Sport

Benny Tierney: All-Ireland SHC is cream of sporting crop

Waterford’s Kevin Moran comes under pressure from Kilkenny’s Padraig Walsh and goalkeeper Eoin Murphy during the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship semi-final. Picture by Seamus Loughran
Waterford’s Kevin Moran comes under pressure from Kilkenny’s Padraig Walsh and goalkeeper Eoin Murphy during the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship semi-final. Picture by Seamus Loughran Waterford’s Kevin Moran comes under pressure from Kilkenny’s Padraig Walsh and goalkeeper Eoin Murphy during the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship semi-final. Picture by Seamus Loughran

If you take in all of the Olympics so far, the Community Shield, the Uefa Super Cup, the All-Ireland football quarter-finals, the stand-out sporting occasion would still be last weekend’s All-Ireland hurling semi-final between Waterford and Kilkenny.

Waterford had received some criticism for employing a sweeper, but on Sunday they went all out to attack. That not only showed their capacity to play both systems, but also which was most effective, as they very nearly beat the Cats in what was a pulsating affair.

It’s almost common practise at this time of the year, for me to make some comparison between football and hurling, with the game I know less about always coming out on top. 

With the hurling Championship being poor to date, I fully expected that, with the menu of football we had on show last weekend, I would be writing something different this year.

Mayo, surprisingly for many, beat Tyrone in the first quarter-final, while Dublin toiled against a tired Donegal who  did ask questions of Jim Gavin’s men. As usual, though, the favourites found the answers without too much trouble and unfortunately we are left with no Ulster county in the shake-up for this year’s Sam Maguire.

The sending off of Sean Cavanagh undoubtedly had a huge effect on the outcome and had he remained on the field, then Tyrone would, at the very least, be in a replay.

Cavanagh’s sending off was not justified on either booking, but it only went to highlight how important he is to the team that no-one could fill his shoes as he sat distraught on the sideline.

Tyrone had more than enough chances to equalise against a team who almost threw it away with their kamikaze style of football in the last 10 minutes. Many of their supporters would have watched that through their fingers.

The fact that two of the Red Hands’s best chances to equalise fell to their goalkeeper and right full-back Cathal McCarron speaks volumes and possibly explains why they are no longer participating in the Championship.

With Cavanagh gone, Tyrone had no Canavan, O’Neill or Mulligan  as their go-to man to pull them out of trouble and, even though they have a talented youthful squad, without their scoring general, they couldn’t penalise Mayo’s slapstick efforts at holding on to possession.

So what have we learned about Mayo’s capacity to finally cross the line? Even though they took out one of the favourites last weekend and face the brilliant underdogs Tipperary in the semi-final, I think we all witnessed in the last 10 minutes against Tyrone the frailties that have prevented this team from making its final breakthrough.

The Westerners have made their sixth semi-final in-a-row which means that they have matched the achievement of last year’s management team, which I think was an important step after the much publicised fall-out.

Dublin still remain very much the favourites and, although Rory Gallagher’s men took it back to a three-point game after a superb goal from Ryan McHugh, they never looked like making up the shortfall needed to overcome a team whose strength of squad again proved immense. Substitute Paul Mannion made a huge impact even though they had taken off their talismanic forward Bernard Brogan.

Donegal did try to be more dynamic up front by playing both Michael Murphy and Patrick McBrearty against the Dubs’ full-back line which had been prematurely pinpointed as their Achilles heel. But the Tir Chonaill duo made little inroads against a well-marshalled blue rearguard.

What we definitely noticed in the two quarter-finals was that the amount of sledging and hostile off-the-ball behaviour has definitely increased to a level that is wholly unacceptable. 

The targeting of top players from opposing teams for, shall we say, special treatment is also becoming quite widespread.

Philly McMahon and Lee Keegan seem to be masters of the dark arts, with Keegan having contributed to the dismissal of Sean Cavanagh this year and Diarmaid Connolly last year – although to be fair Connolly struggles more than most to contain his reaction to being targeted.

Last year, although the players didn’t know about it, David Coldrick was miked up during the All-Ireland final for a documentary.  

The players were angry, subsequently stating that they were not told it was happening but I feel they were more embarrassed as it clearly highlighted their infantile schoolyard behaviour, which flies in the face of the image of massive sports stars and role models.

I’m sure there are many unflattering things said between the metal grill of a hurling helmet but regarding manliness, physical endeavour and providing out-and-out entertainment, once again hurling is winning on most counts.

My individual performance of the weekend goes to the young Waterford hurler Austin Gleeson who provided me with open-mouthed sporting memories on a grand scale last weekend.

My score of the week goes to Paul Mannion, who took out four Donegal defenders in 10 yards to finish sublimely past Mark Anthony McGinley.

My complaint of the week is, as mentioned, the targeting of top players in an effort to get them sent off and while many will have been happy as Sean Cavanagh left the field last weekend after receiving two yellow cards, I honestly feel that this would be a very sad reflection of what has been one of our star GAA performers if this was to be his last memory of playing our game... and that’s coming from an Armagh man.