Now that I have stated how Kilkenny are great and all that, I have to clarify that I love my county and the group players that represent our Premier County each year. I in no way envy Kilkenny’s success or anything; I wouldn’t be a true Tipp man if I did. That’s not what our rivalry is built on. I am confident in Tipperary and feel they are constantly on the rise since they quenched a 9 year drought when Eoin Kelly lifted the Liam McCarthy cup in 2011. The up and coming Tipperary scene also looks promising with competitive minor and under 21 teams being produced each year. It looks like some top quality hurlers have the potential to be developed in to All Ireland winners at the top level.
Clare’s future hurling scene also appeared very promising having comfortably defeating Cork in a replay after a cracking drawn All Ireland final. This year (2013) was a breath of fresh air for the hurling scene having a Cork team, who have not featured at an All-Ireland Sunday since they’re defeat to Kilkenny (Surprised?) in 2006, and a young Clare team who have failed to be present in an All-Ireland final since they were also defeated by Kilkenny in 2002. Clare produced a very mature, young team in 2013 which was looking very positive for the future of Clare hurling. Davy Fitzgerald conducted a new type of game this year that a lot of teams simply couldn’t live with. Cork almost shattered Clare’s All Ireland dreams in the drawn game until Clare’s Domhnall O’Donovan kept complete composer for a last gasp effort to keep Clare’s dreams alive, and nailed it. The composer and level headedness shown by Clare on this day gave GAA fanatics around the country the impression that Clare were going to be a huge feature in the championship from 2013 on. But failed to do so.
Cork hurling has been pretty consistent apart from 1 or 2 hiccups since the early 2000’s. They are always a team you know will be around there somewhere for a quarter or semi-final and, on occasion, a final. Cork hurlers had an upset in 2008 which resulted in a players strike. Although Cork had a team in place while the strike was on going, it was very under strength team and failed to deliver any silver wear or competition throughout the duration. Since this, Cork senior hurlers have featured in 1 All Ireland final, which was the defeat to Clare in 2013. I mention this fact because the Cork senior hurling team featured in 4 finals in the 4 years leading up to 2007. Since this Cork hurling has been a little below their typical standard of competition. Maybe it was a transition that the Cork was going through whereby some older players were facing retirement years and Cork GAA just had not produced the players to replace them.
Galway contested Liam McCarthy against Kilkenny this year which provided a great game of hurling that Kilkenny came out on top of having pulled away from Galway in the second half of an otherwise fantastic Galway effort. Galway are a very underestimated side, in my opinion. They seem to catch teams off guard a lot and just when they appear to be gone off the radar they always surprise the hurling world with a huge underdog performance. For me, what they lack is consistency and back to back performances can vary from one end of the scale to the other. But then again, I’m no expert pundit; I’m just an on looker.
Dublin hurling has on the up each year and are consistently improving each year. They start each year with huge Allianz league performances and surprise everybody. They send a message out to the hurling each year which says they are not a team to overlook, they are to be considered serious contenders and I do believe if you take Dublin for granted they would catch any team on any given day. But when it comes to the business end of the year they seem to drift off in to the background and fail to deliver big wins to grant them access to All Ireland finals. Why this happens? Who knows... Maybe they start so strong every year due to being knocked out early (In some cases) in the previous championship which allows them to get a head start on training over teams like Tipperary, Cork, Kilkenny and the likes. This could possibly lead to Dublin peaking too early in the year and going off the boil during the late summer months. Maybe the big contenders only start to hurl at this time and Dublin simply can’t live with the pace of these teams at this time of the year. But only an educated guess can be made as to why Dublin fail to deliver late on in the year.
One thing we can all say is that no other team in the country can deliver the consistency that Kilkenny can. What enables them to hurl at such a high standard each year? I don’t know too much about any other counties club championships but I have witnessed a lot of Kilkenny club games and they are very competitive, hard hitting games. They seem to be just physically tough, hard hurlers by nature. Kilkenny club hurling is very competitive all year round and at the start of any year it would be near impossible to guess what team is going to come out on top of the Kilkenny championship. This hurling environment surely gives them the competitive will to win naturally. I know myself that in Tipperary club hurling you could almost guess the four teams that will feature in the club championship semi-finals at the start of each year. In Tipperary, you could sale through the championship up until the last 16/Quarter finals untouched if you got a nice draw all throughout the championship meeting some border line intermediate teams along the way. This takes the competitive edge out of some club hurling teams which could feature in some players’ characteristics at county level.
Kilkenny has the ability to recruit and develop players which gives them a good turnover each year when players are facing retirement. This comes from, not only the standard of club hurling in Kilkenny, but the development system for underage players. Kilkenny seem to target schools a lot as regards the development of underage players which pretty much hits every brand of hurler in the county. Not only does it develop the above average hurlers who would be noticed by underage squads but it also helps with the development of underage hurlers who would be considered below average. This system works very well as it raises the overall standard of hurling throughout the county. This all contributed to the standard of hurling the Kilkenny senior team can play at and it gives them that consistency they hurl with each and every year. There are 4 or 5 counties in the championship that are considered contenders such as Cork, Galway, Tipperary and now Waterford with their new brand of hurling, but all of these teams are just that little bit below Kilkenny’s intense standard of playing. I don’t know how they are breeding there hurlers in Kilkenny, but I wish they would share with the GAA world so other counties can spice up the championship that little bit more.
Author: Richard Walsh - 4th year BB (Hons) in Recreation and Sport Management student.