As they repeatedly told us tonight we’ve
Next years league to look forward to.
I think it could be linked to them eventually getting rid of the Munster and Leinster championships but I’m not certain on that.
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It’s the same as last year. There is/was a pre ordained rotation.
Cork were really really bad today at any stage when the game was close. Only 4 changes from last years panel isn’t enough to me.
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One big error is the change from 6 teams to 7 teams.
There are 9 top tier counties including Dublin & Wexford.
It means 2 of these will be in a group with Laois, Westmeath, Offaly etc and it will be the same 2 teams in that final each year after a plethora of challenges.
If there was 6 teams then you’d have a nice mix of 3 top tier counties and the next best 3.
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They should let Antrim play all home games. Maybe fans wouldn’t like that and they like playing in Thurles or whatever but it would do something for the promotion of the games.
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It’s two up / two down as far as I understand.
It will be the same two up every year so, kind of boring in itself
Obviously it will be two different teams promoted every year given the teams promoted from the prior year won’t be in 1b.
What I’m saying is you’ll have 2 of the big 9 in 1B who will go up every year.
1B did Limerick no harm for years
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Its absolute pointless as you point out. Guaranteed that the 2 teams relegated will be the 2 teams who will go up the year after. Im not sure what benefit that gives those 2 teams nor the teams in the second tier who now only get to face off against these 2 sides rather than a few of the top tier sides.
The old 1A and 1B system which existed from 2012-2019 was brilliant. You could really see tangible progress when you won promotion to 1A. Like Clare 2012, Wexford 2017 or most notably Limerick 2018. The uneven number of teams must be an effort at giving everyone a rest week but actually adds to the volume of games as there’ll be 6 instead of 5.
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If it was two groups of six there would be far less chance of one of the smaller teams getting promoted as it would probably be one up /one down. If you cant finish second in a group of seven (and maybe just needing to take one scalp to do so) then you have no business getting promoted.
They’d be better off with league semi finals rather than that as you said.
Even if you had the top 3 in 1A and the top in 1B in two semi finals it would link it nicely together.
That old system was the optimum.
Waterford benefitted hugely from being in 1b in 2015. You could easily imagine a Waterford, Wexford or Dublin fucking up and failing to get out of 1b.
How the fuck do you make the teams from 8-12 any better though.
Sure with all the money and coaches Antrim got they’re still cat.
Westmeath beat Wexford last year fair enough but 8/10 we’d beat them handy. They’ve a tiny pool of hurlers. And they’re just not at the races.
Laois. A golden generation in the 80s but the odd star after that.
I’m not sure it’ll ever be more than 7 or 8 teams. And we’ll always be 7 or 8 the way we carry on.
@Cheasty nailed it a few years back. Trying to grow the game in these weaker counties is just doomed to failure.
Could you?
Surely Clare’s improvement was down to a gifted crop of youngsters arriving and Davy putting in place a professional set up with Paul Kinnerk being involved etc.
Surely Wexford’s improvement in 2017 was again due to Davy’s arrival and the sense of excitement and the laser focus it brought. He was the perfect appointment for them. For three years.
Surely Limerick’s improvement in 2018 was due to the arrival of a gifted crop of players and a manager who could harness them. And PJ’s money.
It wasn’t due to there being six teams in a league division rather than seven, or eight.
In hurling I don’t think the league system makes anywhere near the same impact on development or non-development of teams compared to how it can impact in football. This is mainly because of the lack of teams. Any tinkering with the league system in hurling is pretty much always tinkering for the sake of it. It’s like roundabouts in Galway being pointlessly replaced by traffic lights, and then being replaced by roundabouts again.
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It’s the Italy in the Six Nations quandary.
Italy just isn’t that interested in rugby.
The also ran counties in hurling just aren’t that interested, bar Offaly who have a recent history of winning All-Irelands.
If you throw them in with the big boys, they might have an initial burst of enthusiasm, put in the odd respectable performance, then they get blown away on a given day, and blown away again, and again, and again. And they get sick of that, get disillusioned and stop trying. Players aren’t bothered and they drift away.
If you don’t throw them in with the big boys, they’ll get absolutely slaughtered if they ever happen to meet one of the big boys.
You can forget about Westmeath, Carlow, Kildare, Kerry. They will never make the grade.
Antrim and Laois will always be Antrim and Laois. They will always be also rans. Dublin will always be Dublin - the PSG of hurling without the glamour and the supporters.
There are nine hurling counties.
Offaly is a hurling county because the Offaly public see themselves as a hurling county. That’s what makes the difference. Offaly will win a hurling All-Ireland again before Dublin do.
It all comes down to numbers and interest:
Cork have 80-100 hurling clubs (50-60 of a decent standard)
Tipp have 60 (40-45 of a decent standard)
Kilkenny have 40 (35/36 of a decent standard)
Galway have 40
Limerick have 40
Clare have 35
Wexford have 35
Waterford have 30
Dublin have 20-25
Offaly have 15
Laois have 10
Antrim have 10
Kerry have 10
Carlow/Westmeath/Meath/Kildare have 4-10.
Also it must be noted in areas like East Galway, North Tipp, Kilkenny etc hurling is the only show in town. Young lads spend twice as many hours practicing the core skills and this adds up.
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