Should clubs have second strips?
Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 5:27 am
I'll start by going off on a tangent, as I tend to do - please bear with me.
I was reading Tom Humphries today, and he mentioned one thing that I never knew - that when Cork and Dublin drew in Croke Park in 1983 in the AI semi final and Cork suggested that the replay should be in Cork, Heffernan just agreed to travel, just like that. I thought it was a great statement from the manager and sure enough it worked out.
It got me thinking about second jerseys for club teams. I know that a lot of clubs don't have them, and a lot of clubs don't like admitting that they do because they might be forced to change more often and thus concede the advantage to the other side. However sometimes this can backfire.
I'm thinking of Coolderry vs Kinnitty in the hurling semi final. Obviously it was the same for both teams, but one Coolderry player said to me - not in any begrudging way, but merely that it didn't help - that he honestly had to take a second to think about which jersey he was looking for every time. Both sides were wearing different types of Offaly jersey, and it was hard to get used to.
Another thing I read recently was about the Louth team that played Cork in the 1957 All Ireland final. Both sides obviously had red as their primary colour, so Louth would wear Leinster's green and Cork wore Munster's blue, as was the tradition. However Louth - even then, fifty years ago - had the foresight to train in green for the weeks leading up to the final, thus making sure that there were no surprises. That's why I can't understand why there isn't some compunction on clubs to toss a coin, with the loser playing in a clear and distinctive colour. If clubs have their own second strip then so much the better, if not then one would be provided for them.
Certainly in Offaly hurling something like this could be called upon. All four of the semi finalists wear a primarily green jersey and Birr's is probably different enough to set them apart, any clash between the other three can lead to a real difficulty in telling everyone apart.
To tie it in with the jersey thread, I think that if the county had two "alternative" strips, one 1982 style and one 1982 style with black instead of white, then one of those two could be used for clashing games where the changing club had no alternative strip. If clubs refuse to toss, then play black vs white - no risk of clashing there.
It's a minor bugbear of mine is all.
I was reading Tom Humphries today, and he mentioned one thing that I never knew - that when Cork and Dublin drew in Croke Park in 1983 in the AI semi final and Cork suggested that the replay should be in Cork, Heffernan just agreed to travel, just like that. I thought it was a great statement from the manager and sure enough it worked out.
It got me thinking about second jerseys for club teams. I know that a lot of clubs don't have them, and a lot of clubs don't like admitting that they do because they might be forced to change more often and thus concede the advantage to the other side. However sometimes this can backfire.
I'm thinking of Coolderry vs Kinnitty in the hurling semi final. Obviously it was the same for both teams, but one Coolderry player said to me - not in any begrudging way, but merely that it didn't help - that he honestly had to take a second to think about which jersey he was looking for every time. Both sides were wearing different types of Offaly jersey, and it was hard to get used to.
Another thing I read recently was about the Louth team that played Cork in the 1957 All Ireland final. Both sides obviously had red as their primary colour, so Louth would wear Leinster's green and Cork wore Munster's blue, as was the tradition. However Louth - even then, fifty years ago - had the foresight to train in green for the weeks leading up to the final, thus making sure that there were no surprises. That's why I can't understand why there isn't some compunction on clubs to toss a coin, with the loser playing in a clear and distinctive colour. If clubs have their own second strip then so much the better, if not then one would be provided for them.
Certainly in Offaly hurling something like this could be called upon. All four of the semi finalists wear a primarily green jersey and Birr's is probably different enough to set them apart, any clash between the other three can lead to a real difficulty in telling everyone apart.
To tie it in with the jersey thread, I think that if the county had two "alternative" strips, one 1982 style and one 1982 style with black instead of white, then one of those two could be used for clashing games where the changing club had no alternative strip. If clubs refuse to toss, then play black vs white - no risk of clashing there.
It's a minor bugbear of mine is all.