The Transfer of Power
What if Hurling had a Transfer market?
The English football transfer window has just closed, and for the first time ever, it meant a net profit for top flight English clubs. Not much to do with belt-tightening in the Premier League, but a change in the nationality of the profligate spenders. The Chinese (while they can) are making the transfer window great again and are emptying their yen coffers and buying it would seem, anybody. Watford’s Odion Aghalo, who has amassed a total of 6 goals in the last 13 months was signed by Chinese Super Club for £20 million, the latest scalp scratcher from a league that know it needs to spend, but not sure on what or who.
This brought up the spurious question, what if Hurling had a transfer market? Well the reality is, it already does. As an aid to help weaker counties put stronger teams out on the field, official GAA guidelines introduced in 2006 allow for up to five players from McCarthy Cup teams to switch to a county in the Christy Ring or Nicky Rackard competitions. Paddy Kelly is perhaps the most high profile exponent of this rule, who after winning the Liam McCarthy with Clare in 2013, transferred to line out for Kerry and helped them lift the Christy Ring trophy in 2015, scoring two points in the final. He is unsurprisingly, the only man in Ireland with these two medals.
Kildare has recently cemented its place as the the centre of transfer related sagas. The county junior hurling championship was set ablaze in 2013 when Seanie Johnson, he of Cavan fame, announced his intention to transfer to the county. However, Seanie needed to play in a championship match to complete his eligibility. Luckily, the county board decided to forego all morals and self-respect, and moved a club hurling match forward to facilitate this criterion. Cue a cynical and depressing sixty second cameo where they made Seanie run round in a new helmet using the wrong grip for the Coill Dubh club. It was an embarrassment that all factions of Kildare GAA were complicit in, presided over by senior manager and one of the first/most high profile transfer players — Kieran McGeeney. Johnson would seem to be the Pete Doherty of the GAA world as after all that cheating and heartache, Cavan took him back! He played in a McKenna cup game in 2016 for the first time in five years, in Cavan Blue (white).
Enter another Kildare manager and another transfer saga. Limerick’s Joe Quaid has a built in credibility that comes with the mention of his surname, but has made admirable strides to put respectability back into hurling in Kildare. Quaid stipulated that if he was to select a transfer player, it would only be on the basis that they make the full transition and play club hurling in the county. One of the county panellists has done just this, and in fulfilling his manager’s criteria, has fallen foul of the association’s.
Fellow Limerick man Richie Ryan dutifully transferred to Naas, but in doing so finds himself ineligible for county play until he plays a club championship fixture. It is a mess of Quaid’s making, but it is another example of the association’s inability to stay ahead of developments in the game and be pro-active in change, instead of re-active to crisis. All of the above may soon be consigned to the bosca bruscair anyway, if Armagh’s motion at National Congress to scrap rule 9.3 is passed!
The Open Market
With all of that said, it makes for a good pub conversation, if there was an open transfer market, who would be the first ten players picked? 32 county secretaries with their clipboards and highlighters at the ready, and the top players in the country, shifting on their heels, hoping not to be last guy picked in PE. My choices here are based on a number of general assumptions:
a) The picks are based on pure value, and don’t relate to the player fulfilling any particular need for any one team. You might try this again in a ‘draft’ style system, where teams pick in reverse order of where they finished in the Liam McCarthy.
b) The list is biased towards forwards as most teams if pushed, will always say they could use another lad who can put the ball over the bar. Defending is an art; however without denigrating the position, it is much easier to find a good man marker or a play-stopper than it is to find a play-maker.
c) The list is not supposed to be representative of if I was picking a team, and I haven’t chosen a keeper in the top ten. As opposed to past eras to me at the minute there is no net mender who has set himself out from the rest of his competition a la; Brendan Cummins, Damien Fitzhenry, Ger Cunningham.
d) It’s just a bit of craic. Get yourself a shandy and a packet of scampi fries and let’s have at it.
1. Seamus Callanan (Tipperary)
There’s a scene at the start of the admittedly pretty poor Jeepers Creepers where the beaten up truck of the evil protagonist starts haring down the road after the young innocent hapless couple. I remember the first time I saw that and it scared the bejayzus out of me. That’s the closest I can get to the feeling a keeper must feel when Seamie Callanan rounds your full back and is heading straight for you, the inevitability of defeat about to mow you down. The guy is very close to unstoppable and to man, the most lethal weapon on a hurling field today.
2. Richie Hogan (Kilkenny)
My Dad had a certain tool in the bottom drawer in the kitchen (still has) that seemed to have almost unlimited purpose. It solved domestic calamities ranging from leaking taps to broken windows, shaky cupboard doors and fidgety children who wouldn’t do their homework. I’m pretty sure this is how Brian Cody feels about Hogan. A coach I greatly respect once told me “Every team needs a fireman. Whatever is on fire, you send that guy to put it out.” Hogan is Cody’s fireman, he has fulfilled so many different roles from wing back, midfielder, sweeper, centre forward, corner forward, all with distinction. “ We all dream of a team of Richie Hogans ….”
3. Austin Gleeson (Waterford)
Gleeson is a hurler made for the modern era. Not in his athleticism, or his long distance striking. He had mastered the sideline cut, and every time he sets the sliotar down on the sideline, you stand up and watch. Have a look at this one from outside the ’65, in something we like to call the Munster Final . There would be worse uses to Sky Gaa’s NASA like treasure trove of equipment than to put every Gleeson cut in super slow motion. There is a real joy in the way Gleeson plays and he has made a transition from an apparent entrapment at number 6 (Although Derek McGrath will fight you over that) to a wonderful two game stretch that unfortunately ended in the All Ireland Semi-Final defeat to Kilkenny. He has put distance between himself and his own fabulously talented colleagues, and fully deserved Hurler of the Year. In doing so, he continues a bizarre Waterford lineage of Tony Browne and Dan Shanahan in being the only Hurler of the Year recipients who did not win the All-Ireland in that year.
4. TJ Reid (Kilkenny)
49 points in five matches in an off year for TJ. My brother in law, a sports fanatic bookie from Kerry once quipped that having TJ on the team was an unfair advantage to Kilkenny, and they should only be allowed to use him for twenty minutes a game. Reid’s fielding, speed and ability to win primary possession would make him a dream addition to any team. He has mastered the skill of the low flying placed ball which like Gleeson’s sideline cut, is the result of maniacal practice and singular focus. He has inherited the leadership of the forward line from Shefflin, and is a fitting heir to that role.
A few years back we visited Ballyhale, Shefflin said simply of Reid: “He’s next.”
5. Paudie Maher (Tipperary)
The most over-qualified wing back of all time. In the Munster club hurling final, Tony Kelly of Ballyea gave an absolute exhibition to propel the small Clare side into the All-Ireland club series (I may or may not have a small wager placed with afore-mention brother-in-law regarding their progression). If not for that, we would have been talking about Paudie Maher and his wrecking ball of a performance. He has a stature and physique that make him look other-worldly. Imagine if Ronaldo shows up to your Tuesday night kick about at the 3G. That’s how different he looks in that ill-fitting club jersey. It might be Patrick ‘Bonnar’ who is a member of Defence Forces, currently serving a tour in Syria, but if I was going to war, I would take Paudie.
6. Walter Walsh (Kilkenny)
We all thought this was one too far. Brian Cody, thinking he’s smarter than everyone else, trying to teach a lesson to the bench, starting this guy Walter no-one outside of Nowlan Park had heard of in the All-Ireland Final reply. Oh, we couldn’t wait to rub it in Cody’s face. Then the guy goes on and wins man of the match. Dammit! Walsh has now developed into a mixture of a half forward and a Brinks truck.
I’d rather sleep in a wet puddle for a week than take a full drive of a shoulder off this fella.
He’s a pure beast and I’d rather sleep in a wet puddle for a week than take a full drive of a shoulder off this fella. He’s capable of little bits of magic that you almost don’t think are possible. He perhaps has not shown the consistency that is almost expected of a Kilkenny senior, but I would see him being snapped up in a transfer scenario pretty quickly. He has such strength in the upper body he can take points from all over the park, on the run and off-balance.
7. Lee Chin (Wexford)
Talking of physical specimens, Chin has gone from being in the news for being the subject of some lazy and hateful racism, to being one of the most impressive athletes playing the game. There are tall hurlers, (Darragh Conan, Clare), there are fast hurlers (Jamie Barron, Waterford), there are strong hurlers( Maher, Walsh, Seamus Dowling Limerick), but I can’t recall a hurler who had a better combination of these three attributes than Chin. He is incredibly nimble and agile for a hurler of his size and has supreme talent to match. The fact that he has three managers from the hurling and Gaelic teams as well as Wexford Youths calling for his services, tells its own story.
It comes as no surprise at all to hear that he is headed to Canada for the newest edition of the Toughest Trade. I’d say he will make mincemeat of those hockey lads.
8. Noel McGrath (Tipperary)
Another forward, but given the opportunity, would you turn McGrath down? In 2010 Lar Corbett did what no-one else had done in an All-Ireland Final, get away from JJ Delaney. He also managed to score a hat trick! The second of the three famously featured Tommy Walsh’s hurler, flying through the air as a symbol of desperation. Just before that McGrath gave a wonderful pass, over his shoulder into the path of Corbett. It is McGrath’s beautiful mind that makes him so dangerous, and in Eamonn O’Shea they had a manager who allowed these immensely talented hurlers to express themselves and display their talent. After a recovery from testicular cancer at just 26 years of age, he will be torturing full back lines for many years to come I hope.
9. Brendan Maher (Tipperary)
Another Tipp player I know, but I can’t imagine a scenario where Brendy Maher isn’t picked in the top ten, particularly after the year he just had. Unfortunately Maher was also involved in the most disappointing episode of the tantalising Toughest Trade series yet. In a huge build-up (it’s a TV show after all) Maher trains with the Big Bash League side Adelaide Strikers, and is all set in my mind, to take the crease at half time, Cumann na mBunscoil style, and face a few bouncers from one of the big boys, with a baying crowd of half stoned aussies cheering on. Instead, as the stewards were clearing out the over served patrons who had fallen asleep under the seats and lifting up the plastic glasses, out comes Maher. The superb performance given is the effort from the film crew to create angles and drama, and make the 15 people watching look like 15,000. It was the poorest finale yet to a trade. The finale to Brendan’s 2016 season however, was to lift Liam McCarthy. Now, he did forget to mention the management team in the speech, but all is forgiven when you lead from the front and dominate your position like he did.
10. Joe Canning (Galway)
Demarcus ‘Boogie’ Cousins is one the most gifted players in the NBA and is one of the new breed of ‘big men’ who can play facing the basket, cross you up and shoot the 3 ball . The other night against a good young Philadelphia team, he had 46 points, 15 rebounds and five assists. For those of you who don’t know basketball, that’s rather good. He also has the reputation of being a coach killer, temperamental, and a nightmare of a team mate. I’m not saying Joe Canning is any of that, but he will more than likely like Cousins, go down in history as one of the more talented players in the history of the game never to win a championship. He and Cousins are that mercurial talent, the frustrating genius every coach thinks they could fix. He is also someone that will sell tickets and shirts by the bucket load, and a player twenty managers/secretaries would drive to Portumna with their dinner on the table for, if they thought they could get him to sign for them.
Canning was prodigious in his talent and his youtube compilations would make Zlatan Ibrahimović stand up and applaud. One of my favourites is his behind the back handpass. I remember taking training the next Tuesday, and half of my U-14 team were putting their shoulders out of joint, trying these ridiculous handpasses. Canning connects to the young player in a sincere way, and his heartfelt tribute to Davy Fitzgerald this year after his heart trouble was a sobering reminder that we are spectators, they are the players, and it really is just a game. Maybe it doesn’t matter that Joe will never lift the McCarthy, but we all will die wondering what happened in that dressing room at half time in 2015. Or maybe we’ll have to buy Anthony Cunningham’s book.
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At 2,500 words I decided to call it a day. There will be a follow up appendix of honourable mentions I would include in my team.
