So you are in favour of the split season. Excellent. My work here is done
Nope but I wouldnât be against a club first split and let the inter county championships start in august possibly.
It would make the club championships even more interesting.
Imagine the cribbing if their was no inter county hurling until August?
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The league really is a bit pointless. I heard landers a few months moaning about it but if you are flying in the league the legs be gone by the end of the round robin.
Agreed, rubbish to be fair.
The problem is that the format means that there will likely never be a possible All-Ireland winner outside these six counties ever again because depth is everything. Waterford are regressing to their early 90s level at an alarming rate and Wexford seem to have given up. Dublin will never get there. Limerick and Clare are good now but may well fall away again once this Limerick team and Tony Kelly decline/depart. Clareâs lack of depth was shown up hugely in last yearâs semi-final and whoâs to say it wonât be again.
Thereâs just too many games.
Even like Galway and Kilkenny have their watching the Munster teams knock seven shades of shit out of each other.
Having six possible winners is miles ahead of most of the history of the hurling championship.
If there was six possible winners of the premier League youâd be saying it was unreal.
For it to be in the traditional hurling months of summer rather than spring would be a start.
Manchester City came up trumps for the GAA this year but this day last year and the week before few outside the hardcore hurling afficionados were watching because of the climax of the Premier League.
Indeed.
The football has what maybe 3 contenders? 4? 2?
Iâm saying that if you have a system that relegates the bottom team in Leinster, you have to relegate the bottom team in Munster as well. Even if it that does spell the end of that lovely round Robin tradition of Waterford downing tools in Game 4.
Iâm onboard with that mate. Playoff between the two. Loser goes down. Again FORMAT not SPLIT SEASON
If Limerick were on form there would likely be only one winner. This year is a bit like 2013 when Kilkenny were off form.
The Premier League can sustain a title race with only two teams like last yearâs because every match matters in a league title race and thereâs also the personality driven soap opera element driven by the media which the GAA doesnât really have.
The biggest problem the Premier League faces is one team running away with it. The sense of predictability and procession. League formats favour the strong. Theyâre OK if youâre in the gilded circle. The 6-9 teams, ie. Waterford Wexford, Dublin, have suffered badly under this format. Munster hurling has a sense of jeopardy because one team from four neighbouring rivals has to go out but Leinster doesnât have that and itâs basically a dead championship.
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Imagine the Leinster championship next year with Wexford out of it. Kilkenny and Galway should play a few of club championship during it to sharpen the players up.
You need a few million quid to run an inter County team nowadays.
This is a serious problem. Only a few counties can do it, ie those with a big population and/or wealthy benefactors. Round robin formats increase the problem. And thereby increase the gaps. And thereby decrease the attractiveness of the majority of the games.
Thereâs a Munster hurling bubble here. Cork, Tipp, Limerick, Clare. The games between the Munster top four are a quasi-Premier League of hurling, but that only works for those inside it. If youâre from these counties, thereâs a good chance youâll think the format works - because it does work for those four counties. It might not work for Limerick and Clare forever because they could descend to a Waterford level, history says they will at some point.
A similar Premier League format would probably work in Ulster football, say if you had a five team round robin with Tyrone, Armagh, Down, Derry and Donegal. Ulster football canât do that because it has four other counties to think of and because there are three other provinces to think of.
Those inside the Munster gilded circle are only thinking of themselves, not of the game in general.
Thatâs why itâs vital I speak up. Itâs easy as a Limerick person to support this current structure but imo itâs not good for the overall health of the game.
Jim Bolger only raised his concerns about Irish racing after winning a few group ones. Hed have been easily dismissed if his stable was out of form.
I find it hard to believe but cork seem to be struggling to raise funds for their senior team.
Fascinating debate as always.
I could be wrong but itâs almost as if those who watch sport solely on the couch in front of the television and like select big events across multiple sports spaced out over the calendar year are against the split season, and those who are actually fully invested in and involved with the GAA are in favour of the split season.
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Offaly had little or no history of hurling either. They didnât win a Leinster championship until 1980. So the first 100 years they basically won nothing.
So all the lads dismissing counties like Carlow, Laois and basically any country trying to play hurling are all wrong.
Offaly benefited massively from a scheme which saw the gaa invest in non traditional counties to play hurling. I believe it ran in the late 60s and threw the 70s.
I used to attend all Limerick games and attend plenty of club games.
I canât stand the split season.