All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship 2023 ( Munster And Leinster Championships,Liam McCarthy Cup)

As good a performance Waterford had on Sunday i think Cork will beat them this weekend. Home match with an extra weeks preperation and freshness i see Cork are 1/2 favs. Moral victories no good for any teams points are badly needed to get out of Munster. I can see Waterford and Clare both on zero points on Sunday evening. It really is an unforgiving environment.

I didn't see the game or watch it yet and maybe this is harsh, but this isn't the first time a Davy team has failed to get over the line against 14 men. So, he should have had a gameplan for that. Now, maybe, Davy did have a gameplan that put put Waterford players in a position, creating chances, to win and the players didn't take the chance. Or maybe it was a case of Kiely and co getting Limerick over the line with a gameplan. But, surely, the onus has to fall on the management with the advantage?

If both games go to form this weekend and two home wins the Waterford v Clare game in Thurles becomes must win for both. The losers would be eliminated and the winner would still have to win their last game. If it's Waterford who win they will play Tipp in Thurles or if it's Clare they play Cork in Ennis in their final game. Both winnable. So a lot may ride on that Waterford v Clare game.

Still won though. Getting over the line, no matter what the circumstances, is it the most important factor in sport?

In Limerick's five Munster championship matches last year i think they were out-pointed twice and had the same points total in Munster final (before it went to extra time). So add that to their first game in this years Munster championship they've only out-pointed the opposition in two of last six championship games. Doesn't stop them winning, though.

Maybe a month. Groin.

You'd imagine there's going to be a lot more reviewed than just this instance:

The GAA's Central Competitions Control Committee [CCCC] will review Séamus Flanagan's collision with Waterford's Stephen Bennett when they meet this week.

RTÉ Sport understands no decision has yet been reached on the incident, which saw the Limerick full-forward make a high challenge late in the first half on the Déise man, his shoulder colliding with Bennett's jaw.

Scientific paper recommends heavier punishment for hits to head in hurling (irishexaminer.com)

A 2023 study into concussion in elite hurling has recommended the GAA take more stringent action against “blind side” hits to the head.

The paper, which was published in the “Irish Journal of Medical Science”, proposed heavier sanctions for the dangerous fouls. It also found impacts to the lateral (side) of the head were 2.7 times more likely to result in visible signs of concussion than those to the anteroposterior areas (front and back).

Analysing 82 inter-county hurling games across 2018 and ‘19, 183 potential concussion events (PCEs) were identified by author Mario Rotundo of Ulster University. Shoulder-to-head impacts produced “visible signs of concussion” in 14 of 37 such cases (37.8%), head-to-head impacts in eight of 23 cases (34.8%) and three of 35 hurley to head cases (8.6%).

In Thurles last Sunday, two hurley strikes to the head, one by Barry Nash and the other by Stephen Bennett, were deemed yellow cards, while referee Liam Gordon adjudged Seamus Flanagan’s late shoulder to Bennett’s head in the first half did not warrant a free or a card, believing it to be accidental in real time.

That challenge occurred just two minutes after Nash had made contact with Bennett’s head. As a result of Gordon addressing the incident at the time, the Central Competitions Control Committee were not in a position to propose a retrospective suspension for Flanagan.

Rotundo’s study concludes “players appear to be at a higher risk of SRC (sport-related concussions) later in the match or when receiving the sliotar.” It adds: “Strikes to the lateral aspect of the head and those involving the shoulder appear to produce severe events. These findings provide initial guidance for the development of targeted player protection strategies.” 

One of them is to hand down heavy sanctions for the blind blows, when the receiving player has a poor view of the imminent challenge or is not able to anticipate it. “The league (GAA) might consider implementing more severe penalties, especially for "blind-side" hits to the lateral aspect of the head, to encourage players to be more deliberate with their tackles.” 

Players, coaches and referees all have a part to play, the study advises. “Players should be taught from an early age that hits to the head, especially from the side on an unsuspecting opponent, can cause severe brain injury.

“Referees might approach high-risk situations with a heightened awareness and have a lower threshold for issuing fouls and cards if necessary. In training, coaches should emphasise ‘heads up’ play and situational awareness, especially when receiving a pass in the centre of the pitch or when carrying the sliotar into the face of the goal.

“The aptly-named “heads up” style of play has been a fixture in ice hockey coaching for many years, which fortunately provides an existing framework that could likely be adapted to hurling.” 

The research revealed shoulder-to-head impacts were 6.5 times more likely to result in a severe PCE than a hurley-to-head contact. “For the purposes of player protection, it is helpful to know that shoulders tend to produce severe PCEs. This raises an important question: are shoulder-to-head impacts more dangerous due to the region of the head that they tend to affect?”