I have no doubt that the new ball was the reason Fitzhenry dropped Ciaran Herron’s 65 into his own net before half-time. That ball coming at you at pace from that distance must be like a stone. Other players have had problems catching it as well so I don’t blame Fitzhenry. The other noticeable thing is that the ball is flying off players’ hurleys, making a fool of good players. It’s absolutely crazy.
I have to compliment Dinny Cahill and his selectors for preparing Antrim as well as they did. They were certainly treated harshly by the referee on a few occasions. They came to win and probably should have pulled it off but maybe it was for the best. Playing Cork wouldn’t have been quite the same and might have hurt them badly.
You’d have to question why Aidan Delargy didn’t start for Antrim, but the biggest reason why they didn’t win is to do with the way hurling is structured at the moment. Some of the mistakes they made wouldn’t have happened if they had more exposure to the top teams.
There’s a new hurling development committee sitting at the moment and I hope they come up with some radical solutions. As far as I’m concerned the League is a non-event. Cork, Tipperary and Kilkenny can play the League any way they want. All the other counties must make a conscious decision to either go for the League or take it handy and most of them are now taking it handy.
My suggestion would be to have a Super League, starting in April, with the top 10 teams in the country. Play the games every weekend on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday night — with live TV coverage — and give the winners a fantastic holiday to the Bahamas or somewhere with plenty of spending money. Have another League below that with another good prize on offer.
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I would put all the Ulster teams and Galway into the Leinster championship, leave Munster the way it is and have a straight knock-out championship with no back door.
Restructuring the championship isn’t enough though. If Croke Park are serious about keeping hurling going, not just in Antrim but in Waterford, Offaly, Limerick and Laois then they must invest heavily. If the powers that be relax now hurling will be in dire trouble.
The way Offaly collapsed in Croke Park on Sunday is a warning to everybody who loves hurling. The game can’t afford to have a team such as Offaly getting wiped off the field by Tipperary two years running, on top of three or four bad beatings from Kilkenny since 2000.
The harsh reality for Offaly is that it’s very hard to replace players of the quality of the Dooleys, Hubert Rigney, Kevin Kinahan, Kevin Martin and Johnny Pilkington — whatever I’ve said about him in the past. Offaly and Limerick are not on the top level at the moment and the worry for hurling is that very few teams are.