GAELIC SPORTS WORLD Issue 20 – February 22, 2015 | Page 44

ENTERTAINING
LEAGUE OPENER
BY DENIS O’BRIEN
FEBRUARY 18, 2015
The National Hurling League got underway last weekend and
as has been the norm for the past number of years this competition continues to be as vibrant and as entertaining as ever.
As the sister column on Ireland Football noted last time
when talking about the football league, there is a tendency by
almost bemused team managers to read nothing into losses
with sayings like ‘you don’t win anything in February’ underlying post-game comments. Every game that is lost has an effect on everything else, especially in the league, with valuable
points up for grabs, and any loss either in February or April is
a loss. Indeed a loss in February could be a spur to a win. So,
most definitely losses in February cannot be discounted and
affects results and confidence.
Of course teams recover from early league losses like Kilkenny’s in 2013 and last year before going on to win both titles.
Kilkenny manager Brian Cody usually describes losses with a
no excuse policy saying the best team won, period. Some managers have a tendency to say we didn’t play well – subjective
viewpoint – but another consideration is that the other team
was better because they didn’t allow you to play well, period.
The latter notion is lost on some managers. They will say ‘they
were better’ but accompanied with that there often is an unsaid
notion that ‘they were better because we didn’t play well.’

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After opening losses last weekend to Kilkenny and Dublin respectively, Cork and Tipperary were shock full of
similar musings ‘they were better’, ‘we didn’t play well’,
with Cork offering possibly less excuses. Dublin, beaten
comprehensively by Tipp in the 2014 All Ireland Quarter Final, this time under new manager Ger Cunningham,
wiped the floor of Tipperary by 2-20 to 0-14 at Parnell
Park.
DUBLIN IMPRESS
Dublin made a host of positional switches to past manager Anthony Daly’s team template – Michael Carton from
half-back to full back, Peter Kelly to centre back, Conal
Keaney from attack to wing back, Liam Rushe from centre back to full forward, and Danny Sutcliffe from halfforward to midfield. Along with these league debutant 6’5
Chris Crummy was positioned at right half back [