All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship 2024 (Munster And Leinster Championships,Liam McCarthy Cup)

Definitely wasn't a joke. Professional sport is, you interview for jobs, you get jobs, and you get paid. Different world. The point is about ambition, never mind anything else. Big difference between living and managing your local sides in an amateur sport v going around the world, changing your sport in the middle of your life, and taking on professional jobs against other professional outfits.
If you don't understand the difference between McGuinness and every other manager in the GAA, I can't help you understand that. You can compare Kiely, another manager with McGuinness, but I don't think Kiely is going to get his UEFA Badges any time soon and enter the world of professional soccer. Kinnerk hasn't even taken on the hotseat in the GAA yet.

McGuinness took a team with one all ireland in their history and won an all ireland - only team to beat Dublin in championship in Gavin's time, I think. That would be like someone taking over London or Laois and winning the all-ireland and beating a team like Limerick with massive budget advantage.

I would consider McGuinness's achievement with Donegal the greatest single achievement in Gaelic Games in my limited time following. So would give him all due credit.

But......…I'd not be sure Donegal winning the 2012 All Ireland was really a longer shot than Limerick winning the hurling in 2018. Donegal were Ulster Champions and All Ireland semi-finalists in 2011. Not a bad starting point. In 2017 Limerick lost to Clare and in Nowlan Park to Kilkenny team that had scored just 1-4 from play in 70+ minutes against Wexford.

I will admit I did know one good judge who could not, for some reason, see beyond Limerick at the start of the 2018 championship so maybe it was my own unlimited heartbreak affecting my thinking.

But McGuinness must get a lot of credit for his achievement. As regards his professional sports life, really and truly getting those positions in sports where he was up against professionals with experience was his achievement and was fair going. Lots of good managers have gotten the boot in professional sports. I wouldn't judge him too harshly on that.

Just after seeing that Clare vs Cork will be on GAA Go, Surely that's the best hurling game of the weekend, Kilkenny and Galway will probably meet again in the Leinster Final and it's very unlikely Tipp beat Limerick. Pity the game likely to be the best is behind the paywall.

Yes, that's a fair comment. From his original starting point McGuinness's All Ireland win is unrivalled.

You just don’t get it

That’s exactly what it feels like alright, a punt.

I suppose if Ryan stuck with relatively the same team and the result wasn’t good he’d be fairly slated, whereas at least he can say he gave the others a chance now.

This match is huge for Cork. A loss and they’ll HAVE to beat Limerick and Tipp which is a brutal ask of them. Clare could lose and quite conceivably beat Tipp and Waterford and still go through pending on the amount of teams on 4 points and then score difference etc. (Obviously if just them and Cork on 4 points then it’s down to H2H).

Should be a great match

A load of Antrim players were off the Antrim panel for most of the league for a host of different reasons. A star player retired. Now, a rake of players have come back into the panel just in the nick of time for championship. That just can't be good for squad morale and for consistency of training and getting the balance of a team right.

Still haven't seen last weeks games. Could only listen to first half of Clare v Limeeick had to head off then.

Can't really comment on either game but it was good to see Waterford win sets things up nicely going forward.

For this weekend interesting Cork have made 6 changes but Ryan had to take action as a lot of anger in Cork after last week. Clare coming off a loss two so two teams desperate for a win. With home advantage i expect Cork to win.

Tipp will be flying fit, fresh and mad for road you'd expect but that's a basic requirement at this level. Hard to see Limerick losing at home to Tipp. As John Doyle once said of a young flying fit Cork team 'they can do all the running, we'll do the hurling'. Do Tipp have the hurling to beat Limerick? No i dont think they do.

I think I read on another forum that this is Gleeson's last year. Not sure if it is true.

I did think that Antrim were doing well and making good strides, but they have regressed.

Wexford for the win.

He's a massive loss. Genuinely would have started for pretty much all senior teams in the country. It was always going to be an issue when he quit.

You could be right on Antrim. Point ahead 5 mins left!

Great game between Antrim and Wexford. A real shame this was not on TV for all to see. Ref had a few strange calls I thought. Great entertainment by both teams though