WHEN ALL THE engines are revved and the ball is thrown in for the start of the All-Ireland hurling championships, the over-arching feeling is not one of anticipation and excitement.
It is dread. It is fear. It is about keeping panic locked down.
It’s the feeling you got as a child when travelling in a car that flew down a dip in the road, or when the swing went that bit high and the tension in the chain was lost for a split second.
It’s a sickly, hungover fuzz around the edges.
It cannot be anything else because the people involved in this thing – this dizzying carousel of elite athleticism, demented and selfish commitment, have chosen to put their lives on hold for it. This year, last year, next year, until they are fit for nothing.
For most, it makes little sense. There is no real material gain, but you couldn’t put a price on it either. So that’s why the arguments about pride in the jersey, privilege, the feeling of having strong legs and pecs that don’t push in like a Victoria Sponge flow so naturally. Because there’s truth in it.
However. Even among the elite teams, there are many existential dilemmas ahead.
If you are a follower of Cork, you just know that you cannot get away with chat of building towards the future, Hoggie’s gone, Ben’s in his first year, new style, new approach, yadda yadda.
It doesn’t wash.
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As much as Ben O’Connor has lifted up the hood and had a good peak around, he is still left wondering a small bit about where to put Ciaran Joyce and the fact that any memories of Cork winning an All-Ireland are vanishingly rare among the playing panel.
How do you think Limerick feel about it all? Caught with a few haymakers against Dublin that dumped them out of the quarter-final, they have done all they can to reclaim former glories in getting Caroline Currid back into the camp, and making a sacrifice of a player along the way.
But John Kiely and Paul Kinnerk are at this thing for a long time now. This is Kiely’s tenth season in charge and, between himself and Kinnerk, changed the terms of engagement and forced all the others to get much, much better.
Paul Kinnerk and John Kiely. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
Tipperary are the one side that you feel are now playing with House Money, Rory McIlroy style. In winning an unfancied All-Ireland last year, they have credit in the bank.
It’s been noticeable that all the mention of back-to-back All-Ireland titles has come from outside their camp.
There’s all sorts of punditry, ranging from shithousery and ball-hopping. The best bits combine both.
To hear Donal Óg Cusack go back and revisit Tipperary’s sorrowful record of not going back-to-back since the distant days of 60 years ago is designed to be provocative. All good fun.
Since Covid, we are always looking for The Last Dance narrative. Clare fall into this bracket. Seeing Shane O’Donnell play his first league game in several years when he featured against Antrim in Cushendall said it all. Even John Conlon’s recovery from a potentially life-changing injury to his finger offers evidence.
But even so, if the widely-reported but not as-yet verified What’s App message into the player’s group on the night of last year’s All-Ireland final is to be stood up, doesn’t it all sound like a treacherous high-wire act?
Finally, you come to Waterford. Their wretched record at U20 continued midweek with defeat to a late Cork burst in Dungarvan. They are a county lacking even a spark of inspiration and in that context there is no surprise that they would welcome back Austin Gleeson.
They have never come out of the Munster round-robin. The competition format is no longer young enough to make that no big deal.
Facing Clare in Ennis and then hosting Tipp in the opening two games will show us everything they have.
Now, Kilkenny.
Like any other team, they are in a nice frame of ahead of Championship. Endorphins earned from hard training sessions will do that to you. Planning and strategy are more player-centred than they ever have been in Kilkenny, although they still are the last of the holdouts in terms of a foreign training camp.
Laszlo Geczo / INPHO
Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO
The problem is that they are the midst of their longest drought without an All-Ireland since they starting winning them in 1904 (well, it was June 1906 until they got the final played against Cork in Carrick-on-Suir, and they had lost five finals previously).
Unlike Cork, this present panel have memories of Kilkenny winning All-Irelands. But there are certain pointers that, in the insecure small hours, are bound to spook them.
In 2006, Henry Shefflin won his second hurler of the year award. In the ten seasons up to TJ Reid’s crowning in 2015, that particular award was heading Noreside with Eoin Larkin, Tommy Walsh, Michael Fennelly, Shefflin again and Richie Hogan.
It hasn’t come near them since. Losing four finals by an average margin of eight points is, well, not very Kilkenny, old scout.
Galway might be feeling a little more optimistic than most. Micheál Donoghue has a steady stream of hurlers and they banked a few serious performances in the second half of the league, the 0-35 to 0-17 win over Kilkenny which will come into focus when the two meet this Saturday.
Dublin and Wexford are in the same boat of producing big shows now and again, but their propensity to lose ugly does serious harm long-term.
As competitive as Leinster may be, there is a looming truth in that since the provincial round robins came in, Liam MacCarthy has wintered in Munster ever since.
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It shows us that Munster has become whatever is the reverse of a victim of their own success.
It remains one of the most remarkable sports competitions in the world. Record crowds, and an insatiable demand for action. It shows no signs of tailing off. And you take it for granted, because to look like you care too much is to send oneself up for ridicule and sneering material.
Cian Lynch during the Munster hurling final penalties last year. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
Munster hurling me arse, but if Kilkenny or Galway were nabbing even one in every four or five All-Irelands, there might be something in it that they are blessed with being able to peak at the right time, a la Kerry football.
And while the heavy workload catches out Munster teams every year with injury and fatigue – most if not all teams usually turn in a good old-fashioned stinker along the way – the sides that emerge are so sharp, they have burrs on their edges.
When it comes to the All-Ireland hurling championship, there’s something of the Terence MacSwiney quote: ‘It is not those who can inflict the most, but those who can suffer the most who will prevail.’
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Dread, excitement and anticipation: Another summer of loving hurling awaits
WHEN ALL THE engines are revved and the ball is thrown in for the start of the All-Ireland hurling championships, the over-arching feeling is not one of anticipation and excitement.
It is dread. It is fear. It is about keeping panic locked down.
It’s the feeling you got as a child when travelling in a car that flew down a dip in the road, or when the swing went that bit high and the tension in the chain was lost for a split second.
It’s a sickly, hungover fuzz around the edges.
It cannot be anything else because the people involved in this thing – this dizzying carousel of elite athleticism, demented and selfish commitment, have chosen to put their lives on hold for it. This year, last year, next year, until they are fit for nothing.
For most, it makes little sense. There is no real material gain, but you couldn’t put a price on it either. So that’s why the arguments about pride in the jersey, privilege, the feeling of having strong legs and pecs that don’t push in like a Victoria Sponge flow so naturally. Because there’s truth in it.
However. Even among the elite teams, there are many existential dilemmas ahead.
If you are a follower of Cork, you just know that you cannot get away with chat of building towards the future, Hoggie’s gone, Ben’s in his first year, new style, new approach, yadda yadda.
It doesn’t wash.
As much as Ben O’Connor has lifted up the hood and had a good peak around, he is still left wondering a small bit about where to put Ciaran Joyce and the fact that any memories of Cork winning an All-Ireland are vanishingly rare among the playing panel.
How do you think Limerick feel about it all? Caught with a few haymakers against Dublin that dumped them out of the quarter-final, they have done all they can to reclaim former glories in getting Caroline Currid back into the camp, and making a sacrifice of a player along the way.
But John Kiely and Paul Kinnerk are at this thing for a long time now. This is Kiely’s tenth season in charge and, between himself and Kinnerk, changed the terms of engagement and forced all the others to get much, much better.
Tipperary are the one side that you feel are now playing with House Money, Rory McIlroy style. In winning an unfancied All-Ireland last year, they have credit in the bank.
It’s been noticeable that all the mention of back-to-back All-Ireland titles has come from outside their camp.
To hear Donal Óg Cusack go back and revisit Tipperary’s sorrowful record of not going back-to-back since the distant days of 60 years ago is designed to be provocative. All good fun.
Since Covid, we are always looking for The Last Dance narrative. Clare fall into this bracket. Seeing Shane O’Donnell play his first league game in several years when he featured against Antrim in Cushendall said it all. Even John Conlon’s recovery from a potentially life-changing injury to his finger offers evidence.
But even so, if the widely-reported but not as-yet verified What’s App message into the player’s group on the night of last year’s All-Ireland final is to be stood up, doesn’t it all sound like a treacherous high-wire act?
Finally, you come to Waterford. Their wretched record at U20 continued midweek with defeat to a late Cork burst in Dungarvan. They are a county lacking even a spark of inspiration and in that context there is no surprise that they would welcome back Austin Gleeson.
They have never come out of the Munster round-robin. The competition format is no longer young enough to make that no big deal.
Facing Clare in Ennis and then hosting Tipp in the opening two games will show us everything they have.
Now, Kilkenny.
Like any other team, they are in a nice frame of ahead of Championship. Endorphins earned from hard training sessions will do that to you. Planning and strategy are more player-centred than they ever have been in Kilkenny, although they still are the last of the holdouts in terms of a foreign training camp.
The problem is that they are the midst of their longest drought without an All-Ireland since they starting winning them in 1904 (well, it was June 1906 until they got the final played against Cork in Carrick-on-Suir, and they had lost five finals previously).
Unlike Cork, this present panel have memories of Kilkenny winning All-Irelands. But there are certain pointers that, in the insecure small hours, are bound to spook them.
In 2006, Henry Shefflin won his second hurler of the year award. In the ten seasons up to TJ Reid’s crowning in 2015, that particular award was heading Noreside with Eoin Larkin, Tommy Walsh, Michael Fennelly, Shefflin again and Richie Hogan.
It hasn’t come near them since. Losing four finals by an average margin of eight points is, well, not very Kilkenny, old scout.
Galway might be feeling a little more optimistic than most. Micheál Donoghue has a steady stream of hurlers and they banked a few serious performances in the second half of the league, the 0-35 to 0-17 win over Kilkenny which will come into focus when the two meet this Saturday.
Dublin and Wexford are in the same boat of producing big shows now and again, but their propensity to lose ugly does serious harm long-term.
As competitive as Leinster may be, there is a looming truth in that since the provincial round robins came in, Liam MacCarthy has wintered in Munster ever since.
It shows us that Munster has become whatever is the reverse of a victim of their own success.
It remains one of the most remarkable sports competitions in the world. Record crowds, and an insatiable demand for action. It shows no signs of tailing off. And you take it for granted, because to look like you care too much is to send oneself up for ridicule and sneering material.
Munster hurling me arse, but if Kilkenny or Galway were nabbing even one in every four or five All-Irelands, there might be something in it that they are blessed with being able to peak at the right time, a la Kerry football.
And while the heavy workload catches out Munster teams every year with injury and fatigue – most if not all teams usually turn in a good old-fashioned stinker along the way – the sides that emerge are so sharp, they have burrs on their edges.
When it comes to the All-Ireland hurling championship, there’s something of the Terence MacSwiney quote: ‘It is not those who can inflict the most, but those who can suffer the most who will prevail.’
Happy hurling.
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GAA Hurling off we go