Certainly from living in Waterford in recent years and having had some dealings with personnel in County Board, I Donāt believe thereās the financial acumen or will there to sustain an All Ireland winning effort. Limerick will fall away once this team breaks up and Clare are always on the backfoot in the numbers game and a generational player in Tony Kelly will depart in a few years time. Hurling has always been a numbers game, all the more so as a 20/21 man game now. Thereās a reason why the Big Three have won close to 100 All Irelands between them. The Round Robin blitz format with games every week only pronounces those advantages and it will shortly revert to type there.
You can get hurling going in every area of the country if there was a will for it by croke park.
Offaly are the proof in the pudding.
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There was a point made in that documentary that went out at Christmas a few years ago about the Seamus Darby 1982 All Ireland Final which was particularly interesting. It equally applied to the Offaly hurlers. Offalyās golden eras in both codes which started to build a head of steam in the 60ās before delivering all those All Irelands in the 70ās, 80ās and 90ās was against the backdrop of all the good jobs that Bord na Mona provided on tap in the County.
This is an obvious attempt to dumb down the debate on culture war lines. Itās Trump like and a cut off your nose to spite your face āargumentā. The health of the GAA is very much dependent on general public interest in the showpiece competitions. General public interest in competitions depends on a several things - competitiveness, time window, free to air television and media coverage.
The health of the GAA cannot be improved by deliberately playing off inter-county against club or āfloating supportersā versus āfĆor Gaelsā.
Only in the GAA would people think alienating your audience is a good thing.
The new format and the new schedule in both football and hurling only benefits the strong counties, ie. those with a high population and/or money.
Those inside the gilded circle of Munster hurling are probably fine with that, as it creates a series of big days out for people in those counties. Thereās a hypocrisy here among people in those counties who can pretend to be fior Gaeling because they come from the few counties who get a series of big days under this format.
But this format, this time window, and this broadcast deal is not benefitting the sport and it is not benefitting the GAA and it will not benefit the clubs either because for the majority of counties, ie. those outside the big six in hurling and maybe 10 or 12 in football, the inter-county game is now a dead duck.
The best way to benefit the sport - ie. both the clubs and the inter-county championships themselves - is to have mandatory club championship windows in May and June, dictated centrally by the GAA and running across the inter-county championships, and for the power of the inter-county manager to be disrupted.
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They are in their hole. They were shite for ages. Got a tremendous bunch and were competitive for 20 years and now theyāre shite again for the last quarter of a century
With some funding, fair structures and a shorter inter county season you could have ten or twelve counties playing hurling to high levels very easily.
Hurling is a great game but there doesnāt seem to be an interest in growing the game or getting new people interested in it.
There is an arrogance and smugness around it for whatever reason.
So it can be done? Counties who are non traditional hurling areas can come and win an all Ireland.
As someone who hates the Green Orangemen of the GGA i welcome the split season and the further demise of the gga
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Not any more
6 counties have shared the last 25 All Irelands. 8 have shared the last 70 odd. Waterford, the team lads are worried are in terminal decline, won only their 4th ever league title last year. Three counties have won more than two thirds of all the All Irelands in history.
Lads seem to be acting like hurling has been wide open for years. It has as many contenders now as it ever had.
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Bax affice
Youād imagine a massive crowd will be in the Gaelic Grounds next weekend
All stand tickets were sold out a month ago ā¦ A few might pop up if season ticket holders donāt take up their offer but itāll be 35-40k
Hard to see how the gaa will abolish the provinces even if itās going to be incredibly lopsided. Youāll be down two provincial finals and two all Ireland quarter finals if you move to two groups off 5 just drawn randomly.
I suppose youād have to take Walsh Park into account there too surely? Given 2 Waterford home games in Semple probably doubled Walsh Parkās capacity
I would agree mandatory club windows in summer would be a great idea. Be like 30 years ago when county players played Munster finals etc and played with their club following week. Used to generate huge crowds too. County managers too powerful now.
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Take the power away from them before they destroy the great game of hurling.
The will wont be there mate. No chance.
Yes this is the highest attendance out of four years.
The fellas trumpeting these figures are A little like the climate change deniers who argue theyāve only been recording temperatures for 150 years.
Last year nobody turned up at either all Ireland semi final. Tickets for the final were handed out for free.
The Leinster attendances have been abysmal also.
But lads are happy with their tiny corner of the game and couldnāt care less about the overall health.