Junior lads do when the fixtures clog up after a shit winter and the evenings get longer. You could play Sunday,Tuesday,Sunday,Tuesday,Sunday having not played a game in weeks
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Yeah pure proud. Ray cummins hand passing the ball over the bar
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Same thing occurred to me having seeing the highlights from the weekend. Itâs a theory that will get a sterner test this weekend with Cork and Tipp both out for the third weekend in a row. Tipp have a pretty raw deal in that they have Clare as their final game after four on the trot, whereas Clare now have an ideal break between two sets of two matches.
Cork havenât been going heavy on the substitutions either. They seem to have a fairly settled team and dont seem to be keen on making too many changes. Youâd have to imagine Limerick will have an edge if this is to be close going down the stretch.
Having played at a bad level of hurling, soccer, rugby and football, personally I found football the hardest. Soccer is the opposite of hurling though. Hurling looks ferocious to watch, but itâs not bad at all to play. Soccer looks almost non contact to watch, but you can get well battered.
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Iâve explained this already.
Its a big deal for Waterford if you started the year with realistic ambitions of winning the All Ireland after losing last yearâs final and you have to face Tipperary on Sunday probably missing 10 of the 15 players that started last yearâs All Ireland Final. If there was proper and correct period of time of three weeks between these games, Austin Gleeson (best player), Noel Connors (best defender), Pauric Mahony (free taker) and Maurice Shanahan would all probably make the next game.
It has turned the hurling championship into a war of attrition and not a test of hurling skill. Thereâs a few reasons why Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary have won 93 of the 130 All Ireland titles and the likes of Waterford have won just 2. One of the reasons is that Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary have strength in depth - most clubs, most players. Waterford has the smallest population in Munster and by extension fewest hurling clubs and smallest playing pool.
The system will disproportionately affect the smaller counties, the likes of Offaly and Waterford with the smallest playing pools. Offaly and Waterford along with Tipperary and Wexford are the only 4 of the 10 who have to play four weeks in a row. Everyone else gets a rest week. Offaly were out on their feet in Game 3 against Wexford last Saturday and are on again this weekend against Dublin.
So gga players arenât fit?
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I think I alluded to this point a number of months back - it wonât necessarily be the best hurling team that comes through, itâll probably be the team who have less amount of injuries and suspensions through the four games and whoâs âweekendâ off falls at the right time - itâll take teams a year or two to adjust and peak their run in / use of the league correctly
Unfortunately for us it seems that Waterford have fallen down in all of the above and will now most likely have to call this year a write off after this weekend
Youâre right.
All have different demands. Serious fitness needed for football. level depending.
soccer can be a tough slog if you are lacking fitness as it is constant.
a bar stool is the best place for fellas like us now.
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Correct. The league should be scrapped. It serves no purpose now as the Championship is effectively a glorified league.
You have a schedule now with Munster League/Walsh Cup in January. League primarily in late January/February. Thatâs two competitions largely played off in the depths of winter, a time of the year when hurling is all but unplayable as a sport.
You had a farce in the football league this year when they lost a few weekends to bad weather, that they didnât even play most of the final rounds of fixtures in Round 7 of the league as Carlow and Laois had already secured promotion and they didnât have the time to schedule the rest of the games.
After this five week blitz which will end on 17 June, there will be 5 free weekends before the All Ireland Hurling Final is played on 19 August, two weeks before its traditional date on the first Sunday in September. If they wanted to go with this âChampions Leagueâ system, they could have started it a week earlier on 6 May, left the final on its traditional date of 2 September and there would have been a minimum of two weeks for every county between every game.
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You are some windbag.
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The clubs have games mate.
If the league is scrapped, thereâs March and April to play club games in. September and October are grand months for club games as well. Plenty of counties continue to play their club championships during the summer months, Kilkenny a prime example.
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yes when there was 6 weeks between games.
Regardless of old or new system thereâs only ever 4 counties left in the hurling championship by the end of July. August is there as well for almost all counties for undivided attention to the club.
Thatâs bullshit. March is a horrible month for club activity. As is October.
Kilkenny only play games in the summer if the seniors get their usual 4-6 week break. If they donât Cody stops the club games.
Word is they are making changes this week and that was always the plan.
However Waterford woes may change that
Great summation
Gaelic football is a brutal sport. And has huge skill levels. The fellas who blow on about it are pretty clueless.
Soccer is tough. Play AUL or an equivalent and you will know all about it
Soccer is grand if you can mind yourself.
You get hit way harder the higher up you play. The lower leagues like AUL youâd generally see a lad coming from a mile off.
Played against a really good Avondale team a few years ago and my take away from it is they werenât the best ball players but they had a way of winning the ball and hurting you as well. After about 70 minutes it took itâs toll and they bate us handy. They won a rake of FAI intermediates.
My own club could have up to 14 Championship matches to play off from the end of August on, were Limerick to continue hurling into August.
Be tight enough to get them all in as it is, without pushing the All-Ireland out another couple of weeks.
Itâs a tough job being over the fixtures calendar, but the current format is really the only waybill to make it viable with the current competitions.
Even if the League was scrapped, the county managers arenât going to give the clubs access to the players for another whole month, that would fuck with their preparations.