Ah twas a good year now. Much improved Leinster with Dublin's progress very encouraging indeed. Still think the provincials need to be scrapped though.
427946 Its funny that the only posters who think it was a poor year for hurling are from Cavan, Monaghan and All.
Almost as funny as it is irrelevant.
The hurling championship is usually brilliant - this year it wasn't. Dont take it so personally, you're All-Ireland champions! You must suspect it was a bit below par yourself if your only way to refute the suggestion was the old "non-hurling county" defence.
High points (a)The clare under 21 hurlers brillant win on sunday..Think its brillant and hopefully the players will make the big transition into senior level. (b)How well Tipperary played this year..Personally i think there are the only team in the championship with a chance of stopping the cats dominance (C)One of my main high points this year was the quality of hurling forwards in this years championship with john mullane regaining his form and also the emergence of noel mcgrath and of course mr shefflins high quality throunghout the year
Low points (a)My biggest disappointment this year would have to be limericks decline..the gulf between tipp and limerick was shocking.The next few years will tell alot with the majority of the current team startin to lose the old power in the legs and whats more scary is lack of quality players coming through.
It was another very good year for hurling with a good spread of honours bestowed. Kilkenny win the senior in style over a much improved Tipp team in a classic. Clare winning their first under 21 was very special and winning it after a great battle over final specialists Kilkenny makes it all the sweeter. Their games against Waterford and Galway made it a great year for this tam after last years controversial exit. Galway winning the minor in poor weather conditions again against Kilkenny. Also a fine game. Dublin making a significant impact with their appearance in the Leinster final... should bring on the team itself and the game in Dublin in general. Carlow winning the Christy Ring was great for all the hurling followers in our county. Waterford again very competitive with Brick leading from no.6. Tremendous displays by John Mullane, Tommy Walsh, P.J Ryan, Henry Shefflin, Joe Canning, and the brother!,Lar Corbett, Padraic Maher, J.J Delaney and many more. Laois display against Limerick with a very young team is also exciting. Low Points: Below par Cork, Limerick Offaly and Wexford challenge. Total cock up by our officials and representatives of senior eligibility for next year.
Overall a very good year with tremendous games, with the 2 finals between Tipp and Kilkenny and Clare and Kilkenny in the under 21 being the ones that stand out. The goalkeeping this year in the last 3 weeks... fantastic and inspirational. Galways introduction to Leinster has set Kilkenny up to be more focused earlier in the championship. Dublin now on the brink of progressing farther than their footballers. Overall excellent sportsmanship and few skirmishes along the way! Club championships also progressing hurling beyond the local theatre of just the county. What more could we want! Roll on next year.
Are Carlow definitelu in the McCarthy cup next year? I really hope so. People claim the hurling championship is stale because of Kilkenny's dominance. I think it is stale because there are only 12 teams in it. If we get new faces like Carlow and Westmeath (if they want to enter) then it would add more competition. Forget the thoughts of what Kilkenny would do to these newcomers, think that these teams could take on sides like Limerick, Laois, Clare, Offaly etc and compete. That's what it's all about.
The hurling championship is usually brilliant - this year it wasn't. Dont take it so personally, you're All-Ireland champions! You must suspect it was a bit below par yourself if your only way to refute the suggestion was the old "non-hurling county" defence
I'm not taking it personally. I think you'll find that I said already it was a good year for hurling. Yes there were negatives bit far more positives to be taken out of this year's championship. The non hurling county point was a valid point. You'll notice all other posters on the thread have reckoned it was a good year. You will also find that in the past I have defended people who talk about hurling coming from "non-traditional hurling counties" when they were being attacked for their comments on hurling based on their location and not their knowledge.
solo (Kilkenny) - Posts: 314 - 17/09/2009 14:33:25
428836
Fair enough, but all those who said it was a good year are all from hurling counties, and a hurling fan who will criticise hurling is as rare as hens teeth. 99.9% of them think hurling is the greatest game in the world and that's that. Another way of looking at it is that maybe those of us that said it was a poor year are more impartial, cos we effectively watched it as neutrals. Plus the fact that this thread even exists suggests some lingering doubt.
I never said there were lots of negatives either just that this season didn't come close to reaching the heights of most seasons in my memory, so its really a compliment to the hurling championship :)
I thought it was a great year - not for any standout matches (only one really - the final was a magnificent game) but we are watching the greatest ever team playing the game - we can bore our grandchildren about this Kilkenny team also the u21 & minor level games showed that hurling is far from dying as the usual suspects keep banging on about (Clare Waterford, & Galway were top class u21 teams) one more thing - Dublin reaching the Leinster Final at last meant an awful lot to anyone who suffered narrow yearly defeats by Wexford, if we can go up a level next year it will be fantastic.