All-Ireland Hurling Championship 2019***

Would you put that in English for me like a good chap

The obvious thing to do is scrap the fucking league and incorporate it into the championship - give clubs March and April - play your championship from May - August

You could do something like - 3 groups of 5 … You play 4 games from your own group and 1 from each of the other groups. Group 3 can be the weaker group - still playing each other but also getting the experience of playing 2 tougher opponents.
. - That’s 6 games and then into knockout. You can still have it that first and second place in the weaker group play 3rd place in stronger two groups … and have promotion relegation for the following year — team from Munster + Leinster gets relegated… TV Time fair across the board - TG4, RTE, SKY.

Some merit in what D Og was saying too - in an Ulster team …

Some move has to be made to get more counties playing at a higher level.

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Agreed, if Carlow stayed up this year, it would have done them a power of good.

I see Laois and Westmeath get to go play a Final, and 6 days later are expected to go out and play Cork or Dublin in preliminary (@bandage) Quarter Final. Shur like, how the fuck are you meant to drink the shite out of it in those circumstances?

Some people are never happy. Unless we go back to lose one game and you are out for the year, there are always going to be games of varying intensity etc and always going to be games like Tipp v Limerick yesterday. Sure it happens in every single team sport in the world that isn’t straight once off knock out.

I honestly think the current provincial group system is the closest you are going to get in terms of trying to ensure the majority of games mean something and it keeps teams fighting until the end for the most part. The attendances this year back that up as Irish sports fans are the worst in the world at disappearing when they think nothing is on the line. (Although this contradicts yesterday’s massive attendance in Thurles).

Give the current system another 2 years at least. Tweaks can always be made in time.

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I’ve no issue with the current system – players and fans want more championship games … but how do you bring up the standard below? - it’s a bit of a paradox insofar as they need to be on a level playing field to grow/ promote the game yet also to be given different treatment or they’ll get the shite beat out of them…

Yeah…the massive gap between Liam McCarthy and Joe McDonagh is an issue alright.

If you give Carlow a security blanket of 3 years in the Liam McCarthy then how are Laois going to improve.

Did Cheddar suggest something like a teams winning Joe McDonagh should get a major financial boost from Croke Park plus additional resources. But what happens in theory is the county board do whatever they want with such money. Especially in more football dominated counties.

The league is a waste of time – the lesser teams killing themselves to stay as high up as possible for what end? You saw how most teams treated the league this year due to new championship format - there’s no point having a league to have a league … just incorporate into the championship and use it in a way where the lesser counties get equal exposure to teams of higher quality and those around their own level

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@iron_mike replying to about six different posters and they all ignore the poor divil.

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The league was treated differently this year due to the fact that relegation was removed and that the format was to change in 2020. It had little to do with the provincial round robin championship.

It is no surprise that once you remove the stick in the form of relegation that teams didn’t look to go as hard during it as there was little or no consequence for defeat or a poor league run unlike other years.

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Fair point … but I still think a league before a round robin/ league holds no value and merely clogs up the earlier part of the season that they could give back to clubs …

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No Delores no party- that plain enough for ya

Clubs don’t want to be playing a huge amount of meaningful games in March and April though. Better to end the intercounty championship by the end of July than adding additional free weekend in the spring.

The gaa and hurling counties involved need to decide what exactly do they want from the league and stick with it. Is it a spring competition for blooding players and getting games under the belt or do counties want consistent meaningful games. If the former then make it two groups of 7 with top two in each playing in league semi finals. if it is the latter then revert back to what we have had over the last 4 or 5 years.

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Waste of time. The league was on borrowed time once the championship moved from straight knock out back in 1997. Now that the championship has largely evolved into a league based tournament, what purpose does having another league competition, not in the spring anymore but in the winter muck of late January, February and early March serve?

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Remember that while you’re cutting my lawn in Kilkee.

Another sucker putting money into a part of Clare nobody from Clare visits- Thanks for the hard earned cash, though the cash would probably suffice in this case !

Nah I’m just renting it out to a local.

What is the problem with the current system precisely? Why do you propose this ‘chord’ needs to be cut?

The 10 matches that purported to be Munster Championship hurling over the past 5 weeks seem to be a bit of a problem with the current system.

Wexford, Kilkenny and Dublin were the highest placed Leinster teams in the league after the 5 group games. That form held in the championship in fairness. You’ll recall 2nd in 1A (Wexford) going to 3rd in 1B (Galway) in the subsequent quarter final, dominating the first half against a monsoon and then throwing the second half.