My idea for a new hurling c'ship layout.

buck65

The current layout of the hurling C'ship is very poor and 2 games for teams that have been training since last autumn is hardly enough. With the amalgamation of Leinster/Galway/Antrim surely the time is now to finally resolve this. What is the point in playing hurling in Feb and March when we have all summer long with dry pitches ? Anyway in a nutshell

Group A Munster = Clare, Cork , Tipp, Waterford , Waterford

Group B Leinster = Kilkenny, Wexford, Offaly, Galway, Dublin, Antrim

Each team plays each other once. I.e Munster group 4 games each , Leinster 5 games each.
Winner of Munster group plays 2nd in Munster group in Munster Final
Winner of Leinster group plays 2nd in Leinster group in Leinster Final

All Ireland series : Winner of provincial final goes straight to All Ireland semi final where they avoid each other.
Loser plays team 3 in opposite group in quarter final.
Winner of 1/4 final plays semi final - avoiding team they already played if possible.

E.g if Munster finishes 1. Tipp 2. Clare 3. Waterford (Tipp beat Clare in Munster Final)
Leinster finishes 1. Kilkenny 2. Galway 3. Dublin (Kilkenny beat Galway in Leinster)

Clare play Dublin in 1/4 final (winner plays Kilkenny)
Galway play Waterford in 1/4 final (winner plays Tipp)

This would guarantee all teams at least 4 games of summer hurling.

For the weaker teams I would have a seperate competition where the final is played before a semi final in Croker and the winner of this plays the last team in Leinster group for a place in the following years C'ship.

To acommodate this format the league would have to be shortened but that's another days work.
I would commence this format in mid May, with the group stages ending in early July - giving plenty of time for 1/4 finals to be played.
Questions, comments welcome.

AMixedBag

Good idea actually.
Would love a few more championship games. Screw the league!
Emmm..


Now, where are those GAA officials?

davestar

very good idea . the league is needed thugh for managers to sort out their best squad for the championship , also we wouldn't have the exciting aspect of the draw . very good idea all the same

Benhonan

Good idea alright, although the replays are always exciting. Also it won't be long before someone from Leinster takes umbrage at the fact that only Leinster counties can be relegated.

AMixedBag

davestar wrote: »

very good idea . the league is needed thugh for managers to sort out their best squad for the championship , also we wouldn't have the exciting aspect of the draw . very good idea all the same

Oh jaysus, those draws aren't exciting atal atal. I'm up in a heap when i watch 'em. scary stuff im tellin' ya .

davestar

AMixedBag wrote: »

Oh jaysus, those draws aren't exciting atal atal. I'm up in a heap when i watch 'em. scary stuff im tellin' ya .

i find it very excitin. butterflies in my stomach watchin it lol

AMixedBag

davestar wrote: »

i find it very excitin. butterflies in my stomach watchin it lol

well it depends, like yesterday I couldn't care less as you saw the draw cork were in.. well im telling ya, if cork were in the phaseII draw, I would probably have been having a heartattack on the spot. :cool:

davestar

AMixedBag wrote: »

well it depends, like yesterday I couldn't care less as you saw the draw cork were in.. well im telling ya, if cork were in the phaseII draw, I would probably have been having a heartattack on the spot. :cool:

ha well there ya go . i'm a galway man myself . i'm disappointed due to the fact that if we beat clare , there's a storng chance we'll draw antrim/laois which will be pointless . i'm hoping we draw cork(who will surely beat offaly) as cork v galway could go either way , a tough tet for both also .

AMixedBag

davestar wrote: »

ha well there ya go . i'm a galway man myself . i'm disappointed due to the fact that if we beat clare , there's a storng chance we'll draw antrim/laois which will be pointless . i'm hoping we draw cork(who will surely beat offaly) as cork v galway could go either way , a tough tet for both also .

Yeah, we'll leave antrim/laois with limerick/wexford.

Galway will beat clare, if joe canning is playing. Of course, I'm not 100% sure that we will just get by offaly without a test. They easily and suprisingly trashed limerick in the qualifiers last year (although limerick were having problems at the time) and it seems like the cork team are just about settling down with denis walsh but are they 100% capable of defeating offaly up in tullamore.
I'm confident but I'm not totally assured.
It could be a galway v. offaly phaseIII encounter yet if the draw goes its way. Although i hope not.

davestar

AMixedBag wrote: »

Yeah, we'll leave antrim/laois with limerick/wexford.

Galway will beat clare, if joe canning is playing. Of course, I'm not 100% sure that we will just get by offaly without a test. They easily and suprisingly trashed limerick in the qualifiers last year (although limerick were having problems at the time) and it seems like the cork team are just about settling down with denis walsh but are they 100% capable of defeating offaly up in tullamore.
I'm confident but I'm not totally assured.
It could be a galway v. offaly phaseIII encounter yet if the draw goes its way. Although i hope not.

i have no doubt in my mind , cork wil beat offaly , despite all the troube they've had this year(strike) they only lost by a single goal to tip , very impressive . your right about canning , we are below aveage without him, although ollie canning , john lee and a few more are handy . could you imagine if canning played for kilkenny

AMixedBag

davestar wrote: »

i have no doubt in my mind , cork wil beat offaly , despite all the troube they've had this year(strike) they only lost by a single goal to tip , very impressive . your right about canning , we are below aveage without him, although ollie canning , john lee and a few more are handy . could you imagine if canning played for kilkenny

Or niall healy, I must say that I enjoy watching him play for galway.
I dunno if canning would even be good enough to start on the KK team (haha im jokin', hes one of the best).
Yeah, i know, we probably will beat them but sure, i was just trying to be modest for all those offaly people that post on the GAA forum (if there is any???).

Epicurus

buck65 wrote: »

The current layout of the hurling C'ship is very poor and 2 games for teams that have been training since last autumn is hardly enough. With the amalgamation of Leinster/Galway/Antrim surely the time is now to finally resolve this. What is the point in playing hurling in Feb and March when we have all summer long with dry pitches ? Anyway in a nutshell

Group A Munster = Clare, Cork , Tipp, Waterford , Waterford

Group B Leinster = Kilkenny, Wexford, Offaly, Galway, Dublin, Antrim

How could you leave Laois out of that group :eek:

davestar

AMixedBag wrote: »

Or niall healy, I must say that I enjoy watching him play for galway.
I dunno if canning would even be good enough to start on the KK team (haha im jokin', hes one of the best).
Yeah, i know, we probably will beat them but sure, i was just trying to be modest for all those offaly people that post on the GAA forum (if there is any???).

honesty over modesty lol .

AMixedBag

davestar wrote: »

honesty over modesty lol .

hmmm.. nah.
I'm sound.
Sure, to be honest, KK are gonna win the all-ireland again. I think I'll go down to the "man who makes the bets" (can't think of the name, feck:pac:) and bet on it now, I'm so confident about it.

Epicurus wrote: »

How could you leave Laois out of that group :eek:

They'll proabaly be relegated to Christy Ring status come next season anyways sure.

buck65

Benhonan wrote: »

Good idea alright, although the replays are always exciting. Also it won't be long before someone from Leinster takes umbrage at the fact that only Leinster counties can be relegated.

True, but in reality all the Munster teams at the moment are fairly strong and it would be pointless them playing in the promotion/relegation shoot out.
Leinster have consistently 4 good teams with Dublin now strong but Antrim would certainly be not much better than say Laois or Down and realistically the weaker teams should be entitled to have a chance to play in the C'ship at least.

taidghbaby

1. abolish national leagues
2. run leinster and munster championships as a league (home and away). Final for each is between top two teams in the league
3. Run a seperate, open all-ireland championship with no back door!

Stevecw

AMixedBag wrote: »

hmmm.. nah.
I'm sound.
Sure, to be honest, KK are gonna win the all-ireland again. I think I'll go down to the "man who makes the bets" (can't think of the name, feck:pac:) and bet on it now, I'm so confident about it.



They'll proabaly be relegated to Christy Ring status come next season anyways sure.

What about Carlow or Down who meet in Christy Ring final? The winner of that surely deserves a go at the proper All-Ireland too in your system too.

Especially Carlow if we win it again for the 2nd year in a row.

At least the gaa have decided for this year that the winner will automatically be promoted to the top tier which is only fair.

AMixedBag

Stevecw wrote: »

What about Carlow or Down who meet in Christy Ring final? The winner of that surely deserves a go at the proper All-Ireland too in your system too.

Especially Carlow if we win it again for the 2nd year in a row.

At least the gaa have decided for this year that the winner will automatically be promoted to the top tier which is only fair.

I didn't make up the system firstly :pac:.
And yeah, they definetly deserve a shot but the poster I was quoting was talking about Laois specifically. We don't know who won the Christy Ring yet, do we?

Zenga

Hey all,

I know im only new but I have a different idea for the championship. First off I would keep the provincial championships, there would be uproar if they were scrapped and they are a tradition we have had for the last 125 years, it shouldnt be scraped lightly.

I would instead, hold the provincials in the same format earlier in the year. I would run it off between the middle of march to the middle of may. Straight knock out, lose and youre out.

Then I would hold a seperate All Ireland Championship, but would offer seedings to the winners, runners up and semi finalists of the provincial championships. (Im going to assume KK & Tipp are winners of provincials this year as they are favourites) So for example this year

Seed 1

KK
Tipp

Seed 2
Dublin
Waterford

Seed 3
Wexford
Galway
Clare
Limerick

Unseeded
Offaly
Antrim
Laois
Cork

They would all go into an open draw to make 2 groups of six. A possible outcome of the draw could be

Group 1
KK
Waterford
Wexford
Clare
Laois
Cork

Group 2
Tipp
Dublin
Galway
Limerick
Offaly
Antrim

Now each team plays each other once, with the top two teams going into the AI semi final and the bottom two going into a Relegation semi final.

This setup would ensure that every team plays about the same amount of games...you wont be able to win 4 games and win the AI as is the situation currently. The weaker teams such as Antrim / Laois get at least 6 games per championship across a broad range of teams. There will be a greater intensity to the games as there will be at least 4 - 5 teams in each group fighting it out for the top 2 spots, and they are on or about the same level.

The added amount of games means more entertainment for joe public and the also extra funds for the GAA...perhaps this can be used to run a decent players grants scheme or fund extra developement at underage level in weaker counties.

Its a pretty long post so cheers to anyone who makes it this far!!

Zenga

Stevecw wrote: »

What about Carlow or Down who meet in Christy Ring final? The winner of that surely deserves a go at the proper All-Ireland too in your system too.

Especially Carlow if we win it again for the 2nd year in a row.

At least the gaa have decided for this year that the winner will automatically be promoted to the top tier which is only fair.

In fairness they dont deserve a crack at the All Ireland in the same year as they win the Christy Ring Cup. As you stated under the current format they get promoted to the All Ireland championship if they win the Christy Ring which is only fair and proper...but i think expecting Carlow or Down to beat anyone in the Championship next year is getting ahead of yourselfs i feel. Chances are it will be Laois or Antrim relegated this year from the AI, and it will more than likely be a dogfight between whichever of the two stays up and whomever wins the christy ring this year as to who will get relegated next year. Progress for Carlow / Down would be to get promoted and somehow retain the status over the next 3-4 years whilst trying to build at U-16 / U-18 level. Dublin have shown this will get the desired result, but manpower and resourses need to be pumped into the clubs and county setups for this to happen.

grenache

buck65 wrote: »

Group A Munster = Clare, Cork , Tipp, Waterford , Waterford

Group B Leinster = Kilkenny, Wexford, Offaly, Galway, Dublin, Antrim

I don't think Limerick or Laois would be too happy with being left out of the championship

For the record, i think the current structure is fine, yes teams spend 7/8 months training, often in the mud and rain, but if the team is good enough, it will win and won't have to worry about having only 2 championship games. Its like life, only the fittest and best survive.

curious guy

Cannin is over rated does most of his scorin from frees gets praise for things killkenny hurlers are doin the whole time like class passes shur compare wat eoin larkin contributed to joe wat did he get a goal that any full forward wit the full back rounded would of scored the rest were frees. His good but overrated is all im saying. take away the free takin.