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Post by wideball on Apr 28, 2020 17:40:00 GMT
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Post by givehimaball on Apr 28, 2020 20:42:15 GMT
Brendan O'Sullivan's ban was 21 weeks (down from the initial 27 weeks on appeal) mainly because the GAA Anti-Doping committee accepted what he told them - that he did not intend to take a prohibited substance. The fact that the supplement he took did not have the substance he was banned for on it's list of ingredients was another big part of it - he was able to provide supporting evidence that backed him up like the fact that he had searched on Google to see if the product he was taking contained any prohibited substance. He also admitted to taking the product in question on the day he was tested. [There's also the fact that the FSAI subsequently banned the entire product range in question from the Irish market because they contained traces of stimulants and steroids, which are not listed on the product packaging.] By comparison the player from Carlow stated "I cannot explain for sure how the substance came to be in my system but I was taking anti-inflammatories for a lower stomach issue around the time of the test." I did a quick Google search and the substance he has been banned for Meldonium definitely does not look like something that would be found in anti-inflammatories. The four year ban sounds very much like the powers-that-be aren't accepting this anti-inflammatory excuse whatsoever. It really sounds like this is a substance where the odds of it ending up in someone's system accidently or because of any sort of contamination are vanishingly small, especially when the person in question can't provide any sort of possible explanation, no matter how tall the tale. There's also the fact that a number of sportspeople have been caught using meldonium including Maria Sharapova, so this is very much a known prohibited substance. The fact that Brendan O'Sullivan's ban was basically a tenth (21 weeks as opposed to 208 weeks) of this individual says a world about how the GAA anti-doping unit view both individual's actions. www.necn.com/news/sports/meldonium-drug-russia-olympic-doping-case/239305/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4919179/
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2020 21:48:57 GMT
It also likely reflects the degree of support and advice that the respective players received from their county boards in terms of how to manage the issue.
Similar with the recent Munster case. Having a professional organization and its resources behind you matters when it comes to the severity of the punishment
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mandad
Senior Member
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Post by mandad on Apr 30, 2020 12:57:26 GMT
Conscious of the requirement of holding, but not crossing the line between sweetness and light (whatever that line may be) is a balancing act, with consequences. Nevertheless, despite the lockdown, I am not aware that humour or satire has been banned outright.
Life right now is like a stopped clock. For some strange reason, and for all the evidence of its ultimate irrelevance, even with the threat of an obnoxious virus, we find it impossible to let go of sport. Make no mistake, we’re still living in sporting hell and will be for some time yet. Maybe it is time to stop hoping for conventional endings.
In these barren times, when Covid 19 has been discussed threadbare, we can reflect on the moments in our lives that made us laugh, cry or smile from ear to ear. When old club mates that we looked up to in our childhood start passing away, one's own feet start to shuffle a little uneasily. The recent passing of an elderly neighbour was such an occasion for me.
His obituary was downright perfunctory and revealed precious little of the complex man that I believed I understood a little better and who created much of the vacuum into which my irrational love for Kerry football flowed.
“The farther backward you can look the farther forward you are likely to see” is an advantage that old age bestows on each of us in turn. As children, we often don’t appreciate the singular opportunities, the moments in time that present themselves; to a child, time and life stretch ahead endlessly. Back in the days before television and limited radio, people in rural Ireland didn’t just talk to each other but rather ‘conferred.’ They analysed in serious tones and grim faces and sometimes with a twinkle in the eye. To them, Kerry football was something close to spiritual. But sometimes too it was the darker side of the game that energised them; that perverse way in which men used the game to establish, or display their manliness and assert their superiority. The annual joust with our neighbouring parish provided such opportunity, an occasion that created an importance all of its own. In an era of massive emigration when most of the young men and girls of the area were forced to depart these shores for England and America and beyond, fielding 15 was, of itself, challenging. Alas, all too often we found that challenge beyond us.
All indicators pointed to our men being in line for another humiliation. People saw it as not just as a game to be played but as a problem to be solved. The only and remote hope rested in coaxing a stalwart ‘old style’ full-back out of retirement for this one last throw of the dice. But he was single-minded and stubborn, a man who would never submit to the opinion or creed of anybody while he was capable of thinking for himself; a man in whom the pride of birth and heritage amounted almost to a disease. He could not resist the call to arms. As a footballer, he wasn’t the best that ever laced a boot, but his well-reputation and uncompromising style had earned him the pejorative label, “the widow maker”. Marking him was, in essence, a live invitation to suicide. He was a man who reduced the game to its simplest elements; man against man, one trying to outmuscle and outplay the other. In those instances, he usually won. He was endowed with a rare set of grunts, groans and grimaces when he desired to be convincing. Blunt faced, 16 stone weight – much of it carried on his chest and broad shoulders, always bearing the stamp of a man who would not be daunted by much of anything with two or four legs. He was a force of nature in straight lines but sadly, his Achilles heel was turning.
On the big day, our wily neighbours deployed a smallish crafty bococh of a full forward who weighed about 10stone - soaking wet. The outcome was painful, a career-ending humiliation for our full back and final reminder that he would never win even one single medal, cup, shield or plaque in his lifetime.
Reflection of times past is rarely a dose of pure truth. Nostalgia is an intricate emotion, often intermixed with pure fiction, for better or worse. The passage of time has diminished my memory and I would hate to put something in writing that is not a product of clear thinking. But of this I am certain. Big Mike was a common man of unbreakable spirit, who wouldn’t want his name engraved in granite; it is engraved in the memories of those of us fortunate enough to have known him. Rest in Peace Big Mike.
(P.S. The name has been changed to protect the living).
Thanks for getting all the way to bottom!
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Post by Mickmack on Apr 30, 2020 15:15:11 GMT
Anyone who ever played junior hurling as a young corner forward in North Kerry will have met a big Mike at corner back and speed was the only means of staying healthy!
I enjoyed that Mandad. For some reason, Francie Bellow popped into my mind as i read it.
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Post by Ballyfireside on Apr 30, 2020 18:46:06 GMT
Mandad will have some competition for all time best forum contribution, from himself!
Awesome - grunts, groans and grimaces; the widow maker; the list here alone is long!
“The farther backward you can look the farther forward you are likely to see” mirrors another great, "It is in experiences of the great depths that a yearning for the great heights is born" - John Moriarty, a Moyvane literary great who is legend everywhere except North Chiarraí and not the obvious reason - maybe that he could write was part, and we wouldn't have that!
As for the auld reliable FB, every team had 'em - Moyvane and Ballydonoghue come to mind and no, for the good of my health I won't be naming 'em. But this species wasn't confined to FB - Johnny Bunyan 'played on' at FF with the peerless Ballydonoghue, and unlike Mandad's FB, he could turn, and he'd turn you too if came in the way, and he could turn you around and upside down - the 3D tackle we used to call it when 'we' were practicing, he being as good as 3 men, all long before them Silly Con Valley yobbos and their 3D printers today, if you came out with Johnny's pring then you were made, and shaped your future was laid bare, you in black and he in white -his ilk weren't dirty - many's the game he turned into black and white too! Interesting similarities and contrasts with the FB of the same species, strength being the common factor.
Johnny's torso was almost Square, so much so you'd think he wasn't so tall, Jer D O'Connor who played MF with Mick O'Connell was of a similar build, and '47's Mick Finucane of the same cut of a figure.
Mind you that roasting Mandad referred to wasn't unlike our young pretenders telling Darragh to draw his pension, DM & co?, we only have Darragh's word, he joked about self-depeciatingly in the paper.
Re Mickmack above, is Mandad from a dual club so? Ah privacy is to be respected.
And yes, Bellew would be of that mould too, and what with Donaghy poking his eye after that goal, happy days!
I knew a fella that grew up with gentle giant Francie, apparently Bellew's 'party piece' was switching sweet wrappers to fool the younger wans!
Now I know this is off point but didn't our smart ass townies do similar in lingerie shops - now we'll stop there, suffice as to say some customers couldn't couldn't understand out how their bodies changed shape overnight. 'Twas asier go over 'em than around. as a neighbour would say, that is when you woz between them and the door.
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Post by john4 on Apr 30, 2020 21:22:45 GMT
With the sun shining, sitting in the Cusack Stand looking across the way for the teams to come out of the tunnel and this comes on over the sound system. Better Days
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keane
Fanatical Member
Posts: 1,267
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Post by keane on Apr 30, 2020 21:53:29 GMT
It also likely reflects the degree of support and advice that the respective players received from their county boards in terms of how to manage the issue. Similar with the recent Munster case. Having a professional organization and its resources behind you matters when it comes to the severity of the punishment From an article I was reading earlier, the situation is that four years is the max punishment but also the automatic punishment. It can be revised down but only if you argue your case. This guy from Carlow initially went to argue his case but subsequently decided to withdraw his appeal to let the thing die out. Honestly I find it hard to imagine someone in that scenario in terms of age and potential upside being on a deliberate doping drive.
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kerryexile
Fanatical Member
Whether you believe that you can, or that you can't, you are right anyway.
Posts: 1,124
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Post by kerryexile on Apr 30, 2020 22:12:14 GMT
Conscious of the requirement of holding, but not crossing the line between sweetness and light (whatever that line may be) is a balancing act, with consequences. Nevertheless, despite the lockdown, I am not aware that humour or satire has been banned outright. Life right now is like a stopped clock. For some strange reason, and for all the evidence of its ultimate irrelevance, even with the threat of an obnoxious virus, we find it impossible to let go of sport. Make no mistake, we’re still living in sporting hell and will be for some time yet. Maybe it is time to stop hoping for conventional endings. In these barren times, when Covid 19 has been discussed threadbare, we can reflect on the moments in our lives that made us laugh, cry or smile from ear to ear. When old club mates that we looked up to in our childhood start passing away, one's own feet start to shuffle a little uneasily. The recent passing of an elderly neighbour was such an occasion for me. His obituary was downright perfunctory and revealed precious little of the complex man that I believed I understood a little better and who created much of the vacuum into which my irrational love for Kerry football flowed. “The farther backward you can look the farther forward you are likely to see” is an advantage that old age bestows on each of us in turn. As children, we often don’t appreciate the singular opportunities, the moments in time that present themselves; to a child, time and life stretch ahead endlessly. Back in the days before television and limited radio, people in rural Ireland didn’t just talk to each other but rather ‘conferred.’ They analysed in serious tones and grim faces and sometimes with a twinkle in the eye. To them, Kerry football was something close to spiritual. But sometimes too it was the darker side of the game that energised them; that perverse way in which men used the game to establish, or display their manliness and assert their superiority. The annual joust with our neighbouring parish provided such opportunity, an occasion that created an importance all of its own. In an era of massive emigration when most of the young men and girls of the area were forced to depart these shores for England and America and beyond, fielding 15 was, of itself, challenging. Alas, all too often we found that challenge beyond us. All indicators pointed to our men being in line for another humiliation. People saw it as not just as a game to be played but as a problem to be solved. The only and remote hope rested in coaxing a stalwart ‘old style’ full-back out of retirement for this one last throw of the dice. But he was single-minded and stubborn, a man who would never submit to the opinion or creed of anybody while he was capable of thinking for himself; a man in whom the pride of birth and heritage amounted almost to a disease. He could not resist the call to arms. As a footballer, he wasn’t the best that ever laced a boot, but his well-reputation and uncompromising style had earned him the pejorative label, “the widow maker”. Marking him was, in essence, a live invitation to suicide. He was a man who reduced the game to its simplest elements; man against man, one trying to outmuscle and outplay the other. In those instances, he usually won. He was endowed with a rare set of grunts, groans and grimaces when he desired to be convincing. Blunt faced, 16 stone weight – much of it carried on his chest and broad shoulders, always bearing the stamp of a man who would not be daunted by much of anything with two or four legs. He was a force of nature in straight lines but sadly, his Achilles heel was turning. On the big day, our wily neighbours deployed a smallish crafty bococh of a full forward who weighed about 10stone - soaking wet. The outcome was painful, a career-ending humiliation for our full back and final reminder that he would never win even one single medal, cup, shield or plaque in his lifetime. Reflection of times past is rarely a dose of pure truth. Nostalgia is an intricate emotion, often intermixed with pure fiction, for better or worse. The passage of time has diminished my memory and I would hate to put something in writing that is not a product of clear thinking. But of this I am certain. Big Mike was a common man of unbreakable spirit, who wouldn’t want his name engraved in granite; it is engraved in the memories of those of us fortunate enough to have known him. Rest in Peace Big Mike. (P.S. The name has been changed to protect the living). Thanks for getting all the way to bottom! Great post Mandad. You sketch a picture of a player we all played with and regardless of their talent we tell our children of their contribution to the team.
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Post by sandradee on May 3, 2020 21:39:10 GMT
If a physician advised Ray Walker to take meldonium for "lower stomach inflammation" that physician should be taken to task. Digestive problems are one of the side effects, the reverse of what he was attempting to achieve. Meldonium is recommended for heart problems. Those active in sport also take it in an attempt to gain an advantage which can be detrimental in the long term.
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Post by Mickmack on May 10, 2020 22:04:40 GMT
Cluxton in goal, Clifford up front and Gavin at the helm - my team of Gaelic football Galacticos Pat Spillane
May 03 2020 07:00 PM
What does a sports columnist write about when there is no live sport to analyse?
Thankfully, my brain hasn’t followed my body into lockdown and during my daily walks – all within the permitted 2km limit – I compose endless columns in my head.
I'm always receptive to new ideas and in recent weeks it has been suggested to me that I should pick my ‘Dream Football Team’ – Gaelic football's version of the Galacticos.
The criteria I used in choosing players was based primarily on their pace, athleticism, fitness, composure, versatility and adaptability.
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I was also looking for leadership and, of course, skill – yet the last commodity is, frankly, not always top of the list of qualities demanded of some county players at the moment.
In terms of forwards, I added an additional requirement – I went for players who are more renowned for their ability to score rather than their capacity to track back, block channels or win turnovers in their own half.
As football is now, essentially, a squad game I selected 21 players to include two replacement forwards and backs, one replacement midfielder and a substitute goalkeeper.
GOALKEEPER
Stephen Cluxton (Dublin); Replacement: Niall Morgan (Tyrone)
There are four standout contenders, Stephen Cluxton, Niall Morgan Monaghan’s Rory Beggan and Shaun Patton from Donegal.
Even though he hasn’t played since the All-Ireland final replay I’ve opted for the Dublin captain and I would also hand him the armband to lead the Galacticos into battle.
No player in living memory has done more to change the way Gaelic football is played.
Cluxton’s leadership, composure, ability to read the game and kick-outs are exemplary and his shot-stopping is top drawer as well.
I’ve opted for Morgan to sit on the bench, because of his superb form in this spring’s Allianz League.
He’s probably the best goalkeeper/sweeper in the business and his execution of long-range frees is extraordinary.
FULL-BACK LINE
Tom O’Sullivan (Kerry), Neil McGee (Donegal), Eoghan Bán Gallagher (Donegal). Replacement: Mick Fitzsimons (Dublin)
I wanted three players with contrasting attributes; a specialist man-marker, a traditional high-fielding, teak-tough full-back –fielding ability will be now be needed more than ever in the era of the advance mark – and a swashbuckling type of player who, aside from his defensive capabilities, can break forward at speed and link the play.
Kerry’s All-Star corner-back Tom O’Sullivan is my specialist man-marker.
He surprised us all last season, down here in the south-west, by how well he did in the position as he had established his reputation at a wing-back in his minor career.
Up until the All-Ireland Final he hadn’t conceded a score from open play to a direct opponent, while he contributed 1-3 himself.
Though now in the autumn of a great career, Donegal’s Neil McGee is my kind of full-back.
Hard as nails, he is competitive and combative but most of all, he commands a presence around the danger zone and is an excellent man-marker and fielder.
His Donegal colleague Eoghan ‘Ban’ Gallagher ticks all the boxes when it comes to filling the role of a swashbuckling corner-back, who loves to roam forward.
Losing ‘Ban’ through injury was one of the many setbacks that effectively ended Donegal’s All-Ireland prospects last summer.
Dublin’s Mick Fitzsimons is an automatic choice as the substitute as he could comfortably slot into any of the three roles.
An excellent man-marker, he has improved with age and is, arguably, one of the most underrated defenders in the game.
HALF-BACK LINE
Paddy Durcan (Mayo), James McCarthy (Dublin), Jack McCaffrey (Dublin). Replacement: Ryan McHugh (Donegal)
On the wings I wanted pace, mobility, versatility and an ability to link the play, whereas I prefer what I would call a traditional centre-back ,who stays back and ‘minds the house’ to wear the No 6 shirt.
Strangely enough they are something of an endangered species in the modern game.
Paddy Durcan and Jack McCaffrey tick all the boxes in terms of what they can contribute from the flanks.
McCaffrey gave one of the all-time great individual performances in last year’s drawn All-Ireland final, scoring 1-3, which essentially kept Dublin’s five-in-row prospects alive.
Meanwhile, in the All-Ireland semi-final, Durcan underlined his versatility when he switched to wing-forward and not only kept McCaffrey out of the game but scored 0-2.
James McCarthy is my choice for centre-back. I like his style of play – he’s a physical, mobile and athletic type of footballer. And, boy, can he block up the middle!
Yet the seven-time All-Ireland winner could also have been chosen at wing-back or midfield on this team. What a player.
For the replacement it was a toss-up between Monaghan’s Karl O’Connell and Ryan McHugh of Donegal and I give the nod by a nose to the Kilcar man.
MIDFIELD
Brian Fenton (Dublin), David Moran (Kerry). Replacement: Aidan O’Shea (Mayo)
I wanted two very different style of players to fill the No 8 and No 9 shirts. Type A is a holding midfielder, who possesses decent fielding skills and doubles up as an extra defender when the opposition have the ball.
Even though he is in the autumn of his career David Moran excelled in this role for Kerry last summer.
Type B is the archetypal box-to-box footballer, who dictates the flow of the game and has the ability to score when he goes forward.
Dublin’s Brian Fenton ticks all these boxes and a few more besides.
For his leadership, strength and composure on the ball, Mayo’s Aidan O’Shea is my choice as the substitute midfielder.
HALF-FORWARD LINE
Shane Walsh (Galway), Ciarán Kilkenny (Dublin), Brian Howard (Dublin). Replacement: Sean O’Shea (Kerry)
Dublin have provided the template for what is required in this department: aside from pace, athleticism and ability, players must also be able to defend, link the play, instigate attacking moves and score.
Shane Walsh was the country’s form footballer up until the lockdown.
He’s is two-footed, an accurate free-taker, a proven scorer from play and an excellent ball-carrier with bundles of pace. Under Pádraic Joyce he has become a better team player too.
Ciarán Kilkenny has game intelligence to burn, as well as the capacity to fill a variety of roles, dictate the pattern of forward play and score.
Though I haven’t selected a specialist sweeper, Brian Howard could fill the role, such is his versatility.
His physical presence around the field and his athleticism are key attributes as well.
My substitute is Kerry’s Sean O’Shea whose composure, game intelligence and free-taking belies his tender years.
FULL-FORWARD LINE
David Clifford (Kerry), Michael Murphy (Donegal), Paul Mannion (Dublin). Replacement: Con O’Callaghan (Dublin)
I spent longer agonising over who would wear the No 13, 14 or 15 jerseys than all the other positions combined. Essentially, I was spoilt for choice. Just look the calibre of the players at my disposal.
I would be the first to admit that an alternative full-forward line of Patrick McBrearty (Donegal), Con O’Callaghan (Dublin) and Cathal McShane(Tyrone) might be almost as effective, while Conor McManus is worthy of consideration as well.
Ultimately the credentials of the trio I’ve chosen are indisputable, with Con O’Callaghan my first sub.
MANAGER
Jim Gavin (Dublin)
Frankly it’s slim pickings. Of the current crop Mickey Harte is the only boss who has won an All-Ireland and that last happened 12 years ago.
Peter Keane managed Kerry to win three All-Ireland minor titles – but at senior level his side failed to win any of the three national finals they were involved in last season.
James Horan is highly-rated but has a lot of big Championship match failures on his CV.
Declan Bonner has yet to prove it at the highest level and though Pádraic Joyce has shown promise it’s too early to judge him.
The obvious solution is to persuade Jim Gavin to come out of retirement.
His ability to empower the players, rather than impose his own game plan ,is one of his least talked about, but most important, attributes.
With Gavin at the helm, I’d defy any team to beat us.
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Post by Ballyfireside on May 11, 2020 12:14:33 GMT
Interesting selection above, 3 Donegal - ah Neil McGee not the man he was. 3 Kerry though would Sullivan make it?
With the current pool of talent you could select a number of national teams like the above that would all win a game or two against each other on a given day.
Crafting a team though is as different story - lads complimenting and compensating for each other - we were saying Gavin had such a selection he had a sub to fit a specification, now maybe it wasn't as advanced as that but he did have more options, and we aren't far behind. Numbers is probably Donegal's weakness but with the massive emerging middle tier of talent I see that may not be the case for much longer, and they will be there with the Dubs, and maybe ourselves. Sure 'tis all the advice I'd be giving 'em of a winters evening by the fire and they filling me up with chape porter - modesty becomes me! The last time I spoke out of school I relayed that the Gooch's advice was they weren't drinking enough, and then they joined the pioneers, so they do the opposite to what we tell 'em!
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Post by Mickmack on May 15, 2020 22:36:28 GMT
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Post by Mickmack on May 15, 2020 22:45:32 GMT
I remember the sense of joy from my perch on the Canal End as Jacko cracked home that goal.
Offaly were going for the double.
Two weeks earlier I was on the same spot on the canal end as Offaly put in a storming finish to snatch the hurling title from Galway with Johnny Flaherty providing the magic.
The gates had been crashed during the hurling final and the crush from the crowd to get in midway through the first half was intense.
There was a sense of gay abandon about Offaly in both codes and watching Kerry waste chance after chance in the second half i stood waiting nervously for the Offally surge late on but then.... Kennelly to Doyle to Egan to Sheehy to Egan to Jacko and Bang....Offaly would have to wait 12 months to apply the late surge!
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Post by Mickmack on May 16, 2020 9:46:26 GMT
Larry Ryan: Another tribute to Con Houlihan, who would have been the laureate of lockdown
By Larry Ryan Follow @ryanlarry Saturday, May 16, 2020 - 07:00 AM Larry Ryan: Another tribute to Con Houlihan, who would have been the laureate of lockdown
Con Houlihan at the unveiling of the bust in his honour in Castleisland in 2004. Picture: Don McMonagle Whichever way you look, isn’t sportswriting thriving without sport?
Who told us it was a results business anyway?
Learn more Undistracted by matches, writers are reading the game clearer.
So just imagine, if the timing had fallen right, how much we’d have solved in 30-plus columns from Con Houlihan since sport finished up.
When he was pumping them out three days a week, how much truth could Con have unlocked in lockdown?
After all, at the great man’s funeral, one of the testimonies verified his capacity to ‘write about nothing and make it interesting’.
Alas, we don’t know what Con Houlihan made of global pandemic, but we do know what he made of Ireland v USSR, 1974, which is what kept us going last Thursday night, on RTÉ2.
It’s hard not to look at it differently now, the heaving mass of jubilation at Dalymount. You tend to see it in terms of ‘infectious incursions’.
Con looked at it differently even while he was in amongst it.
The Jungle had Rumbled that morning of October 30. And Con was inclined to give Ali some credit for the energy around Phibsboro that afternoon.
“As we hastened into town in the early morning, we could see the evidence of this fermentation: friends greeted one another with pugilistic gestures; there was an inchoate excitement that made the grey air seem like the light of Spring. It was as if the heretic from Kentucky had given us all a new charter.”
Con took his place in the Tramway Terrace — “Terraces are like the yeast in the loaf” — just as Don Givens bagged the first of his hat-trick.
Next day, in the Evening Press, he parsed it.
“Ireland’s albatross around the neck is the national sense of inferiority; at Dalymount the men in green shattered that grey image as explosively as Ali demolished Foreman.”
There’s no albatross on the writing front. If anything we're over par. And Con carried that confidence into the results business.
During his lunar career, Houlihan prized two tributes above others.
He saw one inscribed on the back of a toilet door in Inchicore: "Con Houlihan says that Pat’s will never die".
And the other came via letter to the Press, from a reader who told him: “You gave me my third-level education”.
Con is getting another tribute Monday night.
‘Now read on — a Con Houlihan special’ is a celebration of his work, to be broadcast live on The Horan Stand Facebook page.
The man behind it is another giant of the game, Liam Horan, who knows well the likes of Championship Man and Knowledgeable Noel. Better perhaps than he knows himself.
He knows the work of Con well too.
One of his guests on the night will be athlete and writer Feidhlim Kelly, no stranger to these pages either, a great friend of Con who typed his columns for the two years before his death.
Mainlining, even if not bylining, genius.
Why is Horan doing this show? Why wouldn’t he?
“Like so many others, I was a child of Con Houlihan,” he said yesterday. “DNA tests will show that he was something of a second father to many young journalists of the 1970s and 1980s.”
That’s how it went in our house too.
Con playing with words three days a week. Eamon Dunphy spitting words on the Sunday. A broken home, since the two didn’t get on at all.
(Not to forget Kevin Cashman teaching us words, railing against the nabobs and sciolists).
To Horan, Con was a sporting education.
“While he was the poet laureate of the Kerry-Dublin rivalry — the words he used to describe Mikey Sheehy’s goal in 1978 are stored away under lock and combination in the hearts of all GAA fans — he was also the man who introduced us to Richmond Park, Dalymount and Milltown.”
I loved his writing about St Pat’s. How the loyalists were so dislocated when Richmond Park shut for two seasons, they complained about the weather two miles up the road in Harold’s Cross.
We learned of the man stationed beside the Camac river in Inchicore, whose job was to retrieve balls, as well as small boys who jumped in after balls.
A role Con put beautifully in perspective. “Incidentally, Hereford United for this same job keep two men in a boat on the Severn.”
“My memory is that every column was a gem,” says Horan. “And that can’t be too faulty. How else could he have earned his reputation in every town, village and city in this country? Dickie Rock and Johnny Logan combined couldn’t match his army of followers.”
Horan enjoyed the way he inverted things.
“Bystanders need not always be innocent, as Sean Creedon, the soccer writer, reminded me while researching this programme. It conjured up images of all sorts of guilty bystanders. A bystander might be a murderer. Or a polygamist. Or a con artist. Or all three.
“Con’s touch was light. You might even miss the wordplay if you didn’t pay attention.
“I know a man. I will call him John, for that is his name…”
Or what about Limerick’s meltdown? The time they were ‘Dooleyed’.
“You could feed all the relevant data into the most sophisticated computer and end up no wiser. The All-Ireland Hurling Final of 1994 will defy the microchip — and even the micro fish.”
“Con loved words,” Horan adds. “He played with them in a joyous manner.
“John Betjeman, the poet, wished people to enjoy the sound of his words almost as much — if not more — than the actual meaning they conveyed. Betjeman had plenty to say about the desecration of English towns and rural idylls, but when you read his poetry, you are struck by its lyrical quality.”
Con talked poetry, and Patrick Kavanagh, way back, in an interview for the Irish Times.
“TS Eliot said in a moment of enlightenment — and he hadn't many of those — that art was about taking the here and the now and making it rich and strange. Kavanagh practised that. He didn't preach it.
“He made you see your own fields, your own little rivers and cows, as important.”
Houlihan didn’t preach either, Horan stresses.
“Con lamented the man who might misuse an apostrophe. But even that famous line was delivered playfully: Con never imposed his genius on you — and it was genius — and thus you tended to embrace, rather than resist, what he had to say.”
Con studied in UCC, under renowned academic Daniel Corkery.
"One time long ago Daniel Corkery taught me and he asked us, 'when man goes to the moon, how will people react?' And we all gave stupid answers, I can't remember what. And he said, 'They will think more and more about their own little parish'."
And that’s what Con achieved in that lunar career. Elevated on a pedestal of fine words what is closest, what means most. That'd be handy now, locked at home.
Which is why, in the pitiful style of a lad trying to get his second father and mother back together, I left a message with Dunphy this week, to see if he’d relent.
In one broken home, Eamo’s Only a Game? was thumbed as often as Con’s compilation More Than A Game would be.
Seemingly, Con gave the former a lukewarm review, which ignited a feud.
But there’s surely more to unite than divide them. After all, didn’t Con warn about Jack Charlton’s Wimbledon tendencies while Eamo still regarded Jack’s arrival as an antidote to ‘decentskinsmanship’?
So Eamo, what’s one more small u-turn? Build a bridge, like Johnny did with Dickie, and give Horan a call before Monday night.
Fógra: ‘Now read on — a Con Houlihan special’ will be aired live on Facebook.com/TheHoranStand on Monday night next at 9.25pm. Guests will include Jimmy Deenihan, Ian O’Riordan, Frank Greally and Feidhlim Kelly. It will be archived on the page afterwards.
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Post by Mickmack on May 17, 2020 22:50:34 GMT
GAA must balance risk and reward of return - otherwise they face sporting irrelevance Eamonn Sweeney
The rapturous response given to John Horan’s statement that there would be no GAA games until social distancing is no longer necessary suggested its implications had not been fully thought through.
If we’re to take the outgoing president’s words at face value, they’d seem to mean that not only will there be no football or hurling in 2020 but there won’t be any in 2021 either and 2022 might be touch and go as well.
Then there were the 22 per cent of players who told a Club Players Association survey that they won’t be returning until a vaccine for Covid-19 has been found. Another 21 per cent said they were uncertain about whether they’d come back. Which means over 40 per cent of the country’s hurlers and footballers might well have played their last game.
Because, as Professor Kingston Mills, Head of the Centre for the Study of Immunology at Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute in Dublin, pointed out last week there’s no guarantee a vaccine will be found any time soon.
"The chances of us having an effective vaccine within a year is maybe 20 or 30 per cent. It could be a lot longer," said Mills, who represented Ireland in the world championship marathon in 1987.
"If you look at other viruses like HIV, 20 years on we still don’t have a vaccine that works against it . . . it’s a very dangerous rule or standard, or whatever it is, to take to say you’re not going to do anything till there’s a vaccine," he added before commenting that waiting until a vaccine is found before resuming sport is, "ridiculous."
The professor’s comments are an invaluable corrective to the idea that an instant solution to the current problem might be forthcoming. In the best-case scenario, given that a vaccine will have to be not only discovered but tested, manufactured and distributed on an unprecedented scale, we might have one in two years’ time. The worst-case scenario is that we might never have one at all.
Anyone waiting for a vaccine before they resume their sporting career could be left waiting. With the World Health Organisation warning that Covid-19 might well be with us for good, social distancing may become a permanent part of everyday life.
Horan’s declaration was widely hailed as an example of leadership at its very best. Maybe it was. But in a world where the Bundesliga restarted this weekend and Serie A, La Liga and the Premier League will probably return next month, where there will be a Royal Ascot in June and a full summer of horse racing classics, a June 13 return for the PGA tour and a July 5 resumption of the Formula 1 world championship, it seems odd to see the GAA being praised for apparently preparing to sit it out till 2022. Or later.
Maybe the 2020 return dates are wildly optimistic. The Bundesliga is the canary in the coalmine and one footballer in Germany becoming seriously ill after contracting the virus at a game would put a serious damper on things. But at the moment sport is on the way back with even the NBA, MLB and NHL considering a return to action in the next couple of months.
This makes the GAA something of an outlier. In the short-term, supporters of this stance might seek consolation in suggesting the Association is a monument to maturity which simply cares more about human life than the ruthless professional sporting organisations ruling the roost elsewhere. But the thrill of occupying the moral high ground will pale fairly quickly if Irish sports fans see a multitude of sporting events taking place elsewhere while hurling and football remain hors de combat.
The possibility of this happening is greatly increased by Horan’s insistence that the GAA won’t countenance games behind closed doors. Those praising Horan haven’t explained why this all duck or no dinner stance is necessary.
A GAA-free Ireland is such a dispiriting vista that it’s worth looking at a couple of alternative visions of the near future. The first is that of Liam Sheedy who insisted last week that, “If nothing else was possible other than going behind closed doors, I’d be in favour of it. The impact on the well-being and health of our nation in seeing matches would trump everything. I think games behind closed doors would give the nation a lift.”
And the second is that of the 64 per cent of club players who said they’d be prepared to return to action if temperature testing before games was introduced to screen for the virus.
I’ll be a bit controversial here and suggest that Sheedy doesn’t actually care less about human life than John Horan does. In fact, the Tipperary manager stressed the importance of providing a safe environment for players. But he’s taking the view that making the best of a difficult situation is better than waiting an inordinate amount of time for an ideal one to develop.
Here’s the thing. Over the next couple of months a lot of GAA players will go back to work. The pubs will re-open and a semblance of normality will return. In the circumstances they may wonder why Gaelic games are the one part of everyday life which remains entirely off limits for the foreseeable future.
Sheedy touched on this point when noting that as things stand his players would be able to play golf together for several hours but aren’t allowed inside their local GAA pitches to practice at a hurling wall.
Maybe the GAA’s approach is the wise one in the circumstances. But what it will do is consign the Association to sporting irrelevance. You can come out with all the pious stuff you want about how the GAA is more than just a sporting organisation but if it doesn’t provide games for players and fans it will wither on the vine. A GAA without games will be like a pub with no beer.
Covid-19 can be viewed in either an apocalyptic or a pragmatic light. Those who take the former view declare that our lives will never be the same until a vaccine is developed and that any attempt to return to normality is doomed, dangerous and disrespectful of the dead.
The pragmatists believe that as we don’t know when, or if, Covid-19, will go away, society will have to adjust to the new reality as best it can. Waiting for the happy day when we can do things in the old way might not be an option.
Those who insist there can be no GAA championship behind closed doors are adopting the apocalyptic approach. So are the players who won’t play till a vaccine is found. Sheedy is a pragmatist. So are the 64 per cent of players who believe that temperature checks could provide a safe environment for club football and hurling.
The key to the return of GAA action is not the discovery of a vaccine but the institution of a testing programme along the lines of that used in the Bundesliga. That might only be practicable at inter-county level, but it would at least be a start.
Maybe it wouldn’t work. It’s too early to tell. But Sheedy is correct when he says a behind-closed-doors championship would provide a huge morale boost for GAA fans. Very few supporters would turn away from Limerick v Tipperary, Kerry v Dublin or any televised inter-county match at this stage just because there’s no-one in the stands.
The unprecedented number of viewers expected to take in the Bundesliga this weekend shows the hunger for some kind of top-class sport at this stage. The Fine Gael TD Martin Heydon made the same point as Sheedy on Wednesday in the Dáil when, calling for horse racing’s return, he noted, “It’s a source of much needed enjoyment for people at home, many of whom are cocooning.”
There’s a tendency to regard the return of sport as a minor matter in the post-lockdown era. Yet there are a lot of people who’ll be feeling bruised and battered after the last couple of months, who’ll be heading back to work in a state of some trepidation and will need a bit more in terms of consolation than inspirational poems by Michael D Higgins.
Sport can play an important part in the national recovery because everything valuable is not measured in economic terms. An Ireland without sport would be a much poorer place. The GAA needs to think about what it can contribute to the new world which awaits us.
Should its members want to follow Horan’s lead, fair enough. If they think the safest place to be is on the sideline, no-one will blame them. But there’s no point pretending that the kind of long-term lockdown suggested by the outgoing president won’t lose Gaelic games a great deal of public attention and affection. The question is whether that’s a price worth paying.
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Post by Mickmack on May 17, 2020 23:02:42 GMT
I have to say that a game behind closed doors between Kilkenny and Tipperary in hurling would still be a huge thing to look forward to. Same with big collisions between the top 4 in football. The club games on TG4 are nearly behind closed doors a lot of the time and are rivetting to watch.
I don't understand John Horans stance no more than Eamon Sweeney does on that issue about no games behind closed doors.
Is it a case that staging such games would be loss making?
I think staging the inter county championship is a possible runner on a knockout basis assuming players buy into the testing regime. I would expect a percentage would opt out for various reasons but that is understandable.
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Post by goonised on May 18, 2020 10:01:41 GMT
I have to say that a game behind closed doors between Kilkenny and Tipperary in hurling would still be a huge thing to look forward to. Same with big collisions between the top 4 in football. The club games on TG4 are nearly behind closed doors a lot of the time and are rivetting to watch. I don't understand John Horans stance no more than Eamon Sweeney does on that issue about no games behind closed doors. Is it a case that staging such games would be loss making? I think staging the inter county championship is a possible runner on a knockout basis assuming players buy into the testing regime. I would expect a percentage would opt out for various reasons but that is understandable. Social distancing is the issue.
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Post by john4 on May 18, 2020 10:21:54 GMT
I'm just wondering if there's any Club officers on here and wondering what, if any, are your club's intentions in dealing with player registration fees, and club membership fees paid for 2020. I'm involved in a Club's underage team and am only waiting for the day when the question will be asked of me!
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2020 10:55:35 GMT
If a bunch of other sports get up and running over the next few months successfully,the gaa will change their tune social distancing or not
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Post by john4 on May 18, 2020 12:22:02 GMT
John Horan did a great interview on the Sunday Game recently and explained the current position of the Gaa clearly, but I'm sure that the fact that John Horan is in his last year as Uachtarán CLG would have the effect of him having a conservative viewpoint on the resumption of Gaelic games. Make no mistakes and get out of the job with his reputation in tact must be somewhere in his head!
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Post by jackiel on May 18, 2020 13:39:44 GMT
I'm just wondering if there's any Club officers on here and wondering what, if any, are your club's intentions in dealing with player registration fees, and club membership fees paid for 2020. I'm involved in a Club's underage team and am only waiting for the day when the question will be asked of me! I'm employed by my club here in Meath as reception/admin, within 2 weeks of shutdown a couple of parents asked about refunds but it seems to have died out at the moment. We are waiting for guidance from Co Board/Croke Park but to be honest they seem to be kicking the can down the road. In reality if kids haven't played or trained for most of the year we wont be in a good place to ask parents to cough up again in January. We put in a gym this year and charged a levy to all over 18 players of €50 to pay for same. We may have questions asked when adult training resumes. We have over 50 teams to accommodate and with social distancing I really cant see how we can resume training in the numbers we would have had pre-Covid. Another issue is whether parents will want to send their kids. The whole landscape has changed and I'm not sure how we can navigate the minefield, 9 weeks today until we are due to resume.Food for thought.
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Post by givehimaball on May 18, 2020 15:47:49 GMT
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Post by sandradee on May 18, 2020 18:31:00 GMT
I'm just wondering if there's any Club officers on here and wondering what, if any, are your club's intentions in dealing with player registration fees, and club membership fees paid for 2020. I'm involved in a Club's underage team and am only waiting for the day when the question will be asked of me! Very simple problem to solve really. It will be at least two months before we see any action on the playing fields if at all. Let the players or their parents know that the club will not be charging registration fees next year. Then you will need to become creative, if that is possible. It's in times like these that the creative juices really flow. There are a number of solutions out there.
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Post by jackiel on May 18, 2020 20:39:41 GMT
That is a very simplistic way to look at it but unfortunately the GAA ,LGFA and camogie association will still expect us to pay insurance ,registration and affiliations for 2021. Our revenue stream has completely dried up and we have no idea when things will return to some sort of normal.
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Post by sandradee on May 18, 2020 20:51:45 GMT
That is a very simplistic way to look at it but unfortunately the GAA ,LGFA and camogie association will still expect us to pay insurance ,registration and affiliations for 2021. Our revenue stream has completely dried up and we have no idea when things will return to some sort of normal. You cannot go back to the players and parents again. Players will be lost especially the kids The club will need to get inventive. There are solutions.
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Post by sandradee on May 18, 2020 21:41:42 GMT
one very obvious one
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Post by Control5 on May 19, 2020 7:54:50 GMT
The "All GAA activity cancelled" has been shut down. The points made on it by you will not be allowed on this one. This thread will not be shut down.
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Post by glengael on May 19, 2020 10:05:09 GMT
At the very least we'll be spared the Who Should be Kerry Captain debate in 2021.
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Post by jackiel on May 19, 2020 19:05:52 GMT
Sorry all, I'm dipping in and out of this every few days, obviously an agenda that I missed out on going on with sandradee. I am concerned about how things move forward not just for the club but for me personally as it is my livelihood.
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