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Tom Humphries article today on Dublin hurling
Pride of the Parish
(267 Posts)
Posted:
14-Mar-2005 13:20
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It's not working and nothing is being done
Tom Humphries
LockerRoom: Do you know what, but Saturday morning had a dreamlike quality. We had training with the kids and it was sunny but cold out there, so to get some heat into our bones we said we'd adjourn for refreshment. Consenting adults. Why not.
So on the way out we took a look at the under-11 camogie girls. They were on their way to winning their first-ever league game. You can't imagine that excitement.
Our route after that described a big square. Up Griffith Avenue on to the Ballymun Road, where suddenly there's gaggles of kids wearing Na Fianna gear and carrying their hurls out of Albert Park. Isn't that great to see, we said to ourselves, because we are nothing if not tolerant.
Across Collins Avenue, and we're stopping the car because there's girls crossing in Whitehall tracksuits. They had hurls and they're heading to a game so it would have been impolite to have run over them. Instead, we thought to ourselves that young ones out with hurleys on a Saturday is a wonderful sight.
Beaming at the world, we headed for a quick sasparilla in Killester, and 30 minutes later we're driving past half a dozen Craobh Ciarán kids on the Malahide Road swinging their sticks, and even though they're Craobhers we feel like bursting into song. Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay, my oh my, etc, etc.
But we got a grip. Sorry. Thought for a while back there that we were living in a hurling county.
Kids everywhere with hurls. Of course, as Garret Fitzgerald might say that's all very fine in practice but it doesn't work in theory. Just because Dublin is alive with kids who want to take hurls in their hands and play the game doesn't mean the county board want to do anything about it. Leave them be and they'll get disheartened eventually. It's a phase they're going through.
Everyone goes through the phase. Everyone gets disheartened. Yesterday's trip to Waterford by the county senior hurlers was a lonely one. Mossy McGrane, who was an All Star nominee in 2003, dropped off the panel at the weekend. So too did Risteard Brennan, who started at midfield in Salthill and in the Walsh Cup against Kilkenny. This after a week in which two of the finest young hurlers in the county, Ronan Fallon and Philly Brennan, packed it in.
Not only are lads dropping off the panel quicker than fleas off a dead dog, but support is ebbing away too. Almost everyone I asked about a hike to Walsh Park yesterday declined mournfully. They couldn't bear to see what they might see. All so different from two years ago in Fraher Field in Dungarvan, when there was hope in the air and a 15-point Dub lead at half-time.
It must be lovely to be from Waterford or Tipp or Kilkenny or Clare or Galway or Cork at this time of the year. Even being from Limerick is something we'd settle for. Things are good or not so good, but there's always hope. And if there's no hope there's something being done. And if there's nothing being done there's war in the county board to get something done.
It must be nice to see young players who you have watched over the years breaking through or getting there. For Dublin, yesterday brought the third and most wretched of this season's series of double-digit defeats. We watched the first two. Like almost everyone else we hadn't the heart for yesterday.
This column gets e-mails every now and then from distraught Dublin hurling cognoscenti who ask why we don't "put the boot" into Humphrey Kelleher. The answer is easy and the answer is hard. First, it's not our job really to put the boot in anywhere. If something isn't working, that's the county board's concern and the concern of the players and the clubs. Humphrey has a good backroom team in place. The team are training regularly and hard.
Also, Humphrey is a nice and sincere man and not at all the kind of fella anyone would dream of putting the boot into. You could tell that by the reticence of departing players. At meetings, in player questionnaires, in the silent slip-aways, no player ever "puts the boot in".
It's an amateur game and when somebody is making an honest effort, well, you just wish it would work.
It's not working though, and no one is doing anything about it. There is some missed connection between Humphrey Kelleher and his players. Lads who love hurling have just walked away. Yet Humphrey, resiliently, defiantly, magnificently optimistic, talks about the programme and the long-term plan and advises that we wait and see.
The programme, the weights and the hard work, is scarcely original or unique though, and even if it were it's difficult to remember a Dublin hurling team being beaten for fitness or strength. The long-term plan has all the hope of working as one of Stalin's five-year plans. Dublin are slipping into Division Two, which status would render them ineligible for top-tier championship hurling. They are losing players so quickly the Kilmacud Crokes Sevens tournament might yet be the best trophy available for them to compete in.
It's too easy to shrug the shoulders at bad league form and pretend that it is just that: form. What you do in the league sets the tone for the rest of your year though. Nicky English pointed that out when the current league/championship formats were announced.
"I found in coaching that if guys aren't showing form in March or April they're not going to have it in the summer. Take the last couple of Kilkenny-Tipperary games in recent years. They've been of a high standard and ultra-competitive (although he excludes last year's high-scoring final between the counties, which he describes as "a bit false"). You need to show form. In general, teams doing well in the league will do well in the championship, or at least teams that aren't going well won't do well in the championship."
That's what's frightening. Dublin have no form and not much prospect of it. Morale is lower than a snake's belly. Some of the players look more awkward than a bustier on a frog.
Playing against O'Tooles and getting beaten by them in a recent challenge was a dumb move. O'Tooles are the home club of former manager Marty Morris and displaced captain Kevin Flynn. Great, loopy smirks went around the clubland of Dublin. What are they at?
What they are at is hard to know and painful to watch. The good underage sides of recent years have been borne away into oblivion. Everyone rallies and gets heavy of heart till eventually they don't rally at all. Dublin have barely a pulse left.
No sign of the emergency services though. Help.
sam
(8,946 Posts)
Posted:
14-Mar-2005 13:29
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know its frustrating but wouldnt it be more worrying if we had a decent team now and no youngfellas playing hurling, at least it could be sorted ...
sbyrne
(17 Posts)
Posted:
14-Mar-2005 18:35
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At least Humphries is trying to bring the shambles to the attention of the Co. Board. Honestly though, if you are from a hurling co. and half the panel disappears would somebody form the county board not say there was a problem somewhere?
Apparantly the Dub co. board are still intent on believing there is no problem or need to worry. There is a 3 year plan in place and they're sticking to it.
At this moment in time it's too late to do anything for this year, the big problem being that Dublin might not be playing top tier championship hurling next year and that is not right. Blame can be laid the the Co. Board for that.... and maybe a little at H. Kelleher doorstep. Looks like he can't see the wood from the trees and still thinks he is doing a great job! Shame.
sam
(8,946 Posts)
Posted:
15-Mar-2005 16:52
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Ah I know he is, I'm just desperately trying to look on the bright side of this mess at the moment. I'd swap a year in Division 2 to get the best hurlers back playing. Risteard and Philly Brennan are rumored to have walked now as well as mossy McGrane. . . . . . . . .
An Fear Rua
(Editor)
Posted:
15-Mar-2005 18:04
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This is eerily reminiscent of so many Humpty articles on Dublin hurling ... and even Dublin football...
Those little camogie players up in Vincent's must be plumb tuckered out from the number of times they've been trotted across the pages of the 'Irish Times' Sport Supplment on Saturdays.
sam
(8,946 Posts)
Posted:
15-Mar-2005 18:37
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Yea he does harp on again and again about it, but someone needs to kick up ...
Tomas McGrane has become the latest player to withdraw from the Dublin hurling squad because he is dismayed at the county board’s attitude to the game.
Along with Philly Brennan and Risteard Brennan, McGrane has decided to quit the panel days after centre back Ronan Fallon did likewise. The former All-Star nominee missed last season due to his daughter’s illness, but having only recently returned to the set-up, he has opted off the panel in what is another major blow to Dublin manager Humphrey Kelleher.
The number of defections is reaching extremely worrying levels and McGrane now believes that the county board need to step in and solve the matter which has seen the vast majority of senior panel members walk out.
"Something has to be done immediately because Dublin are just falling further and further down the table. It is very worrying," the St. Vincent’s sharpshooter said.
"If things keep going the way they are, then we won’t even be eligible to play in the All-Ireland championship soon. We’ll be in the ëB’ championship and what will that do for hurling in the county?
"We have lost most of our best players and the county board are standing by and doing nothing about it. It’s hard to say where or when the problems started because I wasn’t involved last year.
"But you could see that things weren’t right when we lost to Offaly in the championship last year. Humphrey is a lovely man and the training programme he has organised with his backroom team is extremely good.
"But what the county board need to do is talk to both parties and make sure they get Dublin’s best players back on the panel. If Ciaran Whelan or Jason Sherlock left the football panel, the county board wouldn’t be long about dealing with it," he added.
dubliner 2
(10,823 Posts)
Posted:
15-Mar-2005 19:07
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Originally posted by An Fear Rua:
This is eerily reminiscent of so many Humpty articles on Dublin hurling ... and even Dublin football...
Those little camogie players up in Vincent's must be plumb tuckered out from the number of times they've been trotted across the pages of the 'Irish Times' Sport Supplment on Saturdays.
Least Humphries isn't a kiss ass, like most Dublin GAA journalists who are terrified to say a word against anyone in case it upsets the county board's cosy cartel
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