IT’S been a while since I heard my name mentioned over a public address system.
Last Sunday saw my club Ballybrown crowned Junior B All-Ireland champions.
The host club Killeedy in west Limerick were over the moon about the mention in my column last weekend and when it came to the presentation, the Irish Daily Mail got a top mention.
In what was the 20th year of the competition, the whole day turned out to be a great success.
Just to round it off, what a great win for Ballybrown over Tommy Larkins.
I don’t want to be boasting – that was never my way – but that’s three years in a row that Limerick have had the champions between Monaleen, Kildimo and Ballybrown.
The celebrations surpassed my own when I was in charge of the county senior team.
I could only reach a final. Some of the lads here said to me: “We have you put back in your box!”
It’s a very active club. And it’s a sign of their ambition that they have appointed Niall O’Halloran as senior club manager.
With Limerick seniors of the calibre of Aidan O’Connor and Colin Coughlan, they’re bidding for senior now. That’s a serious appointment.
Whatever way it ended for O’Halloran with Ben O’Connor’s Cork, before the League had even started, this is a big move for Ballybrown.
It was a good day all round last Sunday. Another huge supporter of the column and the paper came up to me during the final hymn at mass – to ask me how I was, thank me for my column and ask after my stock on the farm.
So not everybody is out to have a cut at me!
Cork’s margin of defeat to Limerick was eight points and could have been more
And speaking of Ben O’Connor, I’m a bit confused by what I saw from Cork last weekend.
The margin of defeat against Limerick was eight points and could have been more.
Rather than lining up to go to Portugal on a training camp, they would have been better served lining up at the Gaelic Grounds for battle.
The sooner these foreign trips are outlawed the better. I don’t think they’ll learn lessons in how to beat Limerick in Portugal.
We have Cork sunning their arses in Portugal while up to their neck in 30 million of debt. If that’s not a bad joke, then I don’t know what is.
And they are not alone.
The Cork footballers were already there. Donegal and Kerry are off to Portugal next month.
I’d level the playing field rather than money having such a say in team preparation while other counties who can’t afford a foreign trip are left to fend for themselves.
When I was Limerick manager, I soldiered under a banner which was 100,000 pounds in the red – that was my introduction to Limerick.
Holidays are fine. I’m all for player welfare. But Cork – how about their jobs? Have any of them families? Who is going to compensate them?
In Cork, no media are allowed into their county board meetings. It’s all secrecy. But when it comes to raising money or bankrolling, nothing is secret.
There’s no level playing field.
You’ve millions being spent in the likes of Cork and Limerick while other counties hardly have enough to pay mileage. All the while, Croke Park is turning over millions.
That’s why the words of Pat Bennett really struck a chord. He spoke from the heart after Carlow’s league defeat by Kildare. Saying how a county with such a small playing base needs more support. At GAA Congress, you had nearly 300 delegates at Croke Park listening to director general Tom Ryan talk about Robbie Williams or whoever else coming to HQ and bringing in money.
To hear Pat so downbeat upset me. It’s not good enough. And no sign of support from the national coaching staff.
The team that emerged with most credit from the weekend was Limerick with that power-packed display against Cork. With their tactics, that familiar swarm tackle, their fitness, they look very impressive. They look as good as any to win the championship.
And they have players to come back in.
They certainly took the second half more seriously than Cork who gave Limerick too much freedom and time on the ball. You have all this talk of cutting off the source with Limerick. Talk is cheap but money buys beer. I’m always believer in a forward marking their men as well as getting a score.
Cian Lynch and others around him had plenty of time to play the ball into Aaron Gillane or Shane O’Brien.
You didn’t need to go to Portugal to see that situation unfolding and do something about it.
Derek Lyng needs to go back to basics
THERE were two huge disappointments from the weekend gone. The Kilkenny performance away to Galway was an absolute disaster. What the hell are they at? They looked like a team that didn’t want to be there.
A bug in the camp is a situation you look at before the match. That can happen – but doesn’t excuse the attitude or performance.
Kilkenny hurling should never embrace the sort of style of hurling that Davy Fitzgerald brought in to Wexford or Waterford. Kilkenny’s approach has been about physicality and traditional hurling. That never-say-die attitude.
Derek Lyng seems to be bringing in a kind of bastardised system that doesn’t suit them. Rather than concentrating on a style that doesn’t suit, Lyng needs to sit down with Brian Cody. He’s at all the matches. And go back to basics.
I was absolutely shocked by Wexford’s display against Clare. The feck-acting around as well with the ball, all the tipping and tapping about. I never saw goals at the corner-flag. Whatever about systems, Wexford used to be a county to play physical, fearless, man to man hurling.
None of that was there against Clare.
After the match, I was listening to Clare manager Brian Lohan and how he was saying that traditional full-back and full-forward play has become a thing of the past. And this from one of the best to play the game. And he has one of the best full-forwards around in Peter Duggan.
Rather than hitting the ball at the corner flag or this system of shooting from all angles, Clare too would benefit from going direct to Duggan more. I rate him very highly. Between his eye for a score, his freetaking, his physicality, his aerial ability – he’s like a throwback.
So why not play more to those strengths?
