Dad's Army On March

There was a moment down in Budapest when, aggrieved by some decisions that didn't go our way, we vented our frustrations. It wasn't the way we want to conduct ourselves and we quickly retreated and regrouped to discuss that very point. I'm sure there is no shortage of people who felt we had become arrogant during our run of success. The truth is that was never the case. Some may have got complacent but we were never arrogant. It's a natural and easy accusation to make though.

Saturday is a great example of what we are about as a club and it should quieten the doubters. Zurich is one of the most difficult places for us to get to and one of the most expensive places to be. Over the years, many teams have opted out of the trip when the Championship has been decided but we always travelled. That attitude defines you as a club more than what individuals perceive. We understand the importance of supporting each club’s home tournament because it is a big day in each of our years to showcase yourself locally. Fergal and Bull demonstrate it perfectly as they will fly in specifically from business trips elsewhere to play on the day.

We need a huge slice of luck to catapult us above The Hague to win the Championship this year. We would have to win the two remaining tournaments and hope that they got a third and fourth. Zurich are better placed with two final defeats under their belt. If they were to win both tournaments and The Hague missed one of the two finals, Zurich could be champions. However, given the strength of The Hague this year, it is unlikely that they will be bettered overall.

With that scenario facing us and considering we only had 11 for Budapest when it was still in the mixer, it's a credit to the lads that they travel again this weekend. We currently have 12, including the injured Crusher and with one 'maybe' that would make it 13. Adrian made a comment to me during the week about the age profile of the group. We have three over forty and five floating around the mid-thirty mark. He wondered was this some reflection on the state of hurling i.e. the youthful stickmen are more scarce. In Brussels this is the case at the moment but The Hague counter that with their young charges.

After Budapest, the remaining two goals for the year would have been to 1) field a team in Zurich and 2) win our home tournament. With the weekend approaching you will naturally upgrade the first objective and the lads will be going down there to win. We may be missing a few regulars but you never know what other teams will show up with. The worst thing that can happen is for you to arrive in the wrong frame of mind, under perform and depart knowing that you left a massive opportunity behind you.
Despite my patting everyone on the back about travelling, I won't actually be there myself!! It's Dad's 60th so I’m back in Cork. My mind won't be far from the action on Saturday though.