Best GAA books

After listening to a few sports shows and reading a few columns Mickey Hartes 'presence is everything' and Declan Lawlors book about the Waterford football team seemed to be pretty popular - gonna get the Harte book myself. There must be something to a man with consistent success at all levels of Inter-county footbal management and down here we need all the help we can get !
Donal og Cusack got mixed reviews from what I could gather so gonna give that one a miss -

Brian Cody apparently took the Loughnane quote about not telling the other team what time throw in will be at to heart as his theme for the book - so basically nothing you didnt know before.

Good Luck with your choice anyways

spurs to buy big s book on cork /tyrone

Unlimited Heartbreak:The history of limerick hurling, is a good read. Its written from accounts of players/selectors from limerick and other counties they played against over the years. Brings back plenty of good and not so good memories.

Didnt read MIckey Harte's 1st book but this one is full of lies and half truths. Dont know why he would put his name to this stuff. He's a legend and a nice guy but this is rubbish and hurtful.
On page 4 he's dealing with the loss to Cork and the harsh sending off of Alan O Connor in this year's semi-final and really does a hatchet job on John Bannon. He says and I quote

" In the last eight minutes before half-time, Cork were awarded seeven frees. We got none. In any match, it's highly unlikely that the weight of frees would go so heavily against one team over that length of time. Was the referee balancing things out. We were penalised for two pick-ups off the ground that never happened. The result of one was a point for Cork. As we approached half time we had narrowed the gap to five points and Ryan McMenamin was getting within shooting distance again. Then, the whistle blew for the break. Ricey was incensed. We couldn't believe it, four points in gaelic football is always a more manageable deficit than five. Another massive moment had gone against us". l

Having revisited the video,the truth of the last eight minutes goes something like this.
With 27 minutes on the clock the score stood at Cork 1-9 to Tyrone 0-5. From there to the end Cork were awarded five (5) frees only one of which was within scoring distance. D O Connor hit it wide and it never had height enough to go over anyway. Tyrone were awarded two tap over, close in frees which O Neill converted easily. The half- time score was Cork 1-9, Tyrone 0-7. There was never a question or objection by Tyrone players to any of the five frees conceded but both commentators on TV (RTE) questioned the validity of Tyrones two close in frees. Harte's claimm that Ricey was threathening to score as the final whistle blew is utter balderdash as he was just passing mid field on a run and several Cork backs were converging on him. He did of course fire a few choice verbals at John Bannon who had played exactly two minutes injury time.
Mickey also takes us through his time managing Tyrone minor teams and tells us how unlucky they were to come up against the all comquering Meath minors in 1993, who went on to win the All Ireland. It so happens that Meath were beaten in that final by Cork, 2-7 to 0-9.

His many references to the American bullsh1tter George Zalucki who has been teaching audiences about the Principles Of Human Achievement and how to become a Champion in business and life is further evidence that Harte is a dreamer of sorts. He states Zalucki's mantra "if you dont understand the invisible,you will never achieve the impossible" as a recipe for Tyrone's success which is a bit far fetched IMHO. There are many other inaccuracies in the book and I won't be rushing out to buy his first effort 'Kicking Down Heaven's Door' either.

Happy Christmas to all you Freestaters. 2010 will see a new Armagh team bursting forth to sweep all before them and bring Sam back to the Orchard.







Francie knows best.

Sorry bout the double entry. Must be the snow. We're having lots of telecom problems in the Orchard.










Francie knows best

Anyone read that book on the Waterford Football team? Heard author/journalist(Name escapes me.) on the radio a while back promoting it. Sounded promising and interesting from the other end of the GAA spectrum.

Francie our Paddy is in to destroy the orchard - like he did many a time as a player! You need to look at the bad apples within the orchard passing info to the opposition camp!