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Post by Owenabue on Jun 8, 2007 8:47:46 GMT
Not really Rashers. You'd hear of the odd thing, but nothing that would make the front page of the Examiner.
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Post by Mickmack on Jun 8, 2007 8:54:05 GMT
is it true that they used to feed Cahalane raw meat before playing Kerry
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Post by Owenabue on Jun 8, 2007 9:01:52 GMT
Ah now Mickmack, I couldn't be giving away any of our secrets.... Is it true that some of yer players still only eat raw meat?!
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Post by kerrygold on Jun 8, 2007 9:46:26 GMT
preferable red raw northern meat abue.perfectly hung for the six weeks leading up to the middle of september for added tastiness and palitability!
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Post by Owenabue on Jun 8, 2007 10:05:25 GMT
Mind that ye don't choke on it....
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Post by kerrygold on Jun 8, 2007 10:27:48 GMT
one or two helpings of cork pepper sauce helps wash it down nicely,helps to heighten the pleasurability aspect of it.
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Post by Owenabue on Jun 8, 2007 10:49:18 GMT
But no Kerrygold by August... it melts with the heat....
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Post by MrRasherstoyou on Jun 8, 2007 21:21:55 GMT
But no Kerrygold by August... it melts with the heat....
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Post by Attacking Wing Back on Jun 13, 2007 9:00:11 GMT
Jack O'Connor's column: Jack O'Connor says a ruling is needed on what is fast becoming the talking topic of the summer - entering the square
Legend has it that the legendary Kerry full back Joe Keohane used to come out at the start of a game and draw a line in the sod with his boot. Joe would then point to the line and kindly explain to the opposition full forward that were he to come across that line Joe would have to kill him!
The patch of ground that Joe was talking about was roughly the size of the small square. All these decades later that small patch of ground is giving rise to more dispute than it ever caused between Joe and a full forward.
Three crucial decisions on square ball issues have had a huge bearing on this year's championship already. Donegal's last-gasp winning goal against Armagh saw Kevin Cassidy contest the ball on the goal line with Paul Hearty. Padraig Berry's "disallowed goal" came at a crucial juncture in Longford's clash with Laois and had a huge bearing on the outcome. Alan Brogan's goal for Dublin before half-time in their game with Meath looked way more "offside" than Berry's effort, yet it was allowed.
There is a serious case to be made for concluding that all three decisions were wrong. In this day and age that just isn't good enough. Each square ball decision had a huge bearing on the result. It has since emerged that even individual referees have different interpretations of what is a square ball and what isn't a square ball. John Bannon has said that once a forward isn't in the small square when the ball is kicked he gives him the benefit of the doubt.
You don't have to look far to see that this view isn't held by all referees. The Longford forward definitely was not in the square when the ball was kicked and he appeared to time his entry perfectly. The height and trajectory of the kick facilitated this - yet the goal was disallowed.
On the other hand Alan Brogan's goal was definitely illegal. Conal Keaney's delivery was at much lower trajectory and the ball was travelling much faster. Alan Brogan is quick, but he would have needed to be jet propelled to get in there after the ball had entered the small square.
This is a total grey area and it leaves far too much to the referee's discretion. Referees, being human, have to make a split-second decision and they usually side either with the home team or the team that are expected to win.
I have more reason than most to have a hard and fast opinion on the square ball rule. I was on the receiving end of a couple of dubious decisions in Hogan Cup semi-finals with my school, Coláiste na Sceilge. That was five or six years ago and it still hurts.
We have long memories in Kerry. Denis O'Dwyer punched a goal in the 1998 All-Ireland semi-final against Kildare that was subsequently disallowed for square ball. Video replays showed it to have been a perfectly good goal and the decision cost Kerry not just the game, but possibly an elusive two in a row.
Ironically, the reason that the square ball business is such a live issue this summer is that teams are kicking the ball a lot more in this year's championship than in recent years. People always think that the side who win the All-Ireland have some sort of magic formula.
Kerry won last year with the modh díreach and a big target man. The theory is that the quicker the ball is put into the scoring zone the better the chance you have of scoring. We scored 11 goals in three matches when Kieran Donaghy went inside. We had scored no goals in four games before that.
Kieran's brief was to stay as close to the "offside" line as possible. The closer he stayed in there the more space he gave himself to come and attack the ball. So he pulled back to the far post, the edge of the square and waited for the diagonal ball to come and he could attack the ball across the goalmouth in front of the square.
He did the job perfectly, but I bet Kieran never thought when we asked him to go in and stand at full forward that he would have such an influence, not just on last year's championship, but on the style of play in this year's competition also.
In the future, though, things have to change. Teams invest too much effort and money in preparation for big games and it is unfair to have this time bomb ticking away under them as a game unfolds. Goals have a critical bearing on big games and a decision on the square ball can be the difference between glory and despair.
Imagine the ruaille buaille if this happens in an All-Ireland final and decides a close game. All hell will break lose. At least the teams on the receiving end so far have all had a second chance. If it happens in September a year will seem a long time for the victims to wait for retribution.
The bottom line is that for most of the time it is impossible for a referee to judge rightly or wrongly whether a man is in the square before the ball enters the airspace above the white line which marks that square. So why not adopt the Joe Keohane method and take everyone out of their misery. No forward allowed inside the square, Good bad or indifferent. This would clear the matter up for once and for all.
Time to draw the line.
Agus rud eile
Years ago when I lived in New York and played football in Gaelic Park I played a couple of seasons there with Clare.
There was a fella in charge of us who was an old style fan of banging the table before games. For big matches he would even go so far as to jumping up on to the table. His managerial philosophy was to strike the fear of god into lads and then to see what happened. I remember once at half-time he turned to one of the lads who Clare had invested some money in bringing over from Ireland. He roared "you're inside there in the corner and you wouldn't break eggs."
Our man went out in the second half and he scored 1-3. I said later that night to the manager, listen if you'd said that to me at half-time I wouldn't have gone out for the second half at all. Listen, he says, sure I knew it would work on him.
Maybe he was a sports psychologist before his time. I don't know though. I don't think that the old style table banging theatrics have any place anymore.
There is an obvious lesson to be learned from the Clare and Cork fracas in Thurles and all the fallout since then. Two teams shouldn't be let out together down a narrow tunnel in such a charged atmosphere. In many ways it reminded me of the running of the bulls in Pamplona , men blindly charging down a narrow street swiping everything before them.
A bit of rumpus is inevitable when players are so hyped up after the frenzied orations in the dressingroom. On big match days in Croke Park an official is assigned to each team to cover logistical matters such as what time the sides come out.
Does this system not apply in Thurles? Did it break down? There is a lesson for all teams though from what happened. Before big games a team can be out on the field for over 20 minutes before the ball is thrown in. That's a long time to be charging around all hyped up.
Players have enough nervous energy to deal with at that time of a game without being driven to new heights by some table banging 25 minutes beforehand. It is counter-productive. Players have to get out onto the field, do some drills, get some focus, absorb the atmosphere, march in the parade, stand for the anthem. If anything you want players to be calm until the very last minute.
A manager going around like a raving lunatic doesn't keep a player focused. When a player comes out he can't be casual but neither should he be wired to the moon. Ready to fight but not fighting is the mantra. How a player handles the emotion can often be the difference between victory and defeat. You want the player to be ruthless but not reckless.
We'll never know what was said in either dressingroom, but the game in Thurles when it came about, was quite a tame affair. The nervous energy was all spent.
That's the lesson.
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dart
Senior Member
Posts: 277
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Post by dart on Jun 13, 2007 12:40:45 GMT
We have long memories in Kerry. Denis O'Dwyer punched a goal in the 1998 All-Ireland semi-final against Kildare that was subsequently disallowed for square ball. Video replays showed it to have been a perfectly good goal and the decision cost Kerry not just the game, but possibly an elusive two in a row. I was at the game, and I knew straight away it was the wrong decision. Disaster. Lost by a point in the end, and yet one of the back pages had "KILDARE CRUSH KERRY". Yeah right.
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Post by kerryeye on Jun 13, 2007 12:43:20 GMT
Good article again. On the square ball issue he says "So why not adopt the Joe Keohane method and take everyone out of their misery. No forward allowed inside the square, Good bad or indifferent. This would clear the matter up for once and for all." While it would clear up all the controversy,it would make a goalkeepers life far too easy,i could never see this happening although it would be one of the easiest ways of clearing it up,the other being to scrap it which would cause utter chaos.The GAA need to do something fast however to clear it up so everyone knows the true meaning of the rule.
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Post by buck02 on Jun 13, 2007 12:58:45 GMT
From memory there hasnt been a word said about the square ball rule until you had 3 square ball incidents in two weeks.
Chances are it wont happen again for a while and it'll be all forgotten about.
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Post by Mickmack on Jun 13, 2007 13:00:21 GMT
I always had the opinion that John Bannon was a clown. This confirms it.
The point Jack makes that "the ref usually sides with the home team or the team thats expected to win" is bang on. Laois were expected to beat Longord and both Dublin and Donegal were at home. The refs bottled it basically.
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Post by kerryeye on Jun 13, 2007 13:15:35 GMT
John Bannon is a clown,has never done us any favours.
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dart
Senior Member
Posts: 277
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Post by dart on Jun 13, 2007 14:27:09 GMT
John Bannon is a clown,has never done us any favours. That's for sure, I always feel he is against Kerry.
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Post by austinstacksabu on Jun 13, 2007 18:20:31 GMT
What makes you say he is a clown - can you back up that statement?
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Post by kerryeye on Jun 13, 2007 18:47:58 GMT
The 2000 semi v Armagh he gave them so many decisions,never rated him and dread it when he's reffing our games,he seems to have it in for us.
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Post by Mickmack on Jun 13, 2007 20:19:05 GMT
I didnt use the word that I wanted to use............. his display in the 2000 drawn game was appalling. Does he think he is a soccer ref........ "if the forward is outside the square when the ball is kicked" ........ mother of jesus .... dont get me started about John Bannon
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Post by kerry07 on Jun 13, 2007 22:17:45 GMT
We haven't always fared well with Bannon. I am never comfortable about him. Kennevy doesn't inspire confidence either!!!!
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Post by MrRasherstoyou on Jun 14, 2007 0:37:25 GMT
How did yis manage to poison Seamus Aldridge's tea with extra strong "essence of bitterness & begrudgery"
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Post by Mickmack on Jun 14, 2007 18:41:09 GMT
How did yis manage to poison Seamus Aldridge's tea with extra strong "essence of bitterness & begrudgery" Seamus Aldridge was a remarkable ref. Who else would have spotted that foul by Cullen on Ger Power that resulted in Mikes famous chip into the net in 1978. I was only a garsoon at the time on the old canal end but I had a perfect view of it! Ni bheicimid a leitheidi aris ann
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Post by Control3 on Jun 20, 2007 8:51:06 GMT
Dublin have now moved forward
Jack O'Connor's column All over the pitch Dublin looked stronger, quicker and much more confident
Dublin are very much alive and kicking this week. Kicking is the appropriate word too. On Sunday they kicked a huge amount of ball into their full-forward line. Previously, they tended to solo the ball too much out the field.
In adversity they may also have solved the free-kicking problem. Therein lies the tale of the two games. In the drawn encounter, Cian Ward shot the lights out. On Sunday, a blond bombshell from Kilmacud was the chief gunslinger.
I saw Mark Vaughan in the flesh in a league game in Killarney last year. He was impressive that day too. His free-kicking technique is such that he can kick over 45s with the nonchalance of a fella tapping a short one in training.
In fact, his minor debut for Dublin was as a sub four years ago and was also against Meath. He came on and kicked two 45s. He has good size and power and a bit of a mad streak, which makes him a threat from play as well.
Contrasting the fortunes of Vaughan and Ward sums up the fickle ways of sport. Two weeks ago Cian Ward sprang from nowhere and in the days afterwards he was hailed as the new Maurice Fitz.
Mark Vaughan wasn't even picked to start last Sunday. He has had a couple of years kicking around the fringes. Yet, he emerged as the hero. Coming into a game with a low profile has huge benefits.
Vaughan doesn't seem the type who would enjoy a low profile. I noticed two years ago when Kilmacud were going well that he did a couple of major interviews in newspapers, which surprised me for a young player.
Then again, it's maybe not so surprising.
I remember he wore a sky-blue Mohawk streak in his bleached hair as a minor. For his own sake and for his team's benefit the player should take a leaf from Greta Garbo's book and tell the world now that he wants to be left alone.
I was encouraged by the fact that, for whatever reason, he wasn't available to accept the "man of the match" award from RTÉ or to do the little TV interview that goes with it on Sunday.
Expectation and hype do cruel things to young players, especially in a city like Dublin.
Cian Ward was under huge pressure on Sunday and perhaps Colm Coyle will reflect that it was a mistake to start him. Ward was being asked to work the oracle again. By the time the game got serious he had exited stage left.
Whether by accident or design Dublin started with a better team than on the first day. Sometimes managers don't make the hard decisions until the hangman's rope is spun and they have little time left to pray.
Even if Darren Magee is fit next time Shane Ryan has to start at midfield for Dublin. You should always play your best players in their best positions and in this case three into two won't go.
Ryan is one of Dublin's best players and on Sunday he was at home in the engine room. He is a horse of a man who cleans up breaks and causes problems with his mobility.
He doesn't have the creativity for life on the 40. At midfield he is a perfect foil for Ciarán Whelan, and switching him from there was one of the reasons Dublin didn't reach last year's All-Ireland final.
Magee and Whelan are similar players and together don't give Dublin the right balance. On Sunday, Dublin dominated the middle third and only some squandering up front prevented them from winning pulling up.
As I've said before, this might be the script Dublin needed. They have been tested to the limit and have learned a bit about themselves.
Last year they sleepwalked into August and got mugged. They'll be sharper now.
Meath can be content. They made huge progress. If they approach the qualifiers positively they will frighten the best of them. They have natural scoring forwards and in Stephen Bray they have a point-scoring machine.
Lessons?
On Sunday some of Meath's kicking, especially late on, was a bit on the ignorant side.
Ideally, the long ball should be bypassing the half-forward line and hitting the inside line. On Sunday, it mainly landed on top of Bryan Cullen in his centre-back spot, and with Kevin Reilly playing so deep (a mistake), Cullen could act as a sweeper. In last year's semi-final Mayo dragged Cullen out of the centre-back spot and made him mark.
Dublin now have a strong hand. They have power and athleticism everywhere and play at a very high tempo. That creates free-taking chances. If Vaughan can keep kicking them they will take some beating.
Late on last Sunday they held the ball and played it sensibly. The experience of tight games showed at last.
They have shipped plenty of criticism. Used properly that can help foster a siege mentality. Harsh words might not make for as enjoyable a bonding exercise as rock climbing or abseiling, but the togetherness and tightness of a belittled team can be far more lasting.
Dave Billings hinted at this on Sunday with a none-too-subtle swipe at former Dublin players being paid to write columns. Dublin can use the criticism to close ranks and create an "us against the world" mentality.
The northern teams thrived on this for years. The Cork hurlers are another case in point right now.
A lion is dangerous when it is wounded. A team with a cause can be just as scary.
Agus rud eile
Tyrone! They haven't gone away, you know! Donegal, their opponents last Sunday, bought into all the doom and gloom that was coming out of Tyrone in the past few weeks.
Tyrone flew low under the radar before last Sunday's game. They scraped over Fermanagh. They were suffering a biblical plague of injuries. They heaped all the attention on to Donegal and then proceeded to walk all over them.
A perfect coup.
The season, as Donegal found out, is about sustaining form and being able to peak at the right time.
Donegal were sluggish and lethargic. Tyrone were fresh, energetic and enjoying themselves again. League form is forgotten already. Galway and Tyrone had average leagues but have now comprehensively beaten the two finalists.
Sustaining a team's form over a long season is a big ask. Early in the season you try to build momentum, but if you go to the well too often it will run dry. (Whatever well Brian Dooher is drinking out of he should bottle the contents. What an engine! Defending one second, kicking points the next. An ideal captain with exemplary habits and infectious enthusiasm. Incredible.)
Donegal looked jaded as it all unravelled. Strangely, they stopped kicking the long ball into the full-forward line after some early success. The long ball is the best way to bypass Tyrone's relentless tackling.
Tyrone are visibly energised by tackling and turnovers. To kill that you have to support at pace coming out of defence, put good ball winners in the full-forward line and make the ball stick in there.
If you are ponderous, Tyrone will devour you.
On Sunday, Tyrone rediscovered their appetite. For the high-octane game they play, hunger and energy are the key fuels. Donegal looked like a team that could do with rest.
They have had a good year so far, but this tired performance suggested their season won't last till September.
Coming to the end of June you would pick five (maybe a maximum of six) contenders in the race for Sam. Sunday put a question mark over Armagh's performance against Donegal.
The top five in no particular order would be Kerry, Cork, Dublin, Galway and Tyrone, with Armagh snaking into a top six.
It's only June though. The second half of July and a period of eight weeks or so from there on is the time for real business.
© 2007 The Irish Times
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Post by Mickmack on Jun 20, 2007 9:02:15 GMT
"If you are ponderous, Tyrone will devour you".
Spot on Jack
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Post by buck02 on Jun 20, 2007 9:48:23 GMT
"Strangely, they stopped kicking the long ball into the full-forward line after some early success. The long ball is the best way to bypass Tyrone's relentless tackling."
Is he talking about the Donegal-Tyrone game or the 05 all ireland!
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Post by kerrygold on Jun 20, 2007 10:43:40 GMT
If that lesson was learned earlier we'd have won a three in a row.
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Post by MrRasherstoyou on Jun 20, 2007 11:52:12 GMT
Hmmmm, typical coverage of Dublin football teams - one week he's rubbishing alot of things about them (did he expect them to lose and want to appear the wise man?), the next, after just one win against a Div 2 League outfit, he's talking them up to high heaven. A bit of balance wouldnt go amiss.... Spot on about Tyrone & Donegal, but Donegal will be dangerous, just like Kerry were last year. Given the right opportunity in a big game, where they are made underdogs, I think they will bite back
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Post by Mickmack on Jun 20, 2007 13:55:30 GMT
rashers...... you are being unfair to Jack. There was a major improvement between the drawn and replay in relation to dublin. They missed few frees. They played for the full 70 minutes. They played the ball long and fast into the forwards......... There is nothing more demoralising that mssing frees and 45s.........the opposite is also true.
Jack is simply pointing this out. He says that in 2006 they sleepwalked into the semi final against mayo having met only Leinster opposition......... and got mugged. I agree with him that dublin will take a lot of beating from here on ........
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dec
Senior Member
Ciarrai Abu
Posts: 314
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Post by dec on Jun 20, 2007 13:59:33 GMT
Thought Jack has been spot on all along..
Rashers only looked at some of the stuff he said about Dublin as flaws and works out that he thought they were rubbish..
He maintained in all his writings that the Dubs are almost there..and now are showing the balance which if they brought into their game would make them a very serious All Ireland Prospect..
Not getting carried away..but signs are looking up for the Dubs for sure..
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Post by scoobydo on Jun 27, 2007 9:12:29 GMT
anybody got access to todays article? thanks
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Post by Owenabue on Jun 27, 2007 9:18:39 GMT
Irish Times 27th June 2007
If GAA want respect, they need to earn it
The 'Semplegate Saga' was a prime illustration of how lack of communication and consultation has stoked resentment among players, writes Jack O'Connor.
I watched some hurling at the weekend. A huge part of the attraction of Gaelic games is the passion displayed by the people involved, players, mentors, managers and supporters. It's genuine, it's authentic and it's very Irish. It was so evident last Sunday in the Gaelic Grounds, where the supporters and players were feeding off each other. It spilled over a little bit near the end when the delirious Limerick supporters invaded the pitch, but it was a magical thing to watch.
The same passion drives amateur players to unbelievable levels of commitment, far beyond what you would get in a professional game.
In professional sport, where money is king, cheating and cynicism become widespread and ingrained in the culture.
In hurling and football we still have so much that is authentic and natural.
I enjoyed watching Richie Bennis so animated and passionate on the sideline and then so open and natural to the press afterwards. He wasn't doing a Jose Mourinho, calculating the weight of every word, trying to pressurise referees and opposing managers with each sentence. In fact Ritchie nearly strangled Babs in a bear hug straight after the second draw.
And Babs of course can be very entertaining himself. I'm not sure sometimes how entertaining his players find him when he speaks about them not reaching the standards of players he either played with or managed back in the glory days, but for the punter he is great value.
Gerald McCarthy wasn't putting on an act either after the defeat to Waterford. He was passionately defending his players because he thought they had been wronged.
I think he had a valid point. While discipline is a big problem in the GAA at the moment, I think the core issue is respect. Or the lack of it.
The GAA authorities demand respect yet the feeling of many players and mentors is that this is a one-way street. They are being treated like amateurs but have professional standards demanded of them. The problem with respect is that players and managers are carrying chips on their shoulders a lot of the time. They feel that they are the ones making the association tick. Yet a huge amount of their contact with the upper levels of the association will be negative.
I know from my job as a teacher and from working as an intercounty manager that respect isn't something you get just by issuing a statement demanding it. You earn it and it comes automatically.
There is a sense in which players feel they are already giving far more respect to the GAA than they get back from it. Their fate is being decided in back rooms without the players side of the story being heard. I always feel that communication and consultation would defuse a lot of anger and resentment.
There is no doubt that in the "Semplegate Saga", as it has become known, the players needed to be brought in at the start. Their version of events had to be listened to and considered.
Instead, they were tried and sentenced in absentia. Who put the GAA authorities in the dock for failing to properly organise the teams' arrival on the field?
Cork have made an art form out of preparing properly for games. To suggest that they decided to go out and cause trouble minutes before a big game is absurd. Were the referee and officials all on the field before the two teams came out?
If your own performance in staging the game was poor, surely you cannot demand professional standards of other people, especially at a time when they are pumped up and under stress.
The issues involved should have been sorted out in the days immediately after the game no matter how inconvenient that was for committee members.
It was needlessly upsetting for players to have their fate hanging in the balance for three or four weeks with the media attention rumbling on. And all this at a time when they were trying to train for a championship match, a game they didn't even know if they could play in.
I'm convinced that if the Semple Stadium people had their act together in the first place the incident would not have happened. And when it did happen, if the referee and officials had been on the spot and dished out a few yellow cards at the time the entire saga would have been avoided.
Lastly, given the trouble actually did happen, if the GAA's disciplinary procedures were more effective and streamlined much stress could have been avoided.
The GAA's justice system has to be cooler, swifter and more dispassionate. It seems to respond to the media's level of outrage at things.
The fact there were children looking on in Thurles has been used as a stick to beat the players with.
Does anyone think for a minute that players about to go to battle even saw the children there?
Does anyone think that men like Seán Óg and Donal Óg and others don't do sterling, unseen work with kids every week of their lives as club players?
Does nobody realise that in the situation in which the players found themselves, through poor organisation by the GAA itself, self-preservation is the instinct that takes over.
The culture of club and county board officials instinctively looking for loopholes with which to get their own players off is the real problem the GAA needs to address.
From the bottom up (how many of us haven't gently persuaded a referee to change a straight red to two yellows in a report of a club match?) the culture needs to change, but so too do the structures and rule books that encourage the culture.
I'm all for people defending their men if the punishment doesn't fit the crime, but getting people off on silly technicalities leaves a bad taste.
Meanwhile, on the pitch it is getting tougher and tougher for the honest player. We have a phenomenon creeping into our games of players being ridiculed if they kick a wide or being roughed up when the referee is at the far end of the pitch. This behaviour should be an automatic yellow card but invariably the wind-up merchant ends up the winner and the player who retaliates takes the fall.
This leads to huge frustration for those trying to play in the right spirit. I remember Ruud van Nistelrooy getting a vicious reaction from Arsenal players when he missed a penalty for Manchester United a few years ago. It was ugly and more unedifying than seeing a county-board official sniffing for a loophole.
Players endure all that and the lack of respect from the top down. Surely they deserve better. Surely a player's previous record should to be taken into consideration.
If we don't want these endless unseemly searches for loopholes and technicalities why not offer the incentive of leniency for players with good records, players who plead guilty and take their punishment?
Seán Óg Ó hAilpín has been a model GAA player for many years. In fact he is an example for young people in more ways than one. Is alienating and humiliating a player like Seán Óg in the best interests of the GAA?
Cork's record of having one player sent off in 40 years of championship hurling is unbelievable. Surely that counts for something.
I am convinced a rap on the knuckles, a warning as to future conduct and a review of the procedures in place on the day in Semple Stadium would have been sufficient. Their own overreaction has backfired on the GAA and the plea for respect won't work until they get their own house in order.
Agus Rud Eile . . .
Talking of passion, there will be no shortage of that in evidence in Killarney on Sunday.
Last year Cork swept into Killarney and took us by surprise with their passion. They were hugely motivated and played with a far greater intensity than we did.
We eventually reeled them in but they took us to a replay in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, where they finished us off.
We'd beaten them by 13 points in the All-Ireland semi-final the previous year and the memory of that hurt drove them on.
The shoe is on the other foot now. Kerry will have plenty of their own motivation this year. Pat O'Shea won't want the old enemy to get the better of him in his first big game on home turf in Killarney. And for the Kerry players, last year in Páirc Uí Chaoimh will still be fresh in the memory. Kerry will match Cork for passion this time.
The challenge is channelling the passion the right way, going to the line without crossing it. In the present climate, with Croke Park keen to impose authority, that line divides intensity from stupidity.
Players have to have their mind made up before the game; they have to keep the ceann at all times.
One moment of stupidity and all those months of weights, ice baths and living the life of a monk go out the window.
The scenic route doesn't look too attractive this time either - too many sharks in that water.
There's a lot said about whether the provincial championships are redundant under the current structures. But in Killarney on Sunday there'll be no shadow boxing. That's what summer is all about.
© 2007 The Irish Times
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