Portumna are deserving champions There was so much hype and attention given to the All-Ireland club final that invariably it was going to turn out a poor contest for the neutral supporter who was so much looking forward to this. Let's not blame the teams here and I am sure Portumna do not care at this stage because they are All-Ireland club champions and deservedly so. The weather had the biggest bearing on this event as this was one of the coldest days I had ever witnessed in Croke Park and for those of us neutrals in the stands, it was very hard to keep warm and really get involved in the game. Credit where credit is due, this is a very accomplished outfit from Galway and certainly they had their homework done on Newtown. I mentioned in the build up to the game that two players might make the difference and those two were Joe Canning and Cathal Naughton. Cathal started very well and scored two excellent points only to find Ollie Canning breathing down his neck after that and he put the shackles on young Naughton and the Newtown threat began to fade. Cathal is a young man and I am sure there will be many good days around the corner for him. At the other end young Mr Canning was on fire and certainly has all the ingredients to be one of the best in the years ahead. One dilemma will be that he is still minor this year and that I am sure Conor Hayes and co would love to have him involved with the seniors but if you were Mattie Murphy, the Galway minor manager, I am sure he is saying hands off for another year. Either way he certainly was not found wanting on the big stage in Croke Park and everyone is looking forward to seeing this talent in action again over the summer. National hurling leagues Weather has disrupted play over the last few weeks in some games but Galway showed glimpses of their potential with a very polished performance against Tipperary in Thurles. There is a huge amount of hurling talent in Galway and they certainly would be a strong tip for me to win the All-Ireland this year. I know it is early days yet but they are young, committed and very skilful and will be a hard nut to crack for most teams on any given day when back at full strength. Tipperary on the other hand seem to be doing most of their hurling and talking through the media whether it is the manager or players who have given their opinions on where it all seems to have gone wrong. This though has not just happened overnight and as a pundit on TV I have been saying that if you take Eoin Kelly out of the team, they would suffer and that has proved to be the case. Losing matches does not help confidence and losing by big margins will put major doubts in players and mentors minds as to whether they are good enough. There is nothing like winning games when you are trying to build a side and unfortunately for Tipperary this has not happened too often this season so far. But Tipp being Tipp, you also get the sense that Babs is winding a lot of people up already at this stage of the season - particularly the media. I am saying it again now that Tipp are not that bad and come championship, they will have their house in order. GPA v Croke Park As I am writing this a vote will have taken place between GAA players nationwide as to what action they will take over the headquarters decision not to send a delegate to their recent meeting on the topic of Government Grants. As I have stated in the past, these issues are not going to go away and rather than brush them to one side, Croke Park needs to stand up and be counted on these issues. Whatever decision is made they need to address these issues immediately so that everyone can move on and concentrate on the more important things like preparing for championship games and build on the strength and status GAA games are enjoying at the moment. GAA has never been more popular and again we seem to be shooting ourselves in the foot over trivial matters. If players feel they should be paid to play, then lets open up the discussions and see what impact it is going to have down the line. Some managers around the country are making a handy living out of this but the hierarchy seems to turn a blind eye to it. Not alone is it happening at intercounty level but it has gone bananas at club level. Coaches been paid €200 per night and that's a minimum of 2nights and a game at the weekend - not bad at all for starters. And that is just for one team - the same person could be involved in 2 to 3 teams! But let's have uniformity across the board, what's good for the goose has to be good for the gander. Players are now right to ask the questions. I am all for players getting the best of everything because they deserve them but lets not get embroiled in threatened strike action because of this, as sponsors and others will take a view that this is having an impact on their commitment to gaelic games . A team which wins a national league title can reap rich dividends from sponsorship money and this in turn is put into team funds for the benefit of players' holidays and other perks. Sponsors will get back out of it what players are prepared to put into and any disruption would not go down too well trying to attract further deals down the line. Having seeing the efforts of players at first hand, knowing the commitment needed to perform at the top level and seeing the rewards players from other sports are getting leaves me to believe that we need to be doing more to keep attracting players to our games. Hopefully common sense will prevail and we can look forward to the summer months with no strings attached. What better than to see top class action throughout the summer months Tweet

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