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Today’s elite players use hurleys approximately 3 inches shorter than their counterparts would have in the 60s and 70s.  The game has evolved since then and is even faster today.  It could also be argued that there are less contests of brute strength in today’s game.  It makes sense that the requirements of the hurleys used should also change in line with how the game has evolved. The length and weight of a Hurley have a tremendous effect on a player and for years young players were told by both parents and coaches that the best way to measure the…

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Post match skirmishes were not unknown in the fiercely competitive world of inter varsity hurling in the 1960s but when a group of UCD players surrounded UCC’s mid-fielder, Micheál Murphy, at the final whistle in Croke Park in 1969, it was curiosity – not animosity – that drew them in. That damp, February afternoon, Murphy had lined out with an exotic piece of equipment, something entirely alien to the game of hurling up to then: he was wearing a Canadian ice-hockey helmet! This was not Murphy’s first venture into protective headgear, a necessity forced upon him as a result of…

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