Galway hurling lesson not part of GPA scheme
Talking Balls
Galway’s victory of Antrim on Saturday at Casement was definitely not organised as part of the much publicised GPA scheme to twin established hurling superpowers with so called weaker counties. In the week that saw Jamesie O’Connor take a session with the Louth hurlers and Donal Óg Cusack coach in Fermanagh, Saturday evening’s events underlined the gulf in class that exists at the highest level.
Put as simply as this - Galway are All Ireland contenders: Antrim are not. Put even more simply - no-one other than Antrim seem to be in the slightest bit interested in creating the conditions for the Antrim county team to improve and become competitive at the highest level.
Meanwhile,as Cork Ledge Donal Óg Cusack lent a hand in coaching the Fermanagh senior hurling team, ‘keeper Ger McNally evidently thought the exercise was worthwhile:
“They showed us drills for players in all areas of the field. I’m a goalkeeper myself, so Donal gave me a few drills specific to my position as well. It was a great day all round, particularly as there were loads of kids around for the session. The county board in Fermanagh is doing great work to bring hurling on in the county, and a day like Saturday can only help in that regard — we’ll be trying to build on that for the future.”
For his part, Donal Óg Cusack was very happy with how the day went. He and Jerry Wallace flew by helicopter from the Castleknock Golf and County Club to Lissan, but the real highlight for the goalkeeper came on the ground in the Erne County.
“It went really well,” said Cusack. “We had a good training session on the field and a very good question-and-answer session afterwards as well. I think it can only be a positive development for hurling — the lads in Fermanagh were well up for it and the whole day was very well supported by their county board as well. Already they’re looking for contacts for clubs down in Cork, and if there were links between clubs in the two counties for coaching and underage challenge matches and so on, it can only improve things in Fermanagh, and that can only be good for hurling.”
Fair play to the GPA and Halifax for organising the scheme. At least they’re showing some interest. Elsewhere, there doesn’t seem to be the will or the way.