Ireland's Golden Generation

 

After Irelands dismal result in the Six Nations it can now be said without a doubt that Irelands Golden Generation of rugby stars have definitely underachieved on the international stage. 

Brian O’Driscoll, Paul O’Connell, Gordon Darcy, Ronan O’Gara, Peter Stringer, John Hayes, and all the rest of the big names that have won caps for Ireland in the last ten years or so will go down in the annals of Irish rugby as one of the greatest collection of players ever to don the green jersey. The heroics performed, at their respective clubs has ensured that Leinster and Munster are feared across the rugby playing nations of Europe. Heineken cups and Celtic league titles have been brought home to Ireland with thanks to their endeavours. But at an international level they have undoubtedly failed to live up to their potential.

Ok they have won four Triple Crowns since 2004 and the Holy Grail of rugby the 2009 Grand Slam but considering that Wales have won four Championships and three Grand Slams in the same length of time really puts it in to perspective. The question that has to be asked is how a collection of players who have repeatedly been so successful over the relative same group of players at club suddenly come a cropper at International level. Welsh club rugby cannot touch the Irish game at club level yet this same group of players can go out and perform heroics in the red jersey repeatedly. What is it that has left its mark on the Irish psyche that whenever we get into a position that looks as if we are about to push through and dominate a tournament we suddenly fall apart. It cannot just be bad luck the amount of times they have come close to winning championships only to fall apart against lesser teams who have gleefully punished our team while up and down the country grown men and women have sobbed into their pints. 

What I am trying to get to is that this has been a wasted opportunity and the blame cannot solely lie at the feet of the players. Was it the coach’s fault? Eddie O’Sullivan failed to win the championship but was such a widely respected coach that at one stage he had been touted for the Lions job. Declan Kidney took over the reins and immediately brought about our second only Grand Slam in 2009 and apart from a win against Australia in 2011 did little else. The excuse that has done the rounds for years was that Ireland had a small pool of players and that it was very hard to compete against bigger nations with larger pools of players. Yet for the last two years running Wales have emerged victorious as champions with a much smaller rugby population. 

According to the IRB Annual Review 2012 Wales have a rugby playing population of 66,114 while Ireland has 155,244. Yet even hampered by a smaller playing pool the Welsh RFU have still managed to be extremely successful. If you add in the World Cup record to the Six Nations exploits then the stark reality of the Irish short comings comes more in to view. 

Questions that have been brought sharply into focus - especially after this year’s tournament- regarding player development, management, strength, fitness and conditioning will have to be looked at more closely. The harsh reality is that great players such as Ronan O’Gara and Brian O’Driscoll will be retiring from international rugby with just one championship medal and that is such a waste. We will wait a long time to see their like again and anybody who has not seen them play in the flesh has no idea of what they have missed out. I was in Cardiff that night we won the Grand Slam and through a drunken haze I remember saying to my wife that if Ireland were to never win it again I was happy at least to see this one. Unfortunately I did not for one second think that they would fail to push on and reach those heights again.

Galways triumph

 On what was another weekend of sport the biggest highlight has got to be Galway’s beating of Kilkenny in the Leinster final. 

Actually beating the Cats is a rarity and something to be proud of but it was the manner of the victory that truly surprised everyone. The Tribesmen went out and really stuck it to the Cats, they out Kilkenny-ied Kilkenny if you get my drift. As has been the case every time we have watched Kilkenny in the last few years they have always started in top gear, brushing aside the opposition as if they were not even there. Clocking up a score line and physically draining their opponents in such a way as to leave them shattered and drained. But this time around Galway were the ones who came out firing on all cylinders. In an opening half performance that was one of the finest to grace this years or any year’s championship, Galway were simply unstoppable. They harried and harassed the Cats in every corner of Croke Park’s spacious field. Their forwards were led superbly by Joe Canning who strode around the park like a legendary hero of old, plucking the sliotar from the sky and gracefully blasting over and under the bar on one occasion. David Burke has signalled his intention of becoming a star of the future, Damien Hayes showed why he was awarded an All Star in times gone by and someone will have to check Richie Power’s fillings after he was juggernauted by Johnny “I’m going through ya” Coen. In fact I could name nearly the entire Galway team such was the level of the performance that Anthony Cunningham got out of his players.

In the end Galway ran out winners on a ten point margin. They became the first team to win the Leinster Championship and not actually be from that province. Winning a provincial and not actually being from that province did not seem to matter to the Galway hurlers or supporters yesterday who celebrated wildly at the final whistle. And well they might, what they did to Kilkenny was truly extraordinary and the hope is now that they will push on for further glory. The problem with the back door set up is that they will have to skin the Cats again or hope that someone else will do them a favour. It really has thrown the cat amongst the pigeons to quote a horrible pun, as now some team on the other side of the draw are going to have to face Kilkenny sooner than expected. 

The problem for Galway now is that they are going to be sitting around for some time with nothing to do. Granted they have one game left to an All-Ireland but Anthony Cunningham is going to have his hands full keeping those busy till that semi-final. 

The summer is blown open though and it is just what the hurling series needed as it was getting tiring watching Kilkenny dominate in the fashion that they have the last ten years or so. Don’t get me wrong I love Kilkenny’s style and I am fully aware when watching them that they are the greatest collection of hurlers of any age but  at the risk of sounding  like every  true Irish man I loved seeing them being dragged down a peg or two. Brian Cody was ever gracious in defeat as a true legend of a man that he is but you know that the next team to face Kilkenny are in for it, they are going to get an awful hiding as the Cats claws will be out and well sharpened.

The little man versus the mob – Irelands two soccer cultures

Is the FAI doing enough to develop football in this country or are they more interested in getting farcical frankly embarrassing awards from UEFA for being “Number 1” fans? Or maybe it's the fans fault?

At the moment Irish football is a complete mess. We were the first team knocked out of a tournament that, let’s face it, was hopelessly out of our league. We lost another League of Ireland team in Monaghan United which has been happening at a rate of a team a year for the last five years. For a country which has won an award for being the “best supporters” this smacks of unreality. We have a domestic soccer league in this country that is totally ignored by the majority of football supporters within this country. Yet we had 30,000 to 35,000 supporters travel to the far side of Europe to watch our national team get absolutely humiliated. The old sour argument from LoI fans is that the “barstoolers” will only come out when their local team is doing well or in Europe or has some glamour friendly against an English or Scottish club is tiring at this stage. But how fans of the national team can ignore local football is kind of baffling also. 

Domestic football supporters have a kind of elitist, holier than thou, siege mentality which at times can be fairly arrogant and ignorant. There seems to be a total disregard bordering on outright hatred of anybody who dares to have anything to do with the GAA for example. Now I am not saying that this is the same everywhere but in my home town of Sligo this is very true. There is a so called hard-core element within the clubs fan base who has traditionally hated the GAA. Eamonn Sweeney in his book “There’s only one Red Army” remembers standing in the old shed end in the Showgrounds and hearing the home support cheering when it was announced that Sligo had lost a football match. I remember this myself. Nowadays it’s not as bad as that but there are some elements within the league that look down their noses at “Bog Ball” and anybody who plays or is involved in it. The other side of it is, that I have had heated and pointless debates with complete fools who run down the domestic league yet at the same time have never been to a game.

But everyone’s opinion is sacred (thank you democracy) so I left that poor uneducated individual alone. What we are left with is arguing and pointless debates between two groups. One group is like an angry little man trying to out shout the mob, desperately trying to draw the public’s attention to a thing of beauty that is sitting on our door-step. He is always up to fight his corner and has endless points and arguments to show how right he is and how wrong the other man is. The other man is not as stupid as he looks, he loves beauty but in truth he sometimes does not even know that he is in an argument and in fairness most of the time he couldn’t care less.

What is needed is leadership. The FAI is letting football down and therefore the nation down in this regard. There is space for all the national sports in Ireland. As a country and culture we have changed. Due to economic, educational and health reasons Irish people have suddenly started taking care of their health. Running has suddenly taken off in the country. You cannot drive down a country road anymore without bumping into some athletic event whether it’s triathlon, duathlon or just a plain five or ten km race. There is enthusiasm for sport there and this needs to be tapped into and harnessed by the FAI.

This is a bit of a rant and in fairness I am not offering any solutions so I will leave that for my next post but I will leave you with a statistic that was mentioned in an article by Peter Staunton on Goal.com. In it he said that Ireland had an average attendance of 43,000 in the qualifying campaign for the Euros. If even half that number went to a League of Ireland match every two  weeks at €15 a head than it would mean nearly an extra €5 million for Irish football. This money would go a long way to help develop players like Kevin Doyle, Shane Long, Stephen Ward, James McClean and Seamus Coleman to name just a few.

Ireland's Footballing Future

 

 

 In what has been Ireland’s worst performance in an international tournament in forty years there will be a load of blogs, articles and comments blasting Trap, the players, the system and the FAI. But rather than go down the easy route and joining in the chorus of negativity I have decided to look forward with a bit of positivity. I am going to take a leaf out of Eamon Dunphy’s book and take this opportunity to look forward to the future. We have a chance now to issue in a new exciting generation of Irish players. 

So here are Irish players that I believe will be fighting for a place on the Ireland team of the future.

In goals is one position where we are not overburdened with choice.  And although Poland/ Ukraine was not his greatest hour I do believe that Shay Given still has something to offer Ireland. Shay may be getting on but he still a top class goalkeeper and can help ease the handover of the gloves to the next man. Kieran Westwood looks likely to be that man if he can get out of the shadow Simon Mignolet at Sunderland. David Forde of Millwall is looking likely to be the second choice but will be pushed hard by Portsmouth’s Stephen Henderson. Either of these three could be the number one for Ireland so it will be interesting to see who will step forward.

Across the back there are a number of players who I could see filling roles. Marc Tierney for Norwich had an excellent season last year and it will be good to see how he gets on this year. Tierney plays left back but has been known to fill in at centre back. Greg Cunningham, Ciaran Clarke, and Shane Duffy have been talked up for a few years now so this upcoming World Cup qualifying campaign will be a great opportunity to blood all three. From the current squad players like Sean st Ledger, Kevin Foley and John O’Shea would offer experience and good cover if needed. Marc Wilson who seemed to fall foul of the present management is a decent player who is a great option at left back and should be integrated into the squad. 

Midfield is an area where Ireland have had problems in the past but looking closer there are some seriously exciting and talented players who would be more than at home on the international stage. Dunphy mentioned two other Norwich players Wes Hoolahan and Anthony Pilkington as potential stars for Ireland in the future. The stats this year for the much lauded rising star of Irish football, James McClean, were that he played twenty three premier league games scored six goals and set up five. Pilkington played thirty games, scored eight goals and set up one. Hoolahan played thirty three games, scored five goals and had eight assists. The three mentioned players were far and beyond the best performing Irish players in the Premier League last year. With established players such as Keith Fahy, Darren Gibson and Aidan McGeady coupled with real potential in youngsters such as David Meyler, Jamie McCarthy, Seamus Coleman and Manchester United’s rising star, Robbie Brady; Ireland actually have seriously top-class players who will be competing for places. I would still love to add Stephen Ireland’s name to this list simply because he is a quality player.

Up front Jon Walters has shown that he has a lot to offer. Long, Doyle and Cox have still got a lot of goals in them and would offer significant competition for places. If Leon Best could shake off his injury problems then he could be a real presence for us up front as he is the type of skilled target man that Ireland has missed for numerous years. 

The future is exciting. We do have a generation of players coming through to the senior squad that could offer us entertainment and memories for years to come. Qualification for major tournaments is a realistic achievement. These lads I have mentioned are skilful, exciting, energetic and eager. I can honestly say that I believe we are on the cusp of what might be a very significant time for Irish football. 

The question to be asked now is in what direction are we going to head.

You'll Never Beat The Irish!

Loyalty in sport and in life is very important. Loyalty in its simplest form is what keeps people together through the many testing situations that life can throw at you. In sport loyalty is shown through the fan who will stick with a team no matter what, whether they are winning or losing. To those hard-core fans loyalty and love is the same thing.

 

Tonight in Gdansk we witnessed loyalty on a scale not seen very often anywhere never mind in sport. The Irish fans that had kicked the recession in the teeth to travel to cheer on the boys in green stood and sung their hearts out for the love of their team. At home, watching on TV, it was the one that thing kept drawing me back to the screen and away from the comments on Facebook and Twitter. The singing was loud and amazing.  Those Irish fans over there were going to enjoy themselves but at the same time they were letting their team, and the whole world know, that they were backing Ireland to the last.

It makes you feel proud to be Irish because of that never say die attitude. The chant of You’ll Never Beat The Irish incorporates this more than anything. It must bewildering and frustrating for people from other nations when they hear the Irish fans chanting this, especially after getting hammered so badly as we did tonight.  We as a nation love success but we absolutely revel in the taking of a beating and to stay standing.  We just love getting a hiding so that we can say to our enemies “is that the best ye got?” More often than not they look at us and go off shaking their heads, muttering “crazy Irish.” There will be boys tonight in Gdansk who will shed more than a tear or two for dear ould Eire but they will be the ones who will jump up and sing loudest, when you least expect it, a verse from The Green Fields of France that everyone else had forgotten. In truth everyone had not even realised that your man was still awake. 

The fact is that the Irish are a very loyal people and that loyalty is even more prevalent when we are down. That is when a strange sense of Irishness comes out. We love these lads even more because they got a 4-0 hammering. But unfortunately the truth is that this was the worst Irish performance ever in a major tournament. We have not lost this badly in years. The players were outclassed, ill-prepared and made to look tactically foolish. 

Trapattoni has a lot of questions to answer but will the FAI be brave enough to ask those questions.

Tonight and in fact the whole Irish trip has belonged to the fans. Thanks to social networking sites and other online magazine sites we have never before been as close to the Green Army on Tour as we have been for this tournament. The various antics and craic is shared nearly instantaneously with the eager public back home. Everything from the various flags, costumes and songs to Eamonn Keegans “don’t tell me mammy” Croat breast adventure. The list goes on and the posts that I have seen are really making me feel part of the experience. One that sticks out is the Thai kids singing Rocky Road to Poland, seemingly there is a back story to this which if true is just heart-breaking.

The final game against Italy on Monday is irrelevant so in true Irish fashion we will probably go out and win that one. Irish fans and people have a lot to be proud of so right now we should just enjoy what is left of the experience. Like one of the grumpy old men on RTE said none of our neighbours apart from Engerland have managed to qualify for a major tournament in over a decade and half. So we should be proud of our accomplishment in that sense. So get your flags out, don the green garments, turn up the TV sing out loud and sing out proud one last time YOU’LL NEVER BEAT THE IRISH!

#COYBIG!