The Schemozzle: Fine margins in a Munster hurling championship for the ages

Family affair

It was one hell of a busy week for the Bolger family. Father, Jim, is chairman of Carlow county board, whose senior football team defeated New York in the Tailteann Cup.

At cornerback for the Exiles, making his first start of the campaign, was son Shane, who previously played minor, under-20 and senior football for Laois and the Killeshin club.

Not to be outdone, in an extraordinary story, younger brother Ross this week signed for Idaho State University to play American football.

Ross, who played minor and under-20 for the O’Moore men, received offers from five Division 1 programmes and opted for Idaho because they afforded him the opportunity to both punt and kick field goals.

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The family live right on the border. Jim is from Clonmore in Carlow but married and settled in Killeshin, while remaining involved in GAA administration in his home county.

A former Leinster GAA chairman who ran for the GAA presidency in 2020, he also played intercounty at all levels.

Finding form

The shrewd judges who attempt to draw lines of form from the National League will have been left flummoxed by this spring’s Division 3. Okay, Westmeath were thrown in against Galway, Tyrone and Armagh in the Sam Maguire but they have lost their two games to date.

But of the seven Division 3 sides in the Tailteann Cup, only three are still standing, the same number as from Division 4. Fermanagh (who topped Division 3), Longford and Offaly all lost to Division 4 opposition while Tipperary didn’t progress past the group stage.

Incidentally, Tipp held on to beat Waterford, who were seventh in Division 4, by a point in their final group game, which rounded off a season in which they won three of their 14 matches – all against the Déise.

Holy show

After 25 years waiting for a Munster SHC title, unfortunately for Clare fans, their prayers weren’t answered yesterday as Limerick edged it by the bare minimum.

One of the best anecdotes of the Munster final build-up was recounted by former Clare manager Fr Harry Bohan in a feature in the Irish Examiner ahead of the final.

Asked would he pray for the Banner to win, Fr Harry replied that he wouldn’t and told the following yarn.

“The Tipp team were travelling up past the cathedral in Thurles to play Cork in a Munster final and somebody said ‘We’ll go in and say a prayer’. Johnny Leahy, Tipperary coach, said, ‘We won’t. We’ll bate them fair or we won’t bate them at all’.”

Fine margins

There may never be a provincial championship as closely contested as the one we have just witnessed in Munster.

Of the 11 matches played, there were two draws and four games decided by a point. Another, Limerick v Waterford, was a two-point game. Champions Limerick’s run in particular was frankly ridiculous – of their five matches, the widest margin was two points, in their opener against Waterford, with three one-point games and a draw in the remainder of their fixtures.

Quote

“That is class. Mark Rodgers, oozing from every pore in his body, the DNA that is the hurling gene.” – Marty Morrissey waxes lyrical on RTÉ yesterday.

Number: 75

Leinster SHC titles Kilkenny have won from 106 final appearances.