“Hurling needs oxygen,” the famous quote by Dónal Óg Cusack, is once again under the spotlight this weekend following the national hurling league finals below division one.
With all four divisions of the National Football Leagues taking place in Croke Park this weekend, none of the hurling will be played in GAA HQ with the Division 1A/B on in Supervalu Páirc Uí Chaoimh Division 2 in Inniskeen, Division 3 in Hawkfield and Division 4 in Truagh.
It came to light during the week that the time and venue for the Division 4 league final between Fermanagh and Louth wasn't set until Tuesday morning as Fermanagh manager Joe Baldwin revealed to the Irish Independent.
Michael Verney of the Irish Independent pointed this out on Twitter this morning and sparked a big debate online.
Cárthach Bán Breathnach, who was on commentator duties for TG4 for the Division 2 final, replied to the former Offaly hurler's tweet, sending a picture of the pitch in Iniskeen and noting that there were no 65-yard lines in place, which is not ideal for hurling.
The match itself saw Down come back from 3-11 to 0-12 after 40 minutes of play to win 4-22 to 3-18, but Down battled back superbly in the last quarter and with four goals of their own and 10 points to Kildare's seven. The Mournemen claimed the league title as they move up to Division1B along with their opponents.
But the real question should be asked: why should a hurler have to deal with different standards to their football counterparts? The same thing wouldn’t happen in a Division 4 league game, so why a Down or Kildare hurler wouldn't have the proper lines even measured out on the field for a National League Final?
Speaking after the game to Neil Loughran of the Irish News, Down manager Ronan Sheehan called on the GAA to give hurling teams more respect and how they had to fight to just get the game to Iniskeen as the GAA wanted it in Cavan.
“Look, the pitch here is fantastic, they put a lot of effort into it, it’s a good field and all – but you saw the quality of the match there today; that should be in a far greater setting than here," he said.
“That’s no criticism of Inniskeen, it’s been good to us before, but there’s Division Three and Division Four football finals being played today at Croke Park - there’s no reason why this game couldn’t have been played down at Pairc Ui Chaomh.
Indeed, there’s no reason they couldn’t have had a double-header at Nowlan Park, put us and Kildare on before Waterford and Offaly… they were actually going to take this game to Breffni Park and I refused.
Now that’s not a criticism of Cavan, but the pitch is in awful shape for hurling. When that was the suggestion, I kinda said ‘are they just going to put this game wherever the f**k they want?’“So it was a case of look, if you’re going to go somewhere, Inniskeen at least is a good hurley field, and they’re decent people. But that’s not the point - the point is there should be a bit more respect. This is a national final.
Listen, we’ve been here a long time, we’ve been waiting for this, but my view of these things is always more about the bigger picture for hurling.
That’s what annoys me more than anything else - the disrespect to the game, as opposed to the disrespect for this group, or whatever. It’s more that the game of hurling deserves better.”
Elsewhere, Mayo beat London 0-14 to 1-8 in the Division 3 final, while Louth overcame Fermanagh 0-16 to 1-8 in the Division 4 decider.
