The introduction of the qualifiers in 97 was the killing of the provincial championships.
While they are now a “nice to win” any serious hurling county doesn’t really give a shit as the All Ireland is ultimate holy grail.
Granted they served their purpose in the sense that it was a more direct route but with the introduction of the round robin , a team.only plays one less game ( barring a replay) to get to an AIF.
I would like to see them replace the league with the provincials and then split the 10 counties into 2 groups for championship.
Also my heart goes out to Carlow. They are going to get relegated despite showing huge improvement. They should have been let play all their championship games at home and at the very least should be given a play off against Waterford to see who goes down