Hurling Championship 2020 - The Year Limerick Blitzed

And if it’s not you shrug your shoulders and say ‘Corona innit’.

It would be.
I’d rather cancel the championship than have it played behind closed doors though.
Without the swell of the crowd there is nothing.

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Inter-county championships could start in mid-October

Croke Park has contingency plans to run eight-week competition

The GAA would be impacted more than any sport by the restriction on crowd sizes

OISIN KENIRY

Denis Walsh

Sunday April 26 2020, 12.01am BST, The Sunday Times

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Starting inter county championships as late as mid-October has not been ruled out, according to GAA sources. There is very little appetite, however, for a programme that would spill into next year and there is no desire to delay the resumption of the 2021 National Leagues at the end of January.

It was reported yesterday that if the inter-county championships didn’t resume before October they would be abandoned for this season but that has been refuted by a Croke Park source.

At a teleconference of all county board chairs and secretaries on Tuesday it was indicated that in the event of a compressed playing season in the autumn the provincial and All-Ireland club championships would be the first competitions to be sacrificed. It had been suggested that the All-Ireland club finals could revert to their previous slot on St Patrick’s Day to create more time in the schedule but that possibility appears remote.

The government’s decision not to licence any events involving crowds of more than 5,000 until September at the earliest had not been communicated to the GAA before its teleconference on Tuesday. That meeting started at two o’clock, a couple of hours before the story broke and in advance of a formal government statement.

Removing the possibility of staging events with attendances in excess of 5,000 during the summer months clearly impacts on the GAA more than any other sports organisation. Even before Tuesday’s statement, however, comments by the health minister Simon Harris last weekend meant that the GAA’s very tentative plans to resume at some time in July were out of the question.

In the event that permission is granted to resume activity later in the year club championships will be given priority. County board officers were told on Tuesday to make provisional plans to run off championships in the smallest possible time frame. Many club championships are conducted on a round-robin basis and hardly any county championships don’t involve a second chance for beaten teams. The likelihood now is that if club championships take place they will be run on a traditional knock-out basis.

Croke Park have devised contingency plans to run the inter-county championships in as little as eight weeks if needs be. A programme like that would be have been inconceivable only a couple of years ago when both senior championships meandered through the summer from May to September. But since the introduction of a round robin format for the provincial hurling championships inter county teams have become accustomed to playing four matches in a concentrated period of time.

The provincial championships in football are more spread out but the practice of playing games on successive weekends has been commonplace in the football qualifiers and the introduction of the Super 8s has also conditioned the elite teams at least to playing a series of high-intensity games in a tight schedule.

To create All-Ireland semi-finals there may be a second chance for provincial final losers in hurling, depending on the time available. A tier two football championship was due to be rolled out this summer but there is no prospect of this competition taking place now.

There seems to be very little desire to play inter county championships behind closed doors, although no decision has been made on this possibility one way or another. Delaying the championships until as late as October would increase the chance of at least limited crowds.

The bigger issue, though, is creating a safe environment for amateur players. A number of professional sports, including soccer and horse racing in the UK, have considered various quarantine arrangements to lever a return to action but no such facility exists for the GAA. For now, all they can do is keep every option open

Denis knows fuck all

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There will be a championship. Bookmark it ye cunts.

Bookmarked.

Handball?

The All Ireland has been fixed for Sunday the 13 December

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A double header with the Joe McDonagh Final

This will be the first time we’ll see Tony Kelly on the Sunday game after June and not as a pundit

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Considering Wexford are at their peak in the muck and slop and shit in winter, none of the rest of ye cunts have a chance.

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Congratulations to Limerick and Clare on their league titles. Richly deserved :clap::clap:

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It’ll be a Wexford v Limerick final under the lights. Yes Wexford will have the advantage of Davy at the helm, 70% of the attendance on the day whatever that will be and a 24 year hunger to win the AI. The bookies will no doubt have Limerick as favourites but smart TFKrs will have lumped on Davy’s men this morning after hearing this news.

KK will not get past the Leinster semi final and the first knock-out game.

Has there been an announcement made regarding the unfinished league this year?

I think the opposite teams that don’t go in for the short passing will thrive. KK’s to lose

Limerick and Clare are the champions. Silverware for Lohan in his first season and another bail on the trailor for Kiely.

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Has there been an official announcement?

Read the article mate

Read the 42 article I posted up few mins ago, mate