Oh undoubtedly it was Davy related but beating Limerick and Galway in successive weekends in February 2017 was a real marker of said progress. That was supplemented by a memorable Leinster semi-final victory over Kilkenny in June of that year.
Wexford placed such an emphasis on staying in 1A during those years that they became known as a February hurling team. Being promoted to 1A in 2017 felt big at the time and created a feel good factor. The league ceased to exist as a competition of note when they reverted back to two watered down groups of 6 and a 12 team Division 1 in 2020.
Wexford’s league victories in 2017 that built momentum could still have been achieved under the current format were Davy starting off now.
I think the provincial round robins have done more to kill off interest in the league than any other single thing.
But there’s also a sort of Carabao Cup/FA Cup-ification of secondary competitions across all sports really.
Like back in the day you’d get good crowds for Railway Cups and Grounds Tournaments and the likes. That stopped. The League itself is going the same way now. That process started in the late 90s I think.
People are interested in events now and the National Hurling League has very little event potential whereas the Munster championship does.
The people who allowed the split season happen have a lot to answer for here. It’s allowed the bigger county teams go semi professional and hammer home their economic advantages over the weaker counties.
As I pointed out a straight knock out championship gives much more of a chance of an upset and gives the weaker counties a punching chance.
There is a ball of clubs on the Northside who take hurling seriously but the issue is they are too close together - if you had half the teams you would have a better standard as a lot of these clubs have 5 or 6 really nice hurlers and then a drop off
Be a pity if so, parts of Laois where hurlimg is unquestionably first sport as well, just populations are small. Big commuter towns for Dublin like Portarlington and Portlaoise will swell that with people coming out of Dublin and up from other places.
Hurling is starting to thrive in Port oddly enough, as you said blow ins driving it. But what they will do when it comes to adult, nobody knows. I heard one rumor of them going to a mid size town to hurl in the hurling area of the county. A disaster if that happens for all concerned in my opinion.
Kildare are a shambles in football with the dice loaded hugely in their favour in terms of population and resources so what hope have they in hurling?
There’s no tradition of support for Kildare hurling. Offaly and Wexford hurling have that tradition of support and at the first sniff of success their supporters are out in droves.
That matters hugely. Offaly hurling and Wexford are seen as things of value that have to be preserved. There’s no such sense of that with Kildare hurling or even Dublin hurling.
There’s a house accross from the train station there that sold in about 15 seconds. I know a few lads that bought in big estates in Dublin 3 or 4 years ago and are regretting it now and would like to come further out, but need to be still somewhat close to Dublin. Even if they are brought back into office more, Portlaoise, Abbeyleix, Portarlington to Dublin is very doable.
The lads moving in though, hurling would be high on their list of priorities. Like, its amazing what was done with Na Piarsaigh on the North Side in Limerick and then you look at the relative decline of the big city clubs in Cork. To me, it depends on the demographics.
In yesterdays Sunday indo There was a lovely anecdote about Clara v camross Leinster semi final in the 80’s which was played as part of a double header with the other semi final in Athy. Two of the Ryan brothers end up with split head and a broken jaw between them .However one of the camross players got split open while watching the second match.