Iām not sure about that. Thereās countless teams on the beach for the last couple of months of a Premier League season usually. A mid-table clash in April is usually meaningless. Same with most leagues.
Theyāve ruined the hurling league though while the football league thrives. Albeit @Cheasty has expertly noted that the divide between haves and the have-nots has increased dramatically under the ānewā football league format which was introduced in 2008.
Good point, although the result in a midtable PL match still affects the teamsā position in the competition by which the success of their season will be judged.
I really donāt understand why there is 6 months of preseason for 4 tough games. It is so hard to time your push in championship.
Like how are you meant to peak in July when starting on the pitch at the end of November? And then bullshit Munster league games starting at the end of December followed by laughable league games in February.
For the top players, itās a lot of preseason bullshit to wait around for the real stuff to start IMO.
Careful people who express this view can get a torrent of personal abuse.
Itās not like we weāve club players waiting around to play games or anything.
From what I can see professionalism and money destroy sport. The gaa are obsessed with copying professional sports. Itāll be a disaster in the long run.
To be fair the league is just starting up now. Iāll be togging for two teams for what will hopefully be about 18-20 league games, hurling championship in July/August, football September/October. Throw in a few soccer games for fitness and thatās a heavy schedule of games which I love. Much more enjoyable than training.
Iād agree with you though that the inter-county season finishes too early. It leaves an awful void in late summer and last year the early stages of the championship were ran off too quickly. It coincided with so many other big sporting events too. The last day of the Munster hurling round robin was a damp squib with most casual sports fans were engrossed in the final day of the title race in England.
Provincial championships should go and i believe they will in time. Leinster championship is laughably uncompetitive at present.
Agree, Id nearly replace the league with the provincials. The problem is that the munster round robin in particular is good for the coffers.
I hope the time you spent playing actual sports doesnāt take away from your time being a top, top poster on TFK.
A small wheel - itās a hurling first club now and a very young senior team built of a few relatively decent underage teams.
They seem to have a good thing going with St Fintanās High School.
Fintans has been a boon for all the clubs in the catchment area - Greg Bennett doing a lot of good work there despite them making strides in rugby around 5 years ago.
A good winter pitch
Yeah we used to play challenges on it in winter.
It does not make sense that 2 top teams go out and Dublin or Wexford go through.
Itās total bullshit and makes a mockery of the round robin.
Neither team would win a game in Munster.
Iām all for a total revamp of the intercounty championship towards a league format of two evenly matched groups of 5/6 AFTER the club championship has been completed.
It will meet huge resistance for a number of different reasons. The umbilical chord that connects the provincials to the all ireland series is arguably stronger now then it has been since straight knock out.
Teams like wexford and dublin will fight tooth and nail against it as it can be currently argued that if change was to come, it could be years before they reach a knock out game given the current state of the game in those counties.
Limerick lads should know better than to be looking down their noses at Dublin and Wexford. It wasnāt that long ago that limerick were at the same level and when the golden generation depart you could well be slumming it with the proletariat again.
And Cork have been shit for years too. Win a couple of league games and their tut tutting about the standard in leinster. Very Cork behaviour.
Weāll never lose again Iād say.
Cathal OāNeill, Adam English and Shane OāBrien should keep Limerick competitive. Looks to be 3 marquee forwards there.
