Minor hurlers buried under seven-goal avalanche

Tipperary             7-12

Galway                 2-12

SOME days there are no answers, at least on the field of play. At Croke Park on Sunday, reigning All-Ireland minor hurling champions Galway found this out to their cost when they were hit for no less than seven goals by Tipperary in a surreal semi-final clash.

Both Galway and Tipp have been touted all year as the two best minor teams in the country but, instead of being treated to the sort of exhibition given in the senior game, this contest all but became a dead rubber fixture once the Premier County struck for their fourth goal just after half-time.

For all intents and purposes, this was a public execution and while Tipperary may have swung the axe, it was the institution of the GAA itself that signed the death warrant with their archaic structures that saw the victors having played four competitive ties coming into this one and the losers having absolutely nothing.

On paper, it will show Galway played Antrim in an All-Ireland quarter-final but – and this is no disrespect to the huge amount of work being done in the Northern counties – that fixture was nothing more than a bad joke. Antrim are as far off competing for All-Ireland minor titles now as they were decades ago.

Yet, the GAA persist with formats – at most levels – that are bogged down in bureaucracy, red tape, and medieval thinking. In the GAA, everyone is equal but some are more equal than others.

Take 2016. Galway minors lose their first competitive game of the year and relinquish their claims for All-Ireland honours. In contrast, Tipperary lose their Munster championship opener to Waterford, go through the back-door, and are rewarded with a provincial crown and possibly an All-Ireland title.

The GAA can exclaim that this is the championship Munster Council run but who is running the GAA now? In Galway, the Hurling Board was all but disbanded because the GAA insisted the County Committee should be the governing body. Yet, at national level, it is the provincial councils of Munster and Leinster – sub committees – that are calling the shots. Perhaps Croke Park – and Central Council – should start practicing what they preach.

No doubt, the Tribesmen have benefitted hugely in the past from their soft passage through to the All-Ireland series, winning multiple national titles at minor and U-21, but Galway hurling has moved beyond that now.

Those titles enabled Galway to establish themselves as one of the top hurling counties over the past 30 to 40 years – to harbour genuine aspirations each and every year of winning the Liam McCarthy Cup. The Galway players who achieved all that and were fearless in breaking new boundaries did so against opponents who held a loaded deck.

Full coverage in this week’s Connacht Tribune.