WESTSIDE

A brief pause to the inter-county hurling season last weekend allowed everyone draw breath and reflect a bit more calmly on recent developments.

It was a week too when Joe Canning injected some welcome realism into recent controversies. The game hasn’t lost its physicality, he said, and he should know as one who’s taking the hits. High scoring and long-range scores were a reflection of modern skill levels, he suggested. He should be listened to.

For my part I was thinking back to 1984, centenary year of the association. At a West Board banquet in Dundrum House Hotel, held as part of the centenary celebrations, I got drawn into a conversation with two elder statesmen of the time, Mick Ryan (Fox), Clonoulty, and Tom Duggan, Knockavilla.

They were two of the six surviving founder members of the board and they had been team mates when Clonoulty won the first ever West senior hurling championship in 1930. By all accounts they were hardy boys in their day. Then in the twilight of their years they were in reflective mood and not short of opinions on the state of hurling.....

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