Ulster Hurling Championship - A farce?

eroo

Antrim have now won the last 10 Ulster SHC titles.. 10 years of Antrim winning Ulster! I feel the Ulster SHC is an absolute joke, seeing as Antrim are automatically in the final each year all the while focusing on the Leinster SHC. Is it not an insult to Ulster Counties trying to develop? It obviously means nothing to Antrim to win this competition and means only one other Ulster county can make the final each year.

AbsentPonderer

Probably, the likes of Derry and Down who had challenged previously have totally fallen by the wayside. It's nothing but a challenge game for Antrim...

Kojak

AbsentPonderer wrote: »

Probably, the likes of Derry and Down who had challenged previously have totally fallen by the wayside. It's nothing but a challenge game for Antrim...

Is it even a challenge game at this stage? Antrim had 13 changes on their team for the final from their last match agaisnt Westmeath. Even a challenege match would have 6 or 7 first team players on a side.

maybe the USHC could be maintained if Antrim were not involved in it. It would give the other counties a more realistic chance of winning some silverware.

Daysha

I'm just looking forward to the time when Antrim win both a Leinster and Ulster hurling championship in the same year. That'll be funny.

derealbadger

Daysha wrote: »

I'm just looking forward to the time when Antrim win both a Leinster and Ulster hurling championship in the same year. That'll be funny.

even with modern medicine and cryogenics dont think your going to see that one:D

J Cheever Loophole

eroo wrote: »

Antrim have now won the last 10 Ulster SHC titles.. 10 years of Antrim winning Ulster! I feel the Ulster SHC is an absolute joke, seeing as Antrim are automatically in the final each year all the while focusing on the Leinster SHC. Is it not an insult to Ulster Counties trying to develop? It obviously means nothing to Antrim to win this competition and means only one other Ulster county can make the final each year.

I'm not sure on what basis you say it means nothing for Antrim to win it!?!

The relative strengths of the Ulster Counties in hurling means that to run a viable Championship requires Antrim entering the race at the Final stage, with everyone else playing off ahead of that for the right to meet them in the Final - similar to the 1980 Munster Football Championship. The nature of the Ulster Championship is therefore essentially a response to the strengths of those competing.

There are two ways of looking at it - you can poo-poo it as you have done, or you can commend both the Ulster Council and the participants for providing a genuine Provincial Championship, one in which each county has a (theoretical) chance of winning.

I'll go for the latter.

And by the way - well done to our hurlers yesterday for putting up such a good performance in the Ulster Final - hopefully yesterday, and indeed the entire season, can be built upon in the future.

grenache

The Ulster Hurling Championship is no more a joke than that of Leinster, where Kilkenny have won 13 of the last 14 titles.

KevIRL

J Cheever Loophole wrote: »

I'm not sure on what basis you say it means nothing for Antrim to win it!?!

The relative strengths of the Ulster Counties in hurling means that to run a viable Championship requires Antrim entering the race at the Final stage, with everyone else playing off ahead of that for the right to meet them in the Final - similar to the 1980 Munster Football Championship. The nature of the Ulster Championship is therefore essentially a response to the strengths of those competing.

There are two ways of looking at it - you can poo-poo it as you have done, or you can commend both the Ulster Council and the participants for providing a genuine Provincial Championship, one in which each county has a (theoretical) chance of winning.

I'll go for the latter.

And by the way - well done to our hurlers yesterday for putting up such a good performance in the Ulster Final - hopefully yesterday, and indeed the entire season, can be built upon in the future.

Well said, the Ulster Council are to be commended for being the only provincial championship where all counties from the province take part. Leinster could do something similar if they wanted, have some earlier rounds where Wicklow, Longford etc could play and one of them come out to join at the stage of Carlow, Westmeath etc

Le King

grenache wrote: »

The Ulster Hurling Championship is no more a joke than that of Leinster, where Kilkenny have won 13 of the last 14 titles.

And considering Michael Fennelly, Tommy Walsh and Eoin Larkin etc are still only mid-twenties you could have that number increasing for a good while yet.

run_Forrest_run

while we're at it we can throw the Munster Football Championship into it as well.

UpTheSlashers

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

while we're at it we can throw the Munster Football Championship into it as well.

Thats a bit different because theres at least 2 teams regularly competing for it.

legendary.xix

Antrim are an Ultster county. It'd be a farce for a team to be crowned the champion of Ulster without Antrim involved. I believe at the moment they should have a B championship. Armagh would've been this years B winners. It'd have been a notable Cup for them and the chance then to take on Antrim for the main title. All I can say is, fair play to the counties involved for taking part.

run_Forrest_run

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

while we're at it we can throw the Munster Football Championship into it as well.

Hold yer horses.....Tipp are coming to get ye in a few years

i think the ulster championship is important as it gives developing teams like Armagh competitive matches to improve. Antrim are setting the bar there at the moment and the challenge for the other 8 ulster counties is to get to their level and who knows after that.

To be honest though i would wonder is the whole provincial system a bit flawed in terms of overall game development and exposure.

sendit

grenache wrote: »

The Ulster Hurling Championship is no more a joke than that of Leinster, where Kilkenny have won 13 of the last 14 titles.

True only difference is Kilkenny dont get a bye into the final

Mountainlad

sendit wrote: »

True only difference is Kilkenny dont get a bye into the final

They do to the semi though!

J Cheever Loophole

Deleted User wrote: »

To be honest though i would wonder is the whole provincial system a bit flawed in terms of overall game development and exposure.

Couldn't agree more - tradition is a very powerful influence on modern GAA thinking, and Provincial Championships will not be spurned easily. I'm not sure what value the Provincial Championships are to Laois, Clare, Wexford and Offaly, to name but four.

J Cheever Loophole

J Cheever Loophole wrote: »

Couldn't agree more - tradition is a very powerful influence on modern GAA thinking, and Provincial Championships will not be spurned easily. I'm not sure what value the Provincial Championships are to Laois, Clare, Wexford and Offaly, to name but four.

Even since the backdoor the heat is totally gone out of Munster. We wont see any more 60 yard runs to score a winning point ala Ciaran Carey 1996 or fans invading the pitch after their team makes a comeback ala Tipp in 1991.

flahavaj

I think its great that theres a chamionship in Ulster for hurling that has 8 teams competing in it. I'd love to see a similar Connaught Championship get going as well, with the counties outside of Galway competing. Fair play to all involved. The fact that Armagh surprised us all by getting to the final this year shows it is a more than worthwhile venture.

flahavaj

Deleted User wrote: »

Even since the backdoor the heat is totally gone out of Munster. We wont see any more 60 yard runs to score a winning point ala Ciaran Carey 1996 or fans invading the pitch after their team makes a comeback ala Tipp in 1991.

While I agree that winning a Munster maybe is a little less important in the greater scheme of things than it used to be, theres no way the games themselves are any less hotly competed on the pitch. I didn't see any less intensity in the Clare/Tipp game than there used to be years ago and for Carey's 60 minute run in 1996 you could substitute Mullane's last second effort vs Limerick a few weeks back or Tony Browne's epic block in the last miute of the Munster Final replay last year.

Mountainlad

Or Tony Browne's goal in the drawn game.