OKAY, SO WEXFORD lost and that first half was appalling but for a side that have been to an All Ireland semi-final and a Leinster final in recent years, there are more important things than a Division Three crown.
Besides, they head for the championship with Division Two football ahead of them and that was the major aim of this springtime. On top of that, the second half here involved glimpses of what we knew this side were capable of and all that meant Jason Ryan meandered into the press room in Croke Park with a cheeky smile and without anything bordering on a hoarse voice. They lost, but so be it.
“Longford defended well in the first half, and our decisions on the ball just weren’t up to scratch,” he said explaining away a two-point defeat, having trailed deservedly by 10 midway through. “We gave away too much possession. We absolutely dominated kick-outs, we won more than three-quarters of them in that opening 35 minutes, but we were making bad use of it. Just bad decision-making on the field. That’s disappointing, but it wasn’t a case of trying to understand what was wrong because that was blatantly obvious, it was just giving away cheap ball. If we improved that in the second half we were always going to do better.”
And they did. Much better. So much so that they might have stolen an unlikely win in the dying moments. But even in defeat there were other reasons behind the poor performance that explained away that opening 35 minutes, including knocks to key players who were obviously struggling throughout.
“We gave Davidl Murphy and Ben Brosnan every opportunity and they had a fitness test this morning and came through it with flying colours. But lack of training the last week showed but the two of them will be ready and raring to go come the championship in June. Besides, we only played half a bad league final. If we had played mediocre for the whole game, we’d be very worried but we had one positive half where our heads didn’t drop and at least people who paid in had some value for money in the second half.”
Brosnan and Murphy were two of the biggest reasons this game got away from them in the opening half. The playmaker suffered with poor ball striking and never dictated the game as he did so often last championship. Meanwhile Murphy the captain failed to hold the line at six as Longford were direct and scored easily throughout that opening period.
“But at least the substitutions made a difference, the guys that came on were hungry and they ran at them,” added Ryan. “We got clean ball but we were more direct too and that paid off. As a team there was greater intensity. We were more determined, we gave away less than half the ball that we gave away in the first half. That went from over 20 turnovers to 10 I think.
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“It’s still a knock every time you lose but the plus is we lost because we didn’t play as well as we were capable of. That’s not taking away from Longford, they might have won had we played as well as we could. But we can go away and say, ‘Look, we were sub-standard in the first half’ and we can rectify that. The lads will be disappointed but they’ve club hurling championship the next couple of weekends and that will take their minds off of this but you’d hope as a group they’ll learn from this defeat and we’ll be back stronger.”
Looking at the various test series across both rugby union and league that have been on over the last month (IRE v AB, State of Origin, AU vs ENG etc) in at least every game there have been HIA’s that have ruled out players.
The players are getting bigger, stronger, faster and as such the collisions are too.
The ruling bodies across both codes need to do more for player in-game protection and need to be honest and truthful about long term player health.
The NFL still deny that CTE is caused by the game even with the black and white research that has proven this is the case – Rugby should not take the same path.
@Rian Smith: agree maybe the players should have to wear some kinda of head gear. Some of the hits in Rugby is frightening now. Some worse than any boxing bunches.
@Michael Dowling: Head gear would actually make the problem worse. The brain floats around inside the skull and when there is a collision, it’s the brain crashing into the skull that is actually causing the damage. Head gear wouldn’t stop that from happening, nothing can, but head gear would reduce exterior damage to the head which would probably result in players making even bigger hits with their heads. Take some of the NFL hits for example. There’s no way those guys would lead so forcefully with the head if they weren’t wearing helmets. It’s that internal brain trauma that’s the problem though.
The only way they are going to combat brain injuries is to reduce head contacts.
@Michael Dowling: helmets only prevent damage to the skull. High tackles are more likely to increase whiplash motion of the head, which rocks the brain, and contributes the accumulation of sub-concussive impacts that are thought to cause CTE. That is why World Rugby are cracking down on “accidental” high tackles. The head and neck area needs to be completely off limits. For the game to manage this and survive, they will actually need to become even more strict about it.
Frightening. God love the poor man. People will say it’s not the right time to discuss the matter, but it really is. Watching Test rugby is scary and it’s getting harder to watch all the time. These guys are like crash test dummies and it’s hard to believe that this is not just the tip of the iceberg. I bet everything he achieved in a great career feels pretty empty now.
@Brian Murphy: the right time to discuss this was when the game turned professional. The next best time was when they found out about CTE was a serious concern in rugby, but rugby needs to find a way to take the collisions out. Rugby used to be a game of evasion, and the rules need to change to reflect that.
@Joseph Blocks: I meant in the comments section of such a sad story. I think your sentiments go without saying and I couldnt agree more. Train wreck coming down the tracks.
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That’s just frightening. The poor man and his family
Terrifying and sad. It makes you wonder what other names we’ll hear about in the next 5-10 years.
Awful to hear for him and his family. So young to get this dreadful disease.
Looking at the various test series across both rugby union and league that have been on over the last month (IRE v AB, State of Origin, AU vs ENG etc) in at least every game there have been HIA’s that have ruled out players.
The players are getting bigger, stronger, faster and as such the collisions are too.
The ruling bodies across both codes need to do more for player in-game protection and need to be honest and truthful about long term player health.
The NFL still deny that CTE is caused by the game even with the black and white research that has proven this is the case – Rugby should not take the same path.
@Rian Smith: agree maybe the players should have to wear some kinda of head gear. Some of the hits in Rugby is frightening now. Some worse than any boxing bunches.
@Michael Dowling: Head gear would actually make the problem worse. The brain floats around inside the skull and when there is a collision, it’s the brain crashing into the skull that is actually causing the damage. Head gear wouldn’t stop that from happening, nothing can, but head gear would reduce exterior damage to the head which would probably result in players making even bigger hits with their heads. Take some of the NFL hits for example. There’s no way those guys would lead so forcefully with the head if they weren’t wearing helmets. It’s that internal brain trauma that’s the problem though.
The only way they are going to combat brain injuries is to reduce head contacts.
@Michael Dowling: helmets only prevent damage to the skull. High tackles are more likely to increase whiplash motion of the head, which rocks the brain, and contributes the accumulation of sub-concussive impacts that are thought to cause CTE. That is why World Rugby are cracking down on “accidental” high tackles. The head and neck area needs to be completely off limits. For the game to manage this and survive, they will actually need to become even more strict about it.
Horrific. My thoughts are with him.
Frightening. God love the poor man. People will say it’s not the right time to discuss the matter, but it really is. Watching Test rugby is scary and it’s getting harder to watch all the time. These guys are like crash test dummies and it’s hard to believe that this is not just the tip of the iceberg. I bet everything he achieved in a great career feels pretty empty now.
@Brian Murphy: the right time to discuss this was when the game turned professional. The next best time was when they found out about CTE was a serious concern in rugby, but rugby needs to find a way to take the collisions out. Rugby used to be a game of evasion, and the rules need to change to reflect that.
@Joseph Blocks: I meant in the comments section of such a sad story. I think your sentiments go without saying and I couldnt agree more. Train wreck coming down the tracks.