Jones Road immediately after the game when a man in his ‘60s made some comment in my ear about the rough and tumble days being over. I chose to ignore it. He chose to repeat it. I chose to quicken my pace. He was one among many thousands of KK fans I came across that day and the vast majority (i.e the rest) were a credit to their county.
It is my opinion that the dislike for Tipp is as much to do with simple geography as anything else. Tipp in the centre of the hurling heartland are disliked by their neighbours. This has become something supporters from other counties can agree on and a siege mentality has developed. This is borne out by Wexford’s peripheral location in terms of the other hurling counties and their popularity with fans from other counties, I’d certainly have a soft spot for them. There probably was a conceit amongst Tipp fans in the past (I’m too young to comment, but being that successful...) but it must have lessened somewhat during the “famine” years. The fact that the myth of the arrogant Tipp fan exists has kept it fed it being maintained in reality. In the run up to the Offaly game some Offaly acquaintances kept asking me how much we were going to beat them by. I tried to play down our chances at first but eventually gave in to the conceit they expected from me.

In the interests of social science maybe you should consider wearing a Tipperary jersey to a Munster Championship game next year. I’d be interested to see what you’d make of the “banter” that is directed at Tipp supporters and whether it is worse than that received by other counties (or is it just my paranoia?).

---

Fair enough. See how much better things are when you rise to more than a two- or three-sentence snig?

posted 28 August 2003 05:36 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by Truth:

A few haphazard thoughts on these haphazard thoughts.

1. Arrigle has a view of Kilkenny as the Master Race, which he can't hide though he tries. What made me realise that some time back was that he called a Kilkenny lad here -very intelligent - and then said that this was - very Kilkenny. That is an arrogance which gets into all his writing.

2. It is funny to read the underlying insults about Tipperary, and the Tipp boys are praising him! That is funny.

3. Are Kilkenny getting a little carried away over beating Tipp? They beat Wexford by 11 points. Cork beat them by 13. They beat Tipp by 12. Cork would beat them by at least that. The likes of DJ Carey and Tommy Walsh will not frighten Cork. Can you see Eddie Brennan doing much off Sherlock? Paul Kelly will not be there to be exposed by Shefflin.
Kilkenny are in for a short sharp shock, if this is their attitude.

4. Wasn't 6,000+ words an awful lot to write and say very little.

[This message has been edited by Truth (edited 28 August 2003).]

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posted 28 August 2003 05:37 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by Tipperary:
Arrigle,
Are you in danger of being typecast as a local historian?

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