Proposal For 2007 Hurling

Danno

PROPOSAL FOR HURLING 2007

* Disband the League

LEINSTER HURLING CHAMPIONSHIP
26th March - Round One 3.00pm
8th April - Semi Final 1 3.00pm
22nd April - Semi Final 2 (Round One Winner plays here) 4.00pm
7th May BANK HOLIDAY Final - Croke Park - 4.00pm - Double Header with Ulster Hurling Final 2.00pm

MUNSTER HURLING CHAMPIONSHIP
1st April - Round One 3.00pm
15th April - Semi Final 1 3.00pm
22nd April - Semi Final 2 (Round One Winner plays here) 2.00pm
6th May Final - Semple Stadium - 4.00pm - Double Header with Minor Hurling Final 2.00pm

ULSTER HURLING CHAMPIONSHIP
26th March - Round One 1.30pm
8th April - Semi Final 1 1.30pm
22nd April - Semi Final 2 (Round One Winner plays here) 2.00pm
7th May BANK HOLIDAY Final - Croke Park - 2.00pm - Double Header with Leinster Hurling Final 4.00pm

ALL IRELAND SERIES

* Four groups of three teams
* Open draw

JUNE 3RD: Kilkenny V Cork; Galway V Wexford - Semple Stadium
JUNE 10TH: Antrim V Clare; Offaly V Limerick - O Moore Park
JUNE 17TH: Kilkenny V Waterford; Galway V Dublin - Semple Stadium
JUNE 24TH: Antrim V Laois; Offaly V Tipperary - Nowlan Park
JULY 1ST: Cork V Waterford; Wexford V Dublin - Semple Stadium
JULY 8TH: Clare V Laois; Limerick V Tipperary - Nowlan Park

Group A:
Kilkenny
Cork
Waterford

Group B:
Wexford
Galway
Dublin

Group C:
Laois
Clare
Antrim

Group
Tipperary
Offaly
Limerick

* The top two teams in each group qualify. An open draw is decided to see who plays who. Teams from the same group cannot meet in the quarter finals.

JULY 22ND ALL IRELAND QUARTER FINALS DOUBLE HEADER
Kilkenny V Wexford
Cork V Galway

JULY 29TH ALL IRELAND QUARTER FINALS DOUBLE HEADER
Laois V Tipperary
Clare V Offaly

AUGUST 12TH ALL IRELAND SEMI FINAL
Kilkenny V Cork

AUGUST 19TH ALL IRELAND SEMI FINAL
Laois V Clare

SEPTEMBER 3RD ALL IRELAND FINAL
Kilkenny V Laois

Thoughts anyone?

PS: Never mind the Laois V Kilkenny All Ireland - just an example given!!!

DUB

Interesting ideas there.

I'd agree with ditching the league, i think it's a busted flush at this stage. Although despite Dublins relegation after getting promoted on the field I do think the new league format proposed is better then the rubbish format we've had the last few years, i still think it'll always suffer from 'only the league syndrome'

Instead of a seperate knockout provincial championship and then an all ireland series, i'd be inclined to go for:

1] Munster championship: Cork - Clare - Limerick - Tipp - Waterford

and a :

2] National championship: Kilkenny - Offaly - Wexford - Dublin - Galway - Antrim

Play these in a league format with home and away ties = Munster Champ teams get 8 games - National Champ teams get 10.

The top placed team from each championship go into the semi-final, teams two and three from each group play off in the quarter finals. Result? More championship matches, less inter-county matches overall, more 'home' matches for each county. It'd be much much easier to follow then the overly complicated formats we're currently getting into. It's all good.

Figment

I agree, Interesting ideas. Something definitely needs to be done. Worth trying for a few years I think.

Jimoslimos

1) Disband provincial championships.....its absolutely meaningless to win any sort of trophy after only 2-3 games (yeah yeah I know Galway won a few All-Irelands this way). Only the Leinster/Munster championships really matter and you'd be hard pushed to find any of the established teams bothered about winning/losing these.

2) While I see the merit in having a mini-league format before any sort of knockout stages I'm slightly worried that this will impact on the intensity and interest in the games but its probably the only way to give weaker counties enough high standard games

3) Therefore my proposal (similar to the two 'provincial' championship format mentioned earlier) would be to have two groups with 4 teams each from Cork, Kilkenny, Galway, Clare, Limerick, Tipp, Wexford and Waterford. In addition these groups would 'receive' two more teams from a knockout/playoff format.

So for example:

Group 1:
Cork
Galway
Wexford
Tipperary
Dublin*
Antrim*

Group 2:
Kilkenny
Clare
Limerick
Waterford
Offaly*
Laois*

*Teams qualified through playoff

Teams will play each other once with top 4 from each group going forward to All-Ireland quarter final stage. I know 4 from 6 is probably a high number but its the only way I can envisage giving some of the smaller counties a chance to qualify for the latter stages.

cruiserweight

There are proposals for revamped hurling and football championships, as well as the NFL and NHL from 2007! There is already a thread about them!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054984168