A broken Dick, Kilkenny’s insanely high standards and stars in the shadows all feature in today’s Hospital Pass.
Never mind the Ashleys, spare a thought for Dick
The penalty fluffs by the two Ashleys, Young and Cole, garnered a lot of headlines today but we only have sympathy for someone else who missed a vital score yesterday. After a comeback that even Steps would find too audacious, Down managed to get their noses in front in the final minute of the Ulster semi-final against Monaghan yesterday.
But the Farney men manufactured one last chance. It fell to Dick Clerkin, the beating heart of the Monaghan cause for years now. The midfielder had a go at levelling the game again. He missed. Understandably he’s still not over it.
He tweeted the below this morning;
That’s real pain there folks.
Kilkenny; standards are high down there you know
Did you see Kilkenny bring Dublin’s hurling dreams down to earth quicker than a North Korean rocket on Saturday? Brutal wasn’t it. Efficient, clinical, powerful, it was a performance designed to illicit shock and awe. It probably achieved that goal. Well, it did everywhere except inside their own borders.
In a piece headlined ‘The reality is Kilkenny have to improve’ the Kilkenny People states today that the Cats will have to “up their game again” if they are to beat Galway.
It’s that sort of maniacal push for improvement that Brian Cody has instilled in the county and it is that which makes them so hard to even get close to, let alone beat.
Heaven help us all.
It wasn’t all about Kilkenny
Around the same time that Kilkenny were turning Anthony Daly’s skilled panel into a bunch of lads from the Red Cow, the first round of the Hurling Qualifiers took place and a few performances deserve a mention.
First up is Wexford’s Diarmuid ‘Gizzy’ Lyng. Liam Dunne’s team took on Westmeath and in the end Wexford won by 19 points. But don’t let that overshadow the tally racked up by the Wexford full-forward who scored 0-15, eight of which came from frees.
Down in Limerick, the home side hopped off Laois, scoring 6-21 in the process. But we think that Willie Hyland deserves more than a footnote. He notched up 1-10 out of Laois’ 1-11 and just six were frees.
The Clough-Ballacolla man is a real class act. We hope he gets his day in the sun someday. It’s a real shame the current structure hides the one day he might get to shine.
