100% agree.
Will all depend on how hungry for money the lad coaching them is, just as it has been up to now.
Was it a bad call really .
It doesnāt matter hugely .
Itās having a huge impact. The under 21s championship was excellent. Great spread of winners and invariably played mid week with little else on.
There isnāt anywhere near the interest in the 20s championship and as pointed out the gap from minor to senior is a long time and now many really good players could be lost to the game a little.
A lot of looking through rose tinted glasses .
The majority of the u21 all Ireland Hurling finals over the last decade were awful spectacles .
There was the occasional good game in the provinces .
The u20 will settle down over time .
The u17 was a wise enough call too I feel and the difference in standard is being amplified for the sake of something to whinge over .
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Couldnāt disagree more.
The sad reality of it is thereās barely a hurler of note in the game under the age of 23 anymore bar Kyle Hayes and its supposed to be a young mans game.
I follow hurling as much as anyone and Iād know if they were there and they simply arenāt.
The dumbing down of the underage grades and Fitzgibbon Cup has an awful lot to do with it.
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Supporters bought into the under 21 grade as well.
Oh to have another day like this one in semple. When the ball hit the net I had some kind of an outer body experience above in the old stand.
U21 often has great matches
https://twitter.com/officialgaa/status/1153754620600233986?s=21
Seeing Eoin Kelly/Lar Corbett play for Tipp Under 21ās vs Limerick around 2001 and 2002 was unreal.
There must have been 30,000 at those games.
Even in more recent time, watching the home town hero Austin Gleeson put in a Tour De Force in Walsh Park in 2016 was a memorable occasion.
What youāre telling me is that young lads are fucking shite nowadays?
They did in their hole in the main .
Most games were played mid week on from of a few thousand . Unless one of the less successful counties got on a run the attendances at finals were small enough.
As a man said to me the night of the 2002 all Ireland under 21 final
ā an u21 team shouldnāt be getting that amount of support ā
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You are just talking out your arse now.
It was a brilliant championship destroyed for no reason. It was a good standard too.
For some counties the under 21 is the pinnacle of the year.
What counties?
The Lk novelty factor was the key to that crowd - by 2001 both EK and Lar were senior IC hurlers . Not many more were garnered from those Tipp teams .
Itās no shock either limerick, Galway and Clare won under 21s just before breaking fairly long senior droughts too. Waterford have lost two senior finals after winning a 21. It was just a brilliant championship ruined for no reason.
The County Bar in thurles ??
Those counties won u21 AIs because the had serious talent at that age . If lads are winning at u20 things will still largely be rosy in the future .
The impact of changing from 21 to 20 is overstated .
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What counties mate?