Televising hurling a helpful development

THIS League has really taken off. There's a tremendous buzz, big crowds and tremendous matches being played at as much as three quarters of championship intensity.

I would love to be managing a team this year. Aside from missing the cut and thrust, I never liked winter hurling, although I played it. Now it's nearly the summer and that's the time you judge hurlers.

It's a happy co-incidence that hurling has become so competitive during the new calendar. I remember playing in Munster and if we beat Cork we had to play Tipperary. The draw was seeded and Tipperary and Cork always got to the final because of that. Now it's an open draw and nearly anyone can win Munster and eight or nine counties could win the All Ireland.

A team has to be very careful in the League. Limerick have played Kilkenny, Clare and Wexford. Tipperary are next and then Galway, Laois and Offaly. A team runs the danger of going too well, too early.

The League is very tough and then there's the need to blood players and trying to get eight points which would enable a team to stay half way up the table and avoid relegation.

You've got to have a panel of at least 30, so I would try and introduce players and avoid using the same 16 each time but on occasions, you're going to need to use tactical substitutions (rugby has a way with words; in the GAA you're taken off for playing badly).

It's very different from the days when League and championship were different games. Players who were good in the League often found the pace too fast when the ground got hard. This year, with the March start, there'll be greater consistency even if the ground doesn't get really hard until May.

In relation to rules, I noticed in the Limerick Clare match two weeks ago and also in last Sunday's Tipperary Galway match incidents where one player put up his hand and another jumped and pulled and connected. The player sticking his hand up was hit from behind by his opponent playing the ball. I don't accept that as dangerous.

My view of it is that if you want to stick your hand up and you get hit, tough luck. The other player is allowed pull on the ball. But a free was given. Someone in Croke Park must have issued the instruction to make that a foul.

Anyway at this match, 2,000 young children were let in for nothing because of the Limerick team's Drug Free sponsorship. The bonus is that the youngsters can be encouraged to get interested in the game.

When I was young and we listened to All Ireland finals on the radio, we went out to play afterwards. We've got to get young lads to go out and play. There will be players up to the age of 16, and then we start to lose them. But we must have a percentage that will stay on.

This can be encouraged by live hurling and supplemented with coaching courses around the country. Galway and their Coiste Iomana 30 years ago is an example of the work that can be done with young players. To this day, the county has a tremendous supply line and this League will be great for them. Now they'll be getting the matches they require.

One problem I foresaw about running the League and championship in conjunction was the volume of matches coming up into June, July, August and September. The time allowed for clubs is very, very little.

If the League and championship were more condensed, and I think they should be, you could let the club play from August. Start NHL in March, conclude by mid May and run the All Ireland in eight weeks and start club championships by end of August. Then finish by mid November.

County boards and the GAA move slowly, but changes could be put in place. There is not enough time to play matches and train with their clubs and have players training with their counties. The club may be the backbone of GAA but the county is now taking precedence. What we are going to see is fewer and fewer county players training with their clubs.

The way county teams play, players are amateurs but professional in their training regime. Two nights with the county, two nights with the club, matches, Saturday training. They don't want that over 10 years. They are also cutting short their career by training so hard. Players are only human, they can only train so many nights a week. Already their wives are made widows.

One of the positive developments that has happened is the televising of hurling last year, which was a tremendous year. This is one of the things the committee (Hurling Development Committee) had in mind, because if we have as many years as good as last year, it'll be tremendous for the game. The feedback on these matches is that they've got more young players playing hurling.

The GAA have taken their heads out of the sand. I'd like to see League matches played on Saturdays and maybe Fridays. We've already seen Munster under 21 matches played on Friday nights.

Already, attitudes have become more enlightened. Last year's Leinster final and Munster final replay were played on the same day. In the past, that would have been regarded as sacrilege. You have to have enlightened thinking because you've got to compete with other sports.

Twenty years ago, it was being said that there's not enough male primary teachers and now we're, seeing the effects.

Something is being done now. There are foundation courses and coaching at club level, but it all should have been done 20 years ago. The standard of hurling has dropped and you have to start at under age levels.

I've been asked to help out with coaching children and I keep it simple, teach them how to strike a ball as there is always a danger that children can be over coached. But we need to put people into the primary schools to teach hurling.