As a subscriber to the Irish News, you had the opportunity to ask questions of our award winning sports team.
They took questions on soccer, hurling, the new GAA rules and boxing. Here’s how they responded.
Is the former Larne manager Tiernan Lynch the right man to lead Derry City and are they the right club for him?
Brendan Crossan: Anything can happen in football management and every appointment a club makes is effectively a punt - but Tiernan Lynch certainly looks a good fit for Derry City and they look a good fit for him.
This opportunity has come at the right time for the north Belfast native as he’d achieved all he could at Larne.
A lot has been made of the investment local businessman Kenny Bruce ploughed into Larne FC – but other Irish League clubs have done the same and failed.
Larne got it right on and off the pitch. Bruce took a punt on Lynch – a rookie manager back in 2017 – and was repaid handsomely with two Irish Premiership titles a host of domestic silverware, qualification for the group stages of European football and a style of football that was pleasing on the eye.
In seven years at Inver Park, Lynch has evolved as a manager and coach. He’s adapted and found other ways to win football matches than simply relying on a purist philosophy.
That shows growth.
What have Derry City hired? A very canny operator, a student of the game, who wants his teams to make the headlines rather than his media briefings. His elder brother Seamus is undoubtedly key figure too.
There is huge expectation at Derry City – a club that expects to be challenging for the league title next season given the way they fell away in the run-in that saw Shelbourne finish top. So, there is no honeymoon period for Lynch.
He will need to get to grips very quickly with nuances of the southern league and, as with all managers, his success in the role will largely depend on player recruitment.
Would you agree that hurling is treated as the poor relation in Ulster and is there any chance of getting an Ulster championship in the game back up?
Kenny Archer: Yes, and yes. There’s no doubt nor dispute about the first point. Only in Antrim is hurling treated better than football, or certainly regarded better. Hurling literally is the poor relation in the vast majority Ulster counties, receiving far less financial backing and investment than football. You can’t force more people to play hurling, but the Ulster and Central Councils could use their powers to ensure more equitable distribution of funding. More money spent on hurling equipment and coaches is much-needed to raise the levels of the game across Ulster.
As regards the Ulster SHC, Antrim’s involvement in Leinster presents an obvious problem, but the Saffrons could perhaps field a development team. There’s enough interest in the other eight counties. Whether or not the ‘Ulster senior hurling champions’ progress to any national championship doesn’t matter at this stage. Get the games going again and work out teething problems along the way – anything is surely better than nothing.
What GAA rule changes will affect underage and when will they be implemented at underage?
Andy Watters: As GAA Uachtarain Jarlath Burns said, it is a “one step process” and so it is intended that all the rules will be trialled across all sections of the GAA next year including underage level.
However, the ‘Holding Motion’ voted through at last weekend’s Special Congress allowed a exemption until March 31 for counties to comply and also flexibility to modify or restrict the rules for U18 or younger grades.
The new rule governing dissent aimed at referees will be punished at underage level by black-carding the player responsible.
Do fights between the likes of Mike Tyson and Jake Paul do a disservice to the sport?
Neil Loughran: I don’t see it that way, because I don’t consider those kind of bouts part of the sport. They’re a separate entity; a carnival show, more akin to WWE than boxing.
Attaching themselves to genuine world class fights - such as Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano II on the Paul-Tyson show - is a crude attempt to give the main event, and its main character, some legitimacy.
People can watch, and enjoy, what they want. But hopefully most people see these ‘misfit’-type events for what they are.
Are you in favour of payments to county managers?
Cahair O’Kane: It’s not a straightforward topic. I think it’s really important for the GAA to try and retain its sense of amateurism. The more of it that gets lost, the closer the whole thing drifts towards a split into two associations, a professional one and an amateur one. But I also see that the standards expected and demanded by players have turned management, even at club level, into something close to a full-time job. People have bills to pay. Roles in the household have changed. There are not many who can afford to give up the time to manage a team without being paid for it. It’s an unfortunate reality. In principle I’m against it but there has to be realism about it all.
Here’s what was covered in the previous Q&A.
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