Dublin to have 3 teams in Hurling!

Imposter

unison.ie wrote:

Link
DUBLIN could have three senior hurling teams taking part in the 2008 campaign.

As well as the Capital's senior side figuring in the Leinster Championship, provision is to be made to include a team from South Dublin in next year's Christy Ring Cup, and a team from North Dublin in next year's Nicky Rackard Cup.

Several years ago, the Strategic Review Committee (SRC) - which included former president Peter Quinn - suggested that the GAA should consider fielding two Dublin teams in certain competitions.

What do people think of this?

I think that efforts to make the game more popular in Dublin are good but this idea is not good. It gives Dublin an unfair advantage over all other counties. Efforts to make the game more popular should be possible to be implemented in all counties. Dublin is of course the best place to start due to the potential number of players and the current standards but to allow them such an advantage is not good imo. One idea on this would be to split Dublin into Dublin Sth and Dublin Nth with no combined team. I'd have no problem with that but it would also have to be done for football.

Under the idea in today's indo they will have 3 teams playing intercounty hurling! What would happen if the combined team get relegated to the Christy Ring or if one of the other teams won their cup?

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Imposter wrote:

What do people think of this?
What would happen if the combined team get relegated to the Christy Ring or if one of the other teams won their cup?

they would probably remain in that division, no club can field 2 seinor teams, i amagine the same rules would apply for inter-county.

Be The Holy

A fantastic idea. Would give dublins up and coming young lads the experience and taste of intercounty experience. Yes, this is preferential treatment for dublin, but the importance of a revival in dublin hurlings fortunes shouldnt be underestimated. It would provide a fantastic boost to hurling in general.

Dont see why you couldnt have a Dublin North versus Dublin South team in the Christy ring Cup.

DUB

I take it this is to cater for the three regional development squads that are now in operation in dublin and the players who won't quite make the senior grade. it'll be a great chance for the dublin senior management to try out players and hopefully with a taste of inter-county hurling it'll help raise the standard of the club game in dublin, which now has regional teams in the SHC. It'll be very interesting to see how they perform, i'd say they could go well in about 3 or 4 years time. There's a lot of very good forwards on the current u21 squad and that's exactly what the dublin seniors need, so the senior team should go well in the next year or two.

DUB

I could see both meeting in the christy ring eventually, which would be a laugh, i wonder is this part of a split dublin masterplan??? :eek:

Imposter

Nth v Sth is no problem but if the senior team were to get relegated or one of the others were to win the Christy Ring that creates big problems!

I really think it is very unfair on other borderline counties. Surely there has to be another way to help Dublin that could eventually be applied in all counties. The regional teams in the SHC is a good idea though.

The stronger counties are also bound to object. Offaly and Wexford will feel they are definitely at a big disadvantage as Dublin's development will/should be accelerated. Similarly other strong counties would surely love the oppurtunity to develop 2nd and 3rd squads through the other competitions but that is hardly likely to happen!

gerire

This thought process has been around for a while now; Dublin hurling needs all the help it can get, I believe it is on trial in Dublin, other counties in the future. I say by 2020 we have the Kilkenny 1st Vs Kilkenny 2nd team

Kojak

The idea is a good one, on paper. Many senior clubs field second striing underage teams in order to keep young lads playing and to hopefully develop them into better players further down the line.

The biggest issue I would see with this is that what happens if 2 Dublin teams meet and say, there was conflicting interests. For example, one team could still be in the race for the title (whatever that may be) and the other are out. Would the team with nothing to play for just "give" the match to the strong Dublin side??

Would it even be allowed that 2 teams from the one couty be in the same competition at all?? We had huge problems in Galway a few years ago when Athenry won the SHC and the IHC in the one year, yet their intermediate team wasn't allowed to be promoted because it would mean 2 teams from the one club in Senior. I wonder would the GAA allow 2 (or even 3, if they were strong enough) in the one competition. Lets say that Dublins 3rd string were too strong for all of the Nicky Rackard teams (it may not be as unbelievable as you think) and they win the competition, would they be allowed enter the Christy Ring competition next year??

I personally think that any initiative that keeps lads hurling and gives them a chance to line out for their county is a good idea. I just wonder could it eventually lead to a Dublin v Dublin final in one of these competitions. That wouldn't be very helpful in developing hurling in counties like Roscommon or Monaghan, for example.

DUB

Some very fair points raised. It'll be interesting to see what happens. Agree that there might be a conflict of interests, we had brigids As and Brigids Bs in the SFC last year, and what do you know, they drew each other in the first round! [to cries of fix!] ... mind you there's a ready made rivalry there between north and south dublin, i can only see poblems if either team met the full dublin team, but then maybe they'd like to prove something against. Interesting times ahead. is this really a pilot for other counties? surely kilkenny and cork could field second string teams stronger then most counties?

Trampas

It Dublin North vs Dublin South.

Who will warm up infront of the hill??

And which fans will get tickets for the hill??

DUB

Trampas, considering it's lower tier hurling your talking about i don't think the hill comes into the equation, sadly. unless of course dublin start qualifying for all ireland quarter finals and then watch the bandwagon come from nowhere, it'd be on a par with munster rugby for people following a team and knowing nothing about the sport.

Imposter

DUB wrote:

Some very fair points raised. It'll be interesting to see what happens. Agree that there might be a conflict of interests, we had brigids As and Brigids Bs in the SFC last year, and what do you know, they drew each other in the first round! [to cries of fix!] ... mind you there's a ready made rivalry there between north and south dublin, i can only see poblems if either team met the full dublin team, but then maybe they'd like to prove something against. Interesting times ahead. is this really a pilot for other counties? surely kilkenny and cork could field second string teams stronger then most counties?

No it's not a pilot for other counties. My point was that ways to develop Dublin hurling should be welcomed but only if such methods can be extended to other counties. Allowing Dublin 3 teams in the senior championships is not something that I can see repeated for another county. Every county, except possibly the Nicky Rackard teams, would almost definitely have something to gain from having a 2nd and possibly 3rd team in the senior competitions but I can't see them being given the chance so Dublin shouldn't get that chance either. Although spliting Dublin into 2 counties for hurling and football is an idea that could work (No overall combined team) but would weaken, not strengthen, the Dublin teams in the short term at least.

DUB

Down are going to field a non ards penunsila team as well i think, they used to have a team from non-ards clubs a few years ago. Apparently some of their non traditional hurling clubs outside the ards are taking the game more seriously now.

I'd be dead against any split of the full dublin team, i'm very happy to have to the two regional feeder teams for the full dublin team but split dublin and i'm gonna be very pissed off. Should help raise the competitivness of tier two and three which is good. Will also stop lads getting disillusioned if they dont make the grade after u21 grade.

blackbelt

I think its a good idea and I'm not saying that because I'm a Dub.I'd have no problem in seeing a pilot of this idea being carried out in Laois,Wicklow or Westmeath as these are other teams who are on top of the tier two hurling teams with Dublin emerging into the bottom-mid top tier teams.

And God knows that the GAA wants to promote hurling so bad to the point its on the same popularity level as the football.The sad thing about hurling is that whilst its a fast moving eciting game,its become so predictable akin to the premiership.Only a select 4-6 team are in the running ie KK,Cork,Tipp,Waterford,Galway.

The GAA will ultimately try to give the capitol an advantage to break into the scene and shake things up which they did in the league.Nobody gave them a hope of winning one match but they won 2 and drew one and were,in my opinion,robbed of a playoff spot for the league having played 3 matches in 7 days.

With the emergence of two-three teams in Dublin,it will make the intercounty senior hurling more competitive to get places.A great idea in my opinion

DUB

Agree blackbelt. Mind you, the fact that there's only a handful of potential winners is nothing really all that new, the 90s were the exception in that respect. Realistically most sports could say the same in fact, the most obvious example being the hypefest across the water, where I can name you the top 4 teams for the next five years now. Dublin are a long way off shaking things up at the business end of the season yet, but we could start worrying the likes of Wexford in the next year or two [will be a hellofva game on the 9th but i expect wexfod to have too much for us still]. This years u21s look a very strong unit [even with O'Reilly out] and the best thing about them is they have a load of good forwards, not all of who willmake the grade at senior immediately so the regional teams will be a great way to keep an eye on them. Forwards are exactly what this dublin senior team needs so i expect great strides in the next 2-3 years as these lads start to mature.

Flukey

I'm a Dubliner, and I think it is a ridiculous idea. There is one Dublin, so there should be one team, and don't even mention the Fingal, Dún Laoghaire Rathdown etc. council areas. Having two or more teams could in fact dilute the talent. It is better to have one pinnacle to aim at. Then you will get the best players coming to the top. If Dublin could enter more than one team, then other counties would be arguing to do the same and you could end up with several Kilkennys and Corks etc. Those counties may not win the argument to have other teams, but to prevent even the start of a debate for other counties to do it, then Dublin shouldn't do it either. They already have an incentive for Dublin to produce a better team. It is called the Liam McCarthy Cup. So: 1 county, 1 team, and that should apply to every county, hurling and football.

Nalced_irl

Flukey wrote:

I'm a Dubliner, and I think it is a ridiculous idea. There is one Dublin, so there should be one team, and don't even mention the Fingal, Dún Laoghaire Rathdown etc. council areas. Having two or more teams could in fact dilute the talent. It is better to have one pinnacle to aim at. Then you will get the best players coming to the top. If Dublin could enter more than one team, then other counties would be arguing to do the same and you could end up with several Kilkennys and Corks etc. Those counties may not win the argument to have other teams, but to prevent even the start of a debate for other counties to do it, then Dublin shouldn't do it either. They already have an incentive for Dublin to produce a better team. It is called the Liam McCarthy Cup. So: 1 county, 1 team, and that should apply to every county, hurling and football.

Fully agree. This would cause a huge amount of problems in the future were they to do it. The fact is that football is more popular in Dublin these days and hence the reason that hurling is suffering here. By making 3 Dublin teams, thats not going to make people suddenly decide to pick up a hurl instead, I really dont see the benifits in the long term.

monosharp

Nalced_irl wrote:

Fully agree. This would cause a huge amount of problems in the future were they to do it. The fact is that football is more popular in Dublin these days and hence the reason that hurling is suffering here. By making 3 Dublin teams, thats not going to make people suddenly decide to pick up a hurl instead, I really dont see the benifits in the long term.

It is a subject that needs to be addressed somehow though. Having Dublin with a population of 1 million+ as a single entity against counties who might only have a total population of 28,000 (Leitrim), 60,000 (Sligo), 34,000 (Longford), 113,000 (Waterford) etc etc etc is just madness.

I don't know how it should be addressed but it does need to be.

Be The Holy

The GAA in dublin has a penetration rate of about 5%, which in about a population of 1.2 million is about 60,000 people involved in GAA activities. Vast areas of Dublin have no GAA activity what so ever. So, its not that massive a difference really when you consider it. Its well documented that Cork has the largest playing populations, but nobody is looking for them to be split up.

Flukey

Whatever the population of a county, they can only put 15 players on the pitch at a time. The pool of talent may be wider, but that isn't to say the best of that talent is much different than the best from another pool. There is no reason that the top hurler in Longford could not be as good as the top hurler in Kilkenny for example, even if there are less to pick from. It is the structures and supports that make the difference. It is those kind of things that set successful counties apart in the different sports. Dublin does not need to be split in 3. They need to work at the basics and give full support to the hurlers in the county. That is what will make Dublin a strong hurling force.