David Dunne, Gareth Ghee, Mickey Cunniffe, Eamon Devlin and Gerry Keegan all share a common bond. Yet few outside of their realm will have even heard of them. They either are, or have been, the most recognisable hurlers in Louth, Longford, Roscommon, Tyrone and Kildare respectively throughout my lifetime.
They undoubtedly have contemporaries in every county in the country, yet only the type of people Eamonn Sweeney’s ‘Hurling Man’ associates with will have noticed them scrolling across their radars. Ditto players such as Oliver McShea of Fermanagh, Paul Seavers from Sligo and Armagh’s Mattie Lennon.
Except for days like today. Back in what was either the late 1990s or early 2000s I keyboarded a contribution for Liam Cahill’s late and lamented GAA soundboard = An Fear Rua – The GAA Unplugged – entitled Working Away In The Shade. Now, it was a fairly broad ranging column.
Encompassing the survival and indeed prosperity of the GAA in the midst of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. All aspects of the Association were given an airing under those parametres but it also made mention of – at the time – for example, talented Meath hurlers or Tipperary footballers who, at the time, got neither the recognition or reward for putting in the same effort as the so-called elite.
Not for the first time, hurling took the lead in bringing balance to the situation. Being the first to introduce a ‘Back Door’ system and, in morce recent times, the inception of tiered competitions in the guise of the Meagher, Rackard and Ring Cups.
Today was their day in Croke Park. Whlle it’s always disappointing to see the hallowed turf sparsely populated, TG4 must again get the plaudits for streaming the three wonderful matches all too few saw in the flesh.
Those who did venture down Jones’ Road were treated to terrific displays of shooting and scoring in all three matches. Highlighted, for this viewer at least, by the magnificence of Louth’s full forward Paul Matthews.
Mind you, the St Fechin’s clubman had plenty of competition for that recognition from the likes of Kildare’s Keegan and Tyrone’s Damien Casey. The latter hitting an astounding 0-14 as the Red Hand county overcame a spirited and equally skilled Roscommon side in taking the Nicky Rackard Cup back across the border.
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Whatever about those who did venture in towards Drumcondra getting value for money, those who were lucky enough to be in Nowlan Park got that plus an interest dividend with bells on!
My late father often said “You never see a bookie on a bicycle” but I’d imagine a few of them were a bit tight for diesel money on the way home tonight. Chalking Brian Cody’s side up as odds on favourites was wholly understandable.
However, what the master calculators obviously forgot was that, on occasions such as when daring to confront The Cats in their own cage, the form book can go in the furnace. The mere sight of the black and amber stripes is enough to stir something almost primal, at the very least tribal, in the purple and gold. There was a time similar could be said in and about other places, but that’s a story for another day.
Kilkenny had opened in keeping with the prepared script, Mikey Carey, the impressive Adrian Mullen and TJ Reid (free) all pointing after Jack O’Connor and Conor McDonald had actually notched the opening two scores of the contest. It turned to be the Wexford full forward’s only score but his bustling frame was a headache for a Kilkenny defence missing the ever-growing influence of Huw Lawlor.
Slowly but surely, Darragh Egan’s team worked their way back into the game with points from the inspirational Simon Donohoe and the mesmeric Lee Chin before a brilliantly taken goal by corner forward Oisin Foley gave the visitors a somewhat surprising one point lead at the change of ends.
Unlikely though it may have been, Wexford were left wondering how they weren’t further in front. Though they weren’t the only ones doing such pondering after Eoghan Murphy produced an absolute worldy of a save from McDonald on the call of half time.
Where do Kilkenny stand in the overall picture now? There’s a topic that could and will keep many’s a quorum round a bar counter occupied over the winter. And Brian Cody’s mind at this exact moment. It has always been my belief that any successful sportsperson/people have to play close to the edge and occasionaly cross it.
Anyone who thinks Brian Cody hasn’t delved into the dark arts of hurling during his long and success-laden tenure is presumably still doing deals with the Tooth Fairy. Is it a sign of desperation? Hardly. Some of the best and most successful managers in GAA history have always had a trick or two up their cuff.
Ger Loughnane and his protege Davy Fitzgerald were the origimal masters of the ‘Dummy Team’, but even the great Mick O’Dwyer could be a tricky trickster when he wanted or needed to be.
Prior to the Leinster Final of 1998, there was “No way” Martin Lynch would play having “Broken a shoulder” in training about 10 days before the match with Meath. Who was the first man out behind team captain Glenn Ryan on August 1st? The gifted forward from Clane!
Anyway, over the past two weekends, the baseball-capped one has made upwards on 10 changes between the team submitted for the match programme and what actually took to the field. And in both cases, those who came in off the line, either at the start or throughout the 70-plus minutes, were hugely impactful.
On Saturday night, however, they were outdone in their brilliance by those deployed to Egan’s batalion. Combatants like Cathal Dunbar, Mikie Dwyer and Conal Flood, as well as the redoubtable Chin, Liam Ryan and Liam Og McGovern heroically repelled every redemption attempt by the unflinching Cats. Sending the turf accountants scurrying for their cycling helmets.
What a day. Oh hurling, don’t ever change!