Agree with a lot of that but until the umbilical chord is cut between the provincial and all Ireland championships, this is the best you can hope for
Itâs the best sporting event in Munster and the 2nd best in Ireland after the All Ireland hurling final.
I get what youâre saying about familiarity but the Munster final at least usually sells out or goes close to selling out and I definitely think it will sell out this year.
As with the Ulster football final, you donât just throw these occasions away.
Also there is a difference between four weeks and six weeks.
The decline of Offaly is what has really fucked the Leinster championship. If Offaly could back up winning the Leinster minor championship this year with a few more good underage teams they might return as a force within five or six years. If you got Antrim competing too then youâd have a good spread of competitiveness and good competition to get into the Leinster championship.
Move the whole thing back six weeks and itâd be perfect.
You donât even need Offaly as a force, just as a team at a similar enough level to Dublin who can threaten to break into the top 3 once every few seasons and be relatively competitive. If Offaly got back to the same standard they were at a decade ago and as competitive as they were in 2011/2012 and 2013 it would make Leinster a far better competition.
I suppose the one big problem with the round robin is weaker teams keeping up a good standard. Teams can get demoralised if they lose the first couple of matches and become cannon fodder. You saw that with Laois this year. Westmeath got stronger as the championship went on but Westmeath were hardly under any illusions that they were going to qualify at the start of it and saw the whole thing as a novelty and a big challenge. It might be different next year. Laois would have had designs on qualifying given theyâve beaten Dublin before and run Waterford very close.
Thereâs a big difference between being competitive on one day and being competitive over five days.
1 Like
Kildare are more likely to break into that category than Offaly.
1 Like
I wouldnât think so.
Theyâve done great work under age over last decade or so and have the population but agree itâs very very hard for a non traditional hurling county to make the step up.
Itâs a challenge for the GAA if one or two of the traditionally strong hurling counties start to drop off though. Thereâs lots more now for young lads than banging a ball off a wall for hours on end.
Itâs very turgid the Round Robin format. Too many one sided and inconsequential matches. What unfolded on Sunday in Ennis and Thurles was an affront to Championship hurling. Two sides already all but eliminated, going through the motions and downing tools.
Quite apart from the farce of last Sunday, there were a litany of one sided games in Munster - Limerick v Cork, Clare v Tipperary, Clare v Cork.
At least there hasnât been a scenario in Munster yet last day where a mutually beneficial result was played out to eliminate a side - like the Wexford v Kilkenny draw on 2019 which saw Galway eliminated largely on their inferior scoring average against Carlow.
Thatâs surely only around the corner though.
2 Likes
When we want a tanâs take on things weâll come calling.
1 Like
Itâs beyond woeful.
Kildare are coming and have far greater potential than Offaly. A lot of work needed yet though
They have the raw materials but culture takes a long time to build. How many hurling only or hurling dominant clubs do you have in Kildare? Even the big clubs like Cellbridge and Naas are very much duel clubs.
You need the hot beds and pockets of hurling to bring through real quality. Offaly for all their modest pick have that if they can put the foundations in place. You canât just build that type of culture, it takes a few generations and hard work to establish
There were plenty of good contests also that these bores donât want to talk about. West Meath is a good story that doesnât come out in the old system.
The Clare story, while it probably happens anyway, was still all the better in the round robin as they built momentum and bringing games to Ennis, Salthill etc is great. Watching Waterford flop is intriguing. Bar the Cork game, all 3 Limerick games were good contests. Cork v Clare was one sided for 20 mins but was only a 2 point win for a finish. Kilkenny v Galway and v Wexford were decent contests.
A lot of misty eyed nonsense for yesterday here⌠Loads of early round games in the back door system were cat.
1 Like
Kildare need their hurling heroes of yesteryear to get involved with underage coaching. People like Seanie Johnston.
1 Like
Thereâs something not quite right about teams meeting three times in the championship.
Iâd scrap the provincials and run them off instead of the league, if the will was there.
How to balance giving counties games Vs making too many meaningless seems the thing.
There are certainly flaws with the system, potential dead rubbers being the worst of them. However, there werenât actually any dead rubbers this year in Munster. Tipp could still have gone through if they werenât so shit.
The home games in the smaller venues are a major plus imo. Okay, Waterford havenât exactly lit it up in Walsh Park but if they canât create a hostile atmosphere in their own, small ground, I donât know what to think tbh. I donât really buy the fact that the tight ground doesnât suit their style of play. I donât know how tight it is but if thereâs any team that would prefer a big, open pitch with lots of space, itâs Cork and they did fine down there.
But the atmosphere in Ennis has been excellent, the atmosphere in the Gaelic Grounds has also been excellent tbh.
Thereâs nothing we can really do about one-sided games, the old system had that too. From what I remember of the 2017 Championship, I donât think there was a single high-quality game in Munster. Really that Championship didnât get going until the All-Ireland semi-finals, bar Kilkenny-Waterford.
I feel like 2016 was exactly the same.
5 Likes
It is, but it seems in its current format to be hamstringing the rest of the championship a bit.
It presumably made sense when transport was difficult, less so now.
I wonder could they not play off a straight knockout after the all Ireland series was over if they were desperate to keep it.
I think the duel clubs are mostly in laois.
2 Likes
The 2016 provincial championships were arguably the worst ever. Septic. Tipp won Munster in first gear.