Agreed and the attendances seem to be a reflection of this. Hurling was dying
1 Like
Ditch the Fitzgibbon Cup or at least make it only eligible for those who didnât play intercounty the year previously. Nobody cares about the competition bar a small cohort of well paid coaches and hangers on.
Ditch the pre season intercounty competitions in December & January.
6 Likes
Figuring out what to do with the league is probably the next challenge. The 1A and 1B setup was good for a few years there in that you had teams at close levels playing regular highish intensity games against each other. Itâs now going to be just a weaker league played a couple of months before a stronger one.
It wonât be scrapped, unless they scrap the provinces. And they wont be scrapped because the councils would go on strike
Iâd happily allow the Fitzgibbon to be scrapped but a more likely situation is only allow players with a certain number of senior inter county starts play it or minutes. Nobody goes to the games and itâs too much for players. The clubs should come first. The colleges last.
If you scrap the fitz then lads with bad leavin certs wonât be going to college.
1 Like
My god man the provinces are leagues. You donât need to scrap the provinces. You literally have the perfect divide. You have two evenly numbered leagues with local derbies. Itâs perfect. We donât need an extended version played in February and March.
Attendances could well take a big drop next year in Munster . If Clare and Waterford donât improve I certainly wonât bothrer my arse going to games when I know Munster 3 qualifiers is a foregone conclusion .
Itâs incredible the stranglehold Mickey Mouse competitions like the Fitzgibbon & Sigerson have on the overall GAA season. Plays havoc with intercounty pre season preparations with players having to be rested to avoid burnout.
Two men and a dog go to the matches that are played midweek when normal people are at work. Farcical.
3 Likes
Players enjoy those competitions and want to play in them.
The only reason attendances are up is because of the novelty factor. Give it 2 seasons and thereâll be a sharp drop.
The leagues over this year and last have already evolved into a tournament where counties are fielding increasingly weakened teams. What youâve seen as well is the traditional pre season January tournament played off before Christmas. I donât see how the lot of the club player can be improved when you have a more congested inter-county calendar and are still maintaining three inter-county tournaments now shoe horned into an eight and a half month window from early December to mid August.
So the last format was dying, the new format is dying. Maybe there just isnât a demand for the sport outside of maybe 6 or 7 counties?
Players would play 52 weeks of the year if allowed, especially young lads.
Itâs a watery enough argument.
An awful lot of the limerick players attribute a large part of their development to the Fitzgibbon cup . Games are player at midweek and only 1 weekend is lost .
2 Likes
Players enjoy playing games. The only reason any of the players play is because thereâs a financial benefit. Colleges donât produce hurlers. The club players should be taken care off or otherwise theyâll pack it in. The new system is nuts.
I agree with a poster there regards munster championship. The decline of Waterford and Clare is going to lead to lopsided games.
Thatâs bolox. The colleges throw money at the players whether it be for fees or accommodation. Of course theyâll say good things about it. The clubs produce the players and they are ones continually shafted.
1 Like
Yes, Gillane broke through when he wasnât on the Limerick panel. Itâs ideal to give lads like that a chance to impress who are trying to break onto the intercounty season.
What use is it to Gillane/Hayes/Mark Coleman/Adrian Mullen if they are playing fitzgibbon in the muck and rain next January or February?
Limerick will regress to mean in 5 or 6 years too. Give it say ten years before itâs cork v Kilkenny or cork v tipp most years and youâll see how many want to know about it.