Sligo had a period from as early 1995 to as late as 2012 where they were usually a half decent team. They drew with Galway in '95 and '96, lost the Connacht final in '97 by a point then went through their golden period in '01 and '02. After that they won Connacht in '07, should have won it in 2010 and only lost the Connacht final to a very good Mayo team by two points in 2012.
But obviously they have fallen away a lot since then and especially since the likes of Adrian Marren and Mark Breheny retired.
Dublin kicked for home like Laura Muir did last night, and Mayo went with them like Ciara Mageean. The Sligos were left in the dust.
Iāve crunched the numbers and assuming thereās about 20 players on the average panel then that would equate to 36 teams. Thereās 36 teams from senior, intermediate and junior alone in Kilkenny. So itās complete bull because they have levels below that too obviously.
I can safely say theres far more adult gaelic footballers in Cork than hurlers. Seems like someone in The Examiner pulled something off the interweb with doing due dilligence.
It depends on how convoluted you want the league to be - but you could easily have a 15 team league somewhat tiered played across two phases. An initial 5 groups of 3 and then 3 groups of 5.
First phase would have one from each tier in a group. Two games, each county gets one home game. Put the 5 top teams from the five groups into division 1, the 5 second placed teams into division 2/1B and the 5 bottom placed teams into division 3/1C. Top two in each group play off in the respective finals. Would take 9 weeks in total to play off and each team would have two bye weeks built in and be guarenteed at least 6 games.
While the first phase would throw up some mismatches no doubt, there would also be some very meaningful contests between the better tier 2 teams against the tier 1 sides and the lower tier 2 against the tier 3. Teams are typically likely to pull off a shock early in the season.
The games between the first three tier 2 sides and whichever tier 1 side they draw would be very well contested, while Westmeath/laois v whichever tier 3 side would also be hell for leather given what is at stake.
Rosenallis v Castletown would be prime for discussion on Off the Ball. David Cuddy in the hotseat alongside John O Sullivan. Two Castletown legends, hoping to get them back to the big time, qualify for a Laois Senior Hurling Semi Final for the first time in 15 years. Then the John O Loughlin angle in Rosenallis, him and Donncha Hartnett both returning home after soujourns to Mountmellick. Box office stuff for Joe to get his teeth into, and Iām sure the audience would be crying out for it.
Wankers like Molloy et al would rather discuss the smugby on all Ireland final week. Just look back the Ireland summer friendlies or the Loins. The thugby Newstalk crew would much prefer discuss those than any GAA.
In fairness, Malloy has openly said he will never get that time back after watching those Lions games. He had to watch them all for some highlights show he was working on.
I donāt think he is the worst. Have never sensed anything anti GAA off him
Ireland recording a first ever series win in New Zealand going head to head with an unseasonal All Ireland Hurling Final in mid July. Inevitably the rugby is going to win out in terms of media coverage.