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Hurling is a very interesting sport, and it’s very surprising that it hasn’t caught on more in countries outside of Ireland.
It is described as both the fastest and oldest sport in the world, with origins literally dating back to prehistory, but it’s still confined only to Ireland.
Until a couple of weekends ago that was.
In Sydney on Sunday, November 11, Spotless Stadium played host to the first international match of top flight hurling ever, named the Wild Geese Trophy – between Galway (the 2017 All-Ireland Champions) and Kilkenny (The most successful county, 36 times All-Ireland winners).
With the All-Ireland Hurling Championship being number two on CNN’s top 10 sporting events you have to see live, the chance to check out an actual live version of this sport couldn’t be passed up.
It certainly is a fast sport, the play can move from one end of the field to the other in an instant.
At one point, the Galway goalkeeper even managed to score a point from the other end of the field, although the reaction of the crowd made it clear that this was not a common event.
As for being the oldest sport, while its roots may be in prehistory, the current version was codified in 1887, as part of a peculiarly Irish form of political protest against English rule – organised sport.
The main object of the sport, is naturally to get the ball (sliotar) through the goals. There is one point for getting over the crossbar, and three for getting it into the net.
The sliotar may be caught on the full, but never picked off the ground, and must never be thrown. It can also only be carried a few metres when being held. This is where the stick, or hurley, comes into play.
The hurley must be used to pick the sliotar up off the ground, is used to dispose of the sliotar by hitting it, and the sliotar can be carried as far as you like on the hurley. The sliotar may also be ‘handpassed’, by throwing it and hitting it with an open palm.
The rules on contact are a bit less clear. Certainly full blown tackling is out, but bumping seems to be perfectly legitimate.
As for the game itself, the atmosphere was actually quite impressive. It was quite a warm, sunny afternoon, and the game was played in the middle of an oval, so the crowd was further away than it probably should have been, but still they were into the game.
But this certainly didn’t feel like a summers’ afternoon in the counties of Ireland. The hot sun, and the serving of alcohol from 11am until the match start at 3pm, certainly helped the atmosphere build throughout the afternoon.
Having a curtain raiser between the Victorian and NSW representative teams also did nothing to diminish the building atmosphere, and also helped those unfamiliar with the game get some handle of the rules.
While this was a one-off, it was also a lesson on how to organise a sporting event that people can actually turn up to. Curtain raisers, and other, relevant, pre-game entertainment can be used effectively to both create an atmosphere and increase the excitement of any sporting event.
Galway and Kilkenny, it turns out, are quite fierce rivals. Certainly there was feeling in the match, a couple of fights and scuffles broke out between players while the contest was very even.
Kilkenny got out to an early lead, and was well ahead at half-time, but in the second half Galway slowly fought back, even taking the lead in the late stages, to the chorus of “Fields of Athenry” from the Galway fans.
Kilkenny was not done with, and retook the lead with a goal as the clock stopped on 70 minutes. I still don’t know what the deal with injury time is in hurling, but the game continued, and Galway came back with another goal shortly after, levelling the scores.
But still the game did not end, and Kilkenny had one last chance to win, but a shot from far away missed and the full time whistle was blown. The final score being Galway: 4-23: 35 to Kilkenny: 3-26: 35.
However, a draw was not going to satisfy anyone, so the hurling version of a penalty shoot out was begun. Each team chose five players to shoot from 65 yards, with the sliotar having to go above the crossbar. Galway eventually won 4-3.
From a quick Wikipedia reading, it doesn’t appear this is the normal way to resolve a draw, so there was a bit of confusion.
And so the match ended, slightly anticlimactically, but you can’t have everything. Despite the game definitely only being an exhibition match, the Galway fans were clearly delighted, as strains of ‘Fields of Athenry’ could be heard from Olympic Park to the pubs in The Rocks throughout the night.
The initiative to bring the game to Australia was a fantastic one by the Gaelic Athletic Association, and if the exhibition was to become a regular feature, in all different cities of Australia, then that could only be a good thing, for both Irish expats, and Australians looking for new, interesting sports to follow.
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