Treaty men scale the mountain

The All-Ireland hurling championship is over. Long live the All-Ireland hurling championship.

It’s been the best ever and in truth we had the winners this year deserved. But did they ever make heavy work of it!

Sunday was one of those special ‘grown men crying with happiness’ days. We were privileged to be there, even if us neutrals nearly felt like we were intruding on a family event! I was delighted for Limerick, they deserve all that comes with winning an All-Ireland after such a long wait. The people of Clare, Offaly, Wexford and Galway know that glow. It can last a lifetime.

Limerick might have fallen over the line, but think about who they beat to win this All-Ireland: Galway, the defending champions and current Leinster champions; Cork the reigning Munster champions; Waterford last year’s finalists; Kilkenny who are just Kilkenny and Tipperary champions of two years ago. All this from a team that did not win a championship match in 2017.

It has been the greatest summer of hurling to watch, ending was the romantic cliffhanger we just knew would happen. It will be the shortest winter of all time on Shannonside.

There were a number of key moments in this remarkable hurling year and so many of them could have changed the course of Liam McCarthy’s ultimate destination.

Unlike previous years when there was an air of predictability about Kilkenny and Tipp meeting in finals, with the Cats usually winning, there was a lot this year that just didn’t make sense.

The one that got away

Realistically Clare, Cork, Kilkenny and of course Galway, can all harbour justifiable thoughts (not resentment I stress!) about perhaps an All-Ireland that got away from them.

Look at Limerick’s various crises. The Cats went two points up on the future champions when Richie Hogan goaled to put Kilkenny clear in the 64th minute of their compelling quarter-final. What were Limerick’s All-Ireland odds at that point in time?

Probably longer when Daragh Fitzgibbon put Cork 1-26 to 1-20 clear in the 62nd minute of their amazing All-Ireland semi-final!

But Limerick weathered all of those storms and then the very last, when Galway shook themselves and came at them in injury time on Sunday. Champions must have resilience, Limerick had it in spades (and subs).

So where does hurling stand after this epic year? Is it as healthy as we all think?

I think the answer is entirely positive, with the natural provisos that should come with that.

Hurling as a game has never reached such high standards, of fitness, skill, physical endeavour and thought.

Today’s generation of hurlers are the best we’ve seen and the ones coming behind them better again. That’s the nature of almost every sport, it’s a fact of evolution.

Competitiveness

Our top teams have never been fitter because we have never asked so much of them. They have to be to compete.

As the conditioning adds more power the physical stakes naturally rise in tandem. Even the so called small fellas are knocking big men down in the tackle – Graeme Mulcahy and Shane O’Donnell two prime examples this year.

Between the ears, the analysis now carried out on opposition and by teams on themselves would frighten the casual supporter. It is now not unusual for a college team to be monitoring players for things like heart rate, hydration, body fat and rest. Think about what an even better resourced county team is doing.

Not too long ago you were going way overboard if you had a stats team. Today a backroom set-up must have video analysis of every training session, usually loaded on to a player’s laptop before he gets home from training. RTÉ don’t have the manpower that county teams assemble to gather information.

What hasn’t changed is the human element. It still takes someone to dissemble it. There is still a human being basing decisions on information presented to them, although we’re not sure how long that will remain the case!

We should worry about over coaching, about misguided coaches trying to programme kids to play hurling, some adults too. We should worry about the physical price that may be paid by players for such intensity, sometimes for multiple weekends in a row. We should worry about the demands placed on players, not to mention the unrealistic expectations and pressures that come with that. We should be concerned with social media and its impact on impressionable young players.

But that is stuff we can fix. And when we have had major problems in hurling down through the decades, the ship always righted itself.

Safe hands

So hurling remains in good hands. Safe hands. Declan Hannon needed a long time on the Hogan Stand steps to pay tribute to everyone who made Limerick’s All-Ireland happen this year. He even suggested he had left a few out. It may take a village to raise a child, but today it takes a town to win an All-Ireland!

None of this is going to change because that tide cannot be stopped. Do we want it to? Look at what it meant to the people of Limerick, these past few days. Every hurling county wants that. Every team.

Are they going to realistically deprive themselves of that opportunity when there are always others willing to pay for it, to contribute to it, to raise it? Of course not. The armies of players and backroom teams are here to stay because there are bigger armies of people who want them to win, who need them to win, who are willing them to win.

The challenges for hurling are many, one of the biggest being to balance all of that. Let’s get on with it.

This summer has seen hurling reach a new peak and Limerick now occupy the top of the mountain.

It will be a little higher in 2019 but I have no fears for the game or the teams that will set out to climb it next May, because hurling will always protect itself.

For Limerick this is the best of times. Watch an entire county rise now on the back of this All-Ireland success.

It will breed confidence, belief and more success. On the field, but more importantly, off it too. Such is the power of hurling.

I miss it already.