RTE’s new GAA show, no Hawk-Eye for Croker and Geezer’s fine line make up today’s Hospital Pass.
By Sean Nolan
RTE’s new GAA show is not half bad
Okay, we might be biased as we (should be “I”? – Ed.)welled up pretty badly watching Larry Murphy talk about Wexford’s 1996 Leinster final win over Offaly but RTE’s new weekly GAA show, Championship Matters, got off to a great start last night.
Essentially just The Committee Room by another name, the panel (former Donegal man Kevin Cassidy, current Meath player Cian Ward and journalist Kieran Shannon) all had lots of intelligent points to make and were, crucially, given time to expand on them.
Marty Morrissey let them talk and the views of players still involved or just retired on Seanie Johnston’s move were fascinating. Cassidy totally supported the Cavan man, understandably considering his history, and said if he was a little younger he would consider moving to continue his inter-county career.
Ward admitted he wouldn’t be too chuffed if an outsider came into the Meath panel (howya Banty!) and Shannon, as always, was a rock of sense and clear thinking.
Even allowing for my Wexford bias, the piece on the 1996 Leinster final was great stuff and Murphy’s face as he spoke of the game and what it meant to him should inspire any current Model player who tuned in.
RTE get a lot of grief but this was a well made show. Now all they have to do is keep it up all summer.
Hawk-Eye won’t take flight just yet
We were promised that this Sunday’s double header at Croke Park (Wexford-Longford, Dublin-Louth) would see the GAA trial the much-vaunted Hawk-Eye system for score detection.
But top man Paraic Duffy has told us we will have to wait a bit longer.
“Hawk-Eye is still in the process of being tested and it has proved to be a more technical challenge than we at first envisaged,” he said in today’s Irish Times.
“The plan was to start on Sunday, but we just haven’t been able to do. One of the problems is that the signal must come back to the referee very quickly and there was a delay in the signal coming back. That was one of the key things – the referee was having to wait too long to get confirmation from Hawk-Eye. It has to be instant.”
True, we have waited 128 years for this to be solved so a few more weeks won’t matter. Still, it would have been appropriate for Wexford, hit hard by a very dubious score last year in Limerick, to get the first trial.
Geezer likes Kerry’s style, we think…
It is always dangerous territory for one bainisteoir to speak about another county but we think that Kildare’s Kieran McGeeney just about got away with these comments on Kerry in today’s Examiner.
“Kerry can be just as physical in the contact as any of the northern teams, but they escape under the radar when physical teams are being labelled and fair play to them.”
In summary ‘Kerry, a bit dirty, but get away with. Well done.’ A multi-layered compliment/message for the year ahead. Masterful stuff from Geezer.
