For the third year running, Murderball is on in St. Brendan’s Park in Loughrea. Every Monday, mixed gender teams have played 5 v 5 Hurling Murderball on the AstroTurf pitch in Loughrea.
A social hurling and exercise initiative, Hurling Murderball is just like a standard game of hurling with normal rules. However, the participants don’t stop running and the match is hyper-intense, as it is a goals-only game with no referee and no let-ups. Participants of all abilities and levels are welcome and encouraged to join.
As of now, there is an enthusiastic squad of 25 members, 8 women and 17 male and it is growing fast. The goal is to reach 40 participants in order to be able to incorporate a third game, potentially one game of football to diversify the sports.
“We started all the way back in 2018, a simple puck around between mates and then one evening I posted on Facebook about forming a new hurling project and I got back a phenomenal response,” said Gary Kilcar from Loughrea Active Lead.
“Our target is to have 40 members so that we can guarantee that they’ll be three matches running simultaneously. 6-a-side also works perfectly in Loughrea so in theory you could have 36 playing at the same time. In a hurling mad area like East Galway - we have a member attending from as far as Dunmore every Monday without fail and Frank’s enthusiasm and wit gives the place a great atmosphere!
We are keen to recruit more participants and our main aim is to have fun and exercise together! You do not need to have a lot of experience playing hurling but you do need a sense of humour and be ready to sweat!”
This initiative is supported by Galway Sports Partnership with more pilots being planned for other areas in the city and county in the coming months.
