Trip To Tipp

The Huring season concludes in Thurles this weekend with the final round of the European Championship.

This is the second time Euro finals have returned to the mainland (or left the mainland depending on your view). Last year's football competition concluded in Limerick.

I'm still sceptical about who wins out of these moves. Hurling isn't exactly booming in most clubs. The expense and journey time to go to Thurles is something which could be avoided and the players would surely welcome the cost savings. Lux, Holland and Belgium are the most consistent attendees so if you were catering for the majority you would look to a Benelux venue.

Also, like Limerick, Thurles isn't particularly well serviced by flights so it adds more hassle for players. In fairness, the Euro County Board have gone to great efforts to reduce the cost of the weekend, arranging subsidy for trains and also sponsorship for the lunch and evening meal on the tournament day.

The most attractive thing about playing at home for most people is being able to link about with friends and family. It was nice for them to be able to come to Limerick and see what it’s all about. Also, there are a good few non-Irish players playing hurling and they value the opportunity to come and play in Ireland.

The season is coming to an end at a slightly unfortunate time for us as we have recruited one or two new guys and there are a couple more on their way. That's the luck of the draw though. Numbers haven't been huge this year but in the last couple of months especially, training numbers have picked up and the quality of the sessions have naturally followed suit.

I won't be joining the trip, not in protest about it being in Thurles, more out of a need to preserve the body. So far this year, I've managed to play one football tournament outfield and 1.5 hurling ones! The root cause for each missed training and tournament has been hurling. The motions of striking and picking drive everything from my back down crazy.
I had the flights booked and I have no ailment today that would prevent me playing. However, that’s mainly due to having had a five week break from hurling, with only two football sessions in that time. I drew a line under it for the year to try and get something out of the rest of the football season.

One would expect Holland to be strong again but beyond them, the next best could come from anywhere in the field. A strong performance from our lads would secure second place in the overall standings. Whilst no-one would target second at the start of the year, we’d take it now considering the visible gap between Holland and the rest.
Fingers crossed for a successful day.