Search Results for 'Brian Hogan'

The Kilkenny senior hurlers finally got their year up and running with a hard earned league victory over Offaly last Sunday in Nowlan Park.

The GAA's good intention of kick-starting the National Hurling League with a glamour tie between the All-Ireland finalists Kilkenny and Tipperary under lights at Semple Stadium has turned from a good PR exercise into a GAA disaster.

Delegates at special congress last Saturday gave Galway and Antrim the green light to compete in Leinster for the next three years. There were a number of proposals down for decision but without a doubt this motion was top of the priority list. There has been a lot of changes in the association over the years with this being the most radical on-field change since the backdoor system was introduced in '97. Both Galway and Antrim have now been given the chance to bring the famous Bob O'Keeffe Cup to foreign lands, oh, how times have changed. It may only be for a three-year trial period but I for one feel it's a stepping stone to an open draw or a champions league style championship. Sure Kilkenny are dominant in Leinster at present, but I think this move undermines the great effort that Dublin, Wexford and Offaly are doing to catch up on possibly the greatest Kilkenny team of all times. This move will certainly make it harder for the aforementioned sides to reach the Leinster final- so how this is going to improve hurling in this province is beyond me. Take Dublin for instance, a county that is genuinely trying its best to promote hurling. Their players would look upon it as a huge honour to play in a Leinster decider, the new system could now rob them of that chance. Any player who has won a Leinster senior medal over the years should cherish it. The new championship should in fact be called the 'rest of Ireland championship' during this three-year trial. Everyone will have their own opinion and are well entitled to have it, but the sight of Galway running out on Croke Park for final day doesn't exactly excite me. Call me old-fashioned or set in my ways, but that's the way I feel at present. Maybe I'll feel differently about it after the three-year trial; I wonder what way will the Kilkenny County Board look upon it in three-year’s time if Galway take all three titles during that period? Once again we are victims of our own success! It’s ok for people to mess around with this province, if change was needed, and I'm not so sure it was, but they should have bitten the bullet and brought Munster on board for the champions league style championship.

Eoin Larkin’s cracking goal in the 45th minute proved decisive as this tight scoring semi-final of city neighbours saw the ‘Village’ take the outright lead for the first-time and they never relinquished the lead afterwards.

Kilkenny notched up their 14th National Hurling League title after a ding-dong battle with the old enemy Tipperary at Thurles last Sunday. I thought that hurling at intercounty level was becoming a bit boring and predictable but Sunday's epic encounter has given me great hope for the coming championship. It's great to beat Tipperary any time but to beat them in their own backyard on final day is extra special.

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.

Kilkenny senior hurlers got the year off to the best possible start last Sunday when they had way too much fire power for a poor Dublin outfit in a bitterly cold Parnell Park. The combination of experienced backs and enthusiastic forwards gave new Dublin manager Anthony Daly a bad start to his stint in charge of the metropolitan side.

Kilkenny senior hurlers got the year off to the best possible start last Sunday when they had way too much fire power for a poor Dublin outfit in a bitterly cold Parnell Park. The combination of experienced backs and enthusiastic forwards gave new Dublin manager Anthony Daly a bad start to his stint in charge of the metropolitan side.

Kilkenny 6-12

The hurling year might only be a couple of weeks old, but tough tasks are arriving thick and fast for Galway.