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Sliothar has more bounce

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

It has proved particularly difficult for goalkeepers as the ball bounces off their hurleys. But the situation was getting out of hand with various suppliers providing their own sliothars and the GAA decided to go with one supplier, O’Neill’s.
The ball was used in the National League final, but it’s only since the Leinster final that people have noticed how far it can travel.
“We may look at the possibility of having one sliothar for summer and another for winter or maybe a different one for Croke Park, where there is not much ‘give’ in the ground,” said Pat Daly, the GAA’s head of games. “But I have checked back on the records and found that 20 years ago Cork goalkeeper Ger Cunningham was hitting puck outs into the opposing goal parallelogram. It all depends on who is hitting the ball.”
That’s true, but there is definitely more bounce in the new ball and the hurling development committee are to look into regularizing all sliothars after the final.
And in the wake of the Paddy Power affair with logos on hurleys, the GAA has instructed that hurleys are to be included in the interpretation of playing gear as specified under Rule 14.

O RIAIN GOES TO HARVARD
Elsa O Riain of Cork, one of Ireland’s top female tennis players, is quitting international tennis and is going to take up the offer of a scholarship at Harvard University. Ireland’s third-ranked women’s player has played professionally for the last two years but admits that she is tired of the traveling.
“I have been at it now for two years and the first year was a great experience,’ she said, “but I lost all enthusiasm for travel. I was living out of a bag for 25 weeks of the year.”
The financial burden also didn’t help.
“Players really have to finance it themselves,” she said. “You can make enough from tournaments to survive, but an injury can jeopardize it all.”

2 IRISH REFS PICKED
Ireland will have two referees at next month’s rugby World Cup in Australia. Dave McHugh and Alain Rolland have made the 16-man refereeing panel, but the Irish Rugby Union said that they are isappointed that Alan Lewis didn’t make the panel. Lewis is however, included in the list of touch judges/television match officials. Also in the latter list is Donal Courtney.

COMPROMISE CROWDS GROW
There seems to be huge interest in the Compromise Rules Test between Ireland and Australia down under next month. Already the first test in the Subiaco Oval in Perth on Oct. 24 is sold out. When Ireland played there in 1990 the attendance was around 15,000; now all 43,000 tickets have been sold. Tickets for the second test, in Melbourne on Oct. 31, have not yet gone on sale, but the Australian Football League anticipate a large attendance at the 90,000 capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground. The record attendance for a Compromise Rules game was 71,000 at Croke Park for the second test last year, but this could be broken next month.

OFFALY FIRE BOSS
Val Andrews is the new Louth senior football manager, taking over from Paddy Carr. Dubliner Andrews had success with his club Ballymun Kickhams and with Tralee I.T. College, but didn’t have much luck in his only intercounty spell with Cavan.
Elsewhere Padraig Kelly has been sacked as Offaly football manager after just eight months. Kelly claims he was the victim of a “kangaroo court.” Earlier two of Kelly’s three selectors Eddie Fleming and John Moran had earlier stepped down for business and/or family reasons. Kelly had been given a three year contract subject to yearly review, but was dismissed after eight months in charge.
In Westmeath Dessie Dolan senior is expected to replace Luke Dempsey as manager. Meanwhile, the Kerry County Board are expected to get feedback from the clubs in the county at their meeting on Sept. 22, but it will be Oct. 28 before we know whether Paidi O Se will be reappointed or whether the Kingdom will have new football boss.
In Sligo James Kearns, a brother of former county star Mickey, is reported to be favorite to take over from Peter Forde.
And Colm Coyle has been reappointed Monaghan manager ruling out speculation that he may be interested in the Meath job if Sean Boylan decides to step down.

KILBANE SIGNS FOR EVERTON
Kevin Kilbane last week beat the first transfer deadline of the season when he moved from Sunderland to Everton. Kilbane was the 16th player to leave Sunderland since they were relegated from the Premier League. But Ian Harte’s proposed loan move from Leeds to Portsmouth fell through as Portsmouth already had the permitted two players on loan from another Premiership club.
But there was bad news regarding striker Richard Sadlier, who looked like he could make the World Cup squad when he made his senior debut against Russia in February 2002. After two hip operations the Dubliner has been unable to play for his club Millwall and has been forced to retire at the age of 24.
“I just reached the decision that I was doing more damage to myself the longer I tried to play. Apart from that, the strain was becoming too much. I was building myself up for each comeback and then being bitterly disappointed when it didn’t work out,” Sadlier said.

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WATERFORD SHOCK KERRY
Waterford has traditionally been known as a hurling county. In football they are ranked 31 out of 32, but last week the Decies caused everybody to sit up and take notice when their under-21 footballers beat Kerry to take the Munster title for the first time. Waterford now play Dublin in Thurles in the All-Ireland semifinal on Sept. 21.

STAR LASHES DIET
Former Kerry star Liam O’Flaherty has criticized the training methods of coach John O’Keeffe.
“Just before I retired, John O’Keeffe had come in and we were all put on diets,” said O’Flaherty, who won an All-Ireland medal with Kerry in 1997. “We had water instead of milk, no butter on our spuds, chips were taken off the menu and the gravy was discarded. To me that’s all foolishness. It didn’t do anything for my game. I had been drinking milk all my life and I was not going to stop doing that. You could not even call it a diet. A lot of football is now being left on the training pitch. They should be practicing more high fielding and beating their markers.”
O’Keeffe defended himself by saying that nobody had queried similar training methods in 2000 when Kerry won the All-Ireland. “In fact, we need to wise up ever more to fitness levels because the Northern teams have raised the bar with the intensity of their mobility, pace and strength,” he said. “Proper eating habits, not diet, are part and parcel of a proper training regimen.”

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