Endeavour To Fore

It is a near mortal sin to say anything negative against our pitch in Parc50 for fear of cursing our luck at having it in the first place. Let me forget that for a moment though and reflect on what a sh1te surface it is for hurling. The surface is bare, stoney and uneven. It resembles one of those 'pitches' that fills the background when an African soccer player is interviewed in his home town. Well, maybe it's not that bad; the African pitch I mean. The Parc is not built for hurling; it is essentially a soccer pitch surrounding firstly by a running track and secondly by bushes meaning it is also a prime location to lose balls.

Control the controllables and all that so move on. Whilst never one to have an ultimate (or even very good) command of a sliotar I could at least be expected to gather it easily whilst standing still. Not so since we started back. Hurling can be a wonderfully enjoyable game or the most sickening of all and there were many times when we muddled around in the dust in recent weeks wondering why we bother! Finally on Tuesday there was a hint of a first touch and with it the renewed hunger for a bit of action. That will come, in The Hague this weekend, for Round 1 of the European Hurling Championship.

Our team is decimated to the point that we are in danger of not having one. It's slightly unbelievable when you think we were threatening to field a second team last year. Fellas have moved on, others have new priorities, more are injured and then theres alot who have plans for what is the May Bank Holiday in Ireland. I don't think Martin got to the required number when he was listing out the names on Tuesday. At one level, I couldn't care less. The greatest Belgian G.A.A. exhibition I've been part of was last year down in Luxembourg when we were short (even if not in comparison to our current plight) and it was a humdinger of a tournament in which ourselves and Den Haag played eachother to a standstill. Those are the days you can't hide and you must prove your worth.

We'll have a real mixed bag of standards on Saturday. Whilst more will be expected of certain lads from a pure hurling point of view, a serious amount of endeavour will be expected from all. Most have trained with the footballers all year and have pushed themselves to limits which they have not gone to in recent times. No-one ever gave up or backed down and the same will be expected of everyone this Saturday. Crusher will prove an able successor to Kevin Keary and will provide the benchmark for the rest to follow.