The Fastest Game on Grass

By Scott MacLean

In the small hours of Monday morning, one of sports great events will take place. But here on the other side of the world it will get barely mention, even when over 80,000 people pack out Dublin’s Croke Park – the fourth largest stadium in Europe behind the Nou Camp, Wembley, and the Bernabeu – for the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final.

Hurling is an ancient game, with references to its origins dating back to the 5^th century, but it wasn’t until the late 1870s and the foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in 1884 that a common set of rules were developed. The object of the game is relatively simple, to score points through the goals that resemble the dual-use posts you’ll find all across New Zealand; one point for over the bar and three for under it for a goal. Scores are represented as “goals then points”, so a scoreline of two goals and 10 points against 18 points would be rendered as “two goals ten to eighteen points”.

The games equipment is iconic. Players are equipped with an axe-shaped stick known as a hurley. Traditionally made of ash, in recent times bamboo has become an alternative as have fibreglass composite “plastic” hurls. The ball is called the sliotar, roughly the same size as a baseball and resembles a tennis ball with the fur pulled off. Made of a cork centre and leather outer it’s traditionally been white, but is switching to highlighter yellow for visibility. With players able to send it more than 100 metres, getting in the way of one at close range certainly stings!

Helmets – with a faceguard – have been compulsory since 2010. Which is remarkable when you see the game being played. There’s no other protection and padding; the only concession made to the goalkeeper is that their hurley can have a larger head (‘bas’) on it. Compared that with a hockey goalie!

The game is fifteen-a-side – the aforementioned goalie, then four lines of three up the pitch with two midfielders in the middle. And the pitch is enormous; Croke Park is 145m long and 90 wide against a rugby field which is 100m long plus the in-goal, and 65m wide.

As for the skills involved, this from Youtube explains it better and more succinctly than I could.

The game is lightning quick, with the sliotar able to go from end to end in just seconds and as a consequence matches at the top level can be high-scoring affairs. But they can be just as brutal too. Legendary Kilkenny manager Brian Cody famously would prepare his teams by playing practice matches where the only times he would blow the whistle would be to start and finish so his charges didn’t come to rely on receiving free strikes for fouls.

Hurling’s stronghold is in the south and west of the island, where it rivals the Catholic Church as the religion of choice. Munster is home to Clare, Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford, with Leinster’s Kilkenny next door and Galway, who are in Connacht but play in the Leinster championship, the traditional powers. Dublin, Wexford, Offaly, and Ulster’s Antrim are other counties who have had their days in sun.

Clare (‘An Clar’) and Cork (‘Corcaigh’) – who ended Limerick’s “drive for five” and a historic fifth successive title – will contest this year’s final, meaning Croke Park will be a sea of The Banner’s (Clare’s) saffron and blue and the Rebels’ (Cork) red and white. Only once in the last six years – the covid-affected 2020 final which was played weeks later than its usual date – has the game failed to produce more than 50 points scored in the 70 minutes so it should be all-action.

I took a crack at the game soon after joining the Wellington GAA in 2009. It’s an incredibly difficult game to master when you haven’t been taught it virtually since birth. I did OK, but being able to accurately strike the sliotar on the run with someone trying to block or dispossess you proved beyond me. So rather than play up front as I have in almost every round-ball sport, I became a spoiler as a defender as a corner-back and from there into goalie where I accumulated quite the collection of welts from using everything to block shots. And I loved it.

This year’s final is available to stream live online as a single game pass, but it inevitably pops up on Youtube within days if not hours. To whet the appetite, here’s last year’s clash between Limerick and Kilkenny.

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