Intermediate Hurling

[timber]

Well done to Brosna. Well deserved win and good to see them make the return to Senior straight away. Serious work been done down in the clubs of Ballycumber, Tubber, and Erin rovers. There appears to be a big interest in hurling over there and the hard work is paying off.

As for the final, in fairness the conditions were not what you want to see. Especially for finals which are suppose to be the big game of every championship, you would hope that there would be perfect playing conditions. I hope the GAA really look at restructuring the whole thing. Its a shame that big games are played in such unplayable conditions.
Brosna handled the conditions better and their free taking was probably the real difference in gaining that edge.
St Rynaghs were a bit disappointing. I thought they had a number of better hurlers playing in the junior game.

The big worry for me is that a number of county minors are struggling to make their clubs top panels. I know Coolderry had a county minor only hurling junior and i think there was a few county minors playing for St Rynaghs at the weekend. These lads should be at least making the bench for their senior teams and playing some part. Is the county underage that bad that the best players the county has at minor level are only capable of hurling on their clubs second string teams and not even standing out at the lower grade. It is worrying for the county.

[old yellar]

in another way it can be a good thing. i think too many lads at that age get too much hurling. let them hurl at their own grade - minor, u21 and a bit of junior. most of these lads have the demands of a leaving cert too. maybe we dont see the best of the underage coming through as the get too much, too young. if you read the irish indo today, it also talks about the demands on a young lads body and the work that even clubs are putting into physiacal preparation. maybe we are burning our best lads out? take some of those rynaghs lads. say young oconnor - i dont like specifics but i m sure he wont mind! he played county minor, both codes this year, both codes u21, both codes senior, and put in a big shift with the school hurling team also. i m not sure did he play for the county vocational schools team in both codes also. this is some ask from a young lad. we see an off season at county level to reduce burnout, but we continue to ask chaps to do more. i see down here that when the league/kk league/leinster lge is on in hurling/football, that clubs will put pressure on county minors to fill the spots left by senior intercounty panellists who are forbidden to play.. even though the minors are out 3 times a week too with the county! madness.. ye have a few v tasty minors from last year to nuture and hopefully they will get looked after.

[Plain of the Herbs]

While I agree it is a shame to see two finals played in such conditions, I’d be wary of the knee-jerk reaction of shortening the club season even further.

There is a problem in that this October has seen unprecedented rainfall for that month. Finals have generally been held in October for a number of years and it is actually rare enough for finals to be played in conditions like we had last weekend. (For those who weren't there, the pitch cut up quite badly and was extremely slippery but we were spared the surface water they had to deal with in Ennis and Kilkenny as seen on TV).

I note Páraic Duffy has gone public thinking of forcing counties to finish their county finals before the end of August. Now I know he’s just flying a flag to see what way the wind is blowing, but this should be thought out carefully.

This might be alright in the Ulster counties, many of whom have straight knockout championships, most just play football and many place serious emphasis on their leagues. Dick Clerkin, in his column in the ‘Daily Cork’ earlier this summer, mused that all counties should have the same formats for their domestic championships. Straight away I can see problems here. An Ulster solution will not work south of Mullingar.

Matches have been postponed during August too, following torrential rain. What are we going to do every Sunday in September and October if the club matches are wrapped up? Watch soccer on the Sky? No thanks!

Some perspective required before we dive headlong into providing the wrong solution to the wrong problem.

As for the final, in fairness the conditions were not what you want to see. Especially for finals which are suppose to be the big game of every championship, you would hope that there would be perfect playing conditions. I hope the GAA really look at restructuring the whole thing. Its a shame that big games are played in such unplayable conditions.