Search Results for 'Liam McCarthy'

On Saturday night in Thurles a thrilling touch of the Irish sporting summer will be available as the All Ireland hurling championship is now in the long desired do-or-die phase. Whoever loses from here on in will be a mere afterthought in the tale of 2008 so there shouldn’t be any shortage of intensity or incentive.

So will the Ger Loughnane era conclude without silverware or even a scalp? Deliberation surrounded Tuesday night's Hurling Board meeting, but the topic hasn't been completely resolved. Loughnane is expected to meet with officials soon for a crucial discussion where future intentions will be revealed.

Last week in this column I let off a bit of steam in relation to the GAA’s treatment of the lesser hurling counties in the country. As far as I was concerned unless you are a leading contender for Liam McCarthy honours you just don’t matter. Last weekend, the quarter-finals of the Nicky Rackard and Christy Ring cups were played and for the counties involved their season hung on the result. I mentioned about how shoddy the arrangements were for the draw for these quarter-finals. While the draw was being made for the qualifiers in the premier competition, the rest of the counties involved in their own championships, were left to hang on with no idea of who their opposition would be. What I didn’t mention though was my surprise that the knockout games in the Ring and Rackard cups would be on a home and away basis.

The people of Kilkenny are in dreamland this week, having witnessed the four-in-a-row. It's not very often that a game of such importance lives up to expectations but in the year that marks the 125th anniversary of the GAA we got a final that will be spoken about for decades to come.

The new experimental disciplinary rules that were in use in this year’s league narrowly failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority at congress last Saturday.