Not necessarily . Look at Clare from 1995 to 1999 or so and their club teams dominated Munster . It can cut both ways .
Aidan Harte was the only 1 of the 18 Galway players who saw action against Waterford in the All Ireland Final to hurl in this year’s Galway senior semi finals.
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True . The Galway club teams who done well down the years were from small enough clubs , Portumna , Clarenbridge , Kiltormer with Athenry being an exception . Castlgar though a city club were not a traditional stronghold and were powered by the Connolly’s .
The hate within Galway club hurling is greatly overstated. There’s the normal rivalries you get in any county, especially between neighboring parishes, with the added bit of hate for the city/townie cunts. Athenry were the first ones who really brought out the seeth as they were so dominant for so long, and that may have had an impact on the IC team (it did in 2005 anyway when the Cloonans left the camp). Portumna were probably not as hated, except for the war in 2006 with Loughrea.
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Everyone hates Loughrea
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And it’s reciprocated in spades!
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Great achievement for Loughrea to be hated more than Athenry and Portumna.
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Renmore/mervue the old Dublin road side
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Yes
But I think it’s irrelevant both ways. A brilliant intercounty team doesn’t mean club hurling is particularly strong, and a strong club Championship doesn’t indicate that the county team will be good.
The truth is that nowadays 90% of intercounty hurlers have been with county teams from U-14 up and once they hit adult grade, barely train with the club. A strong club Championship can’t hurt, but I do think it’s largely irrelevant just because players spend so little time with their clubs.
There is also the question how do you measure a strong club championship anyway. Some counties might have a couple of teams capable of winning All-Irelands but the rest of the standard could be poor. Or there could be counties where the senior standard isn’t great but their lower grades might be very close to that level.
I do think standards are rising across the board, as is natural, I suppose. I know the standard of underage club hurling in Limerick is way up on what it was even 10 years ago.
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That is fair comment .
I think standards are well up in junior
I think the standard has dropped considerably in Galway and in general the last few years. If you had told me a few years ago that Galway would win an All-Ireland with a certain individual playing I’d have laughed at them.
The standard has dropped from the exceptional Kk team but overall it is good enough now . Most all Ireland winners had a fella or two who weren’t near all star material .
Which individual would this be? No one looks at this place at all anyway. You’re safe enough
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The lad brought off after 20 minutes in the 2015 final and lucky not to be brought off after 5 minutes in the 2017 one.
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He had a fine year.
Which is kinda my point about the standard dropping.
Nah, he just played well in a settled team.
Galway were very good indeed all year.
He had no one to mark in most games. Average at best.