Is this the best hurling championship in years?

yomtea98

Is it?It is certainly the most open in ages.Limerick winning Munster,Dublin winning Leinster.Tipp out,KK not playing well.Anyone left will give themselves a chance of winning.Or is the standard of hurling from KK and Tipp slipping leading to closer,more exciting games but not of the same standard skill wise as previous years?

Amprodude

yomtea98 wrote: »

Is it?It is certainly the most open in ages.Limerick winning Munster,Dublin winning Leinster.Tipp out,KK not playing well.Anyone left will give themselves a chance of winning.Or is the standard of hurling from KK and Tipp slipping leading to closer,more exciting games but not of the same standard skill wise as previous years?

Kilkenny have yet to get motoring but when they do, a big gap will emerge again. They are still the best until beaten. I hate saying it as a Cork fan but i reckon Cork are in for an absolute hammering by Kilkenny on 28th and once they beat us they will take some stopping then.

marco_polo

There have been lots of good exciting games but possibly nothing so far that would go into the list of all time great games in terms of sheer quality.

That said the openness of the championship so far, combined with a sprinkle of really good performances from some of the tier two teams like Laois and Carlos, the large number of really close games and two provincial winners closing a long gap without success means it has definately been one of the most enjoyable in years for me.

yomtea98

I would agree with that.Enjoyable but no memorable game.Still a good few games left still to make it a great year

InchicoreDude

Cant say yet

No, it is not. And it drives me insane when people say "It is a great year for hurling".

The hurling championship is more competitive this year because Kilkenny & Tipp's standards have dropped.

A great hurling championship would be the scenario where the other teams have raised their game up to the level of Kilkenny / Tipp of the last few years. In those games, you could not make a mistake. If you made a mistake against Kilkenny or Tipp, it would be punished. There were no second chances. This years championship matches have not been like that at all. Even in today's Munster final, the overall quality of the game wasnt the best.

While the games are good and exciting, we have nothing to compare with the quality of the Kilkenny Tipp matches from the last few years. But who knows, maybe we will yet. Still have quarter finals to come (with a potential classic involving Galway-Clare), semis & final. So plenty of hurling to be enjoyed yet....

buck65

It has been a very good year for Dublin and Limerick but one to forget for alot of teams too so far - Tipp, Wexford, Clare, Galway, Kilkenny.

Delighted for Dublin in particular but can they make a final?

blue note

No

It is the best in years. Definitely, KK and Tipp have dropped off in standard (although I'd still have KK as the best, particularly if Michael Fennelly can return fully), but the others have come up a bit in standard as well. Limerick and Clare went a few years where they were quite poor and Dublin were coming good for years, but now have finally started to deliver.

The result is 6 teams left and any one of them could conceivably win the All Ireland.

One or two teams will emerge over the next few years as the best, so we should enjoy the championship while it's like this!

blue note

No

buck65 wrote: »

It has been a very good year for Dublin and Limerick but one to forget for alot of teams too so far - Tipp, Wexford, Clare, Galway, Kilkenny.

Surely this year is more fun for a Kilkenny fan than a year like 2007? The match on Saturday was as exciting as almost any I've attended and their match against Tipp I hear had a better atmosphere than most all Ireland finals.

ArmaniJeanss

buck65 wrote: »

It has been a very good year for Dublin and Limerick but one to forget for alot of teams too so far - Tipp, Wexford, Clare, Galway, Kilkenny.

Surely it'll always be the case that its a good year for a maximum of 4/5 teams, and a year to forget for the remainder?

Gambas

This is a cracker. Who'd have thought two division two sides straight into the semi-final. KK are hanging on by their fingernails. Is it a case of what doesn't kill them only makes them stronger, or they are going to be put out of their misery? No doubt about it, they are pretty ordinary this year, but ordinary is going to be good enough to win the AI.

At the moment I still think it looks like ending up as a repeat of last years AI final. Galway can benefit from a very soft draw.

mickey1979

I would say no to the best championship in years as I have been saying all year that if Kilkenny come back a little there is not a whole lot between the rest. I feel vindicated in that. However is it the most enjoyable championship in years I would say by some distance. I fancy Dublin to win it(wow 5 years ago that would have been unthinkable) but this year has a few more twists and turns to go yet. Kilkenny of the last 10 years are prob the greatest hurling team of all time but age and the fact great teams are great because they a rare breed makes it an impossible task to continue. I don't think Kilkenny are the of that vintage this year but if they keep limping through all they may have to play is one good game. But it has been a brilliant championship to view this year.

InchicoreDude

Cant say yet

Gambas wrote: »

Galway can benefit from a very soft draw.

Clare are not a soft draw! I suspect that Galway - Clare could actually turn out to be the match of the summer. This Clare team will relish playing Galway.

I still fancy KK to win it. They are the team with the most potential to improve (we know they can be better).

KK are hanging on by their fingernails. Is it a case of what doesn't kill them only makes them stronger, or they are going to be put out of their misery?

They are hanging on but the problem is that they are hanging on! As one journalist put it at the weekend "Great champions die hard".

corny

Depends on what you enjoy.

Tipp and KK winning every year but playing hurling beyond the rest.

or

Tipp and KK coming back to the rest and as a result a more competitive championship.

Being from Dublin i prefer the latter.

mags85

Surely if this years championship is most enjoyable then it the best championship in years? I know most people probably mean in terms of quality of hurling, but in years to come which year is going to stand out most? People will remember kk winning every year bar 2010, so best championship then would be this year or 2010 (though we don't know what next year holds). As far as quality of hurling I thought KK v Waterford was a great match, best I've seen since 2010 AI (aside from the result ) Waterford had great skill but didn't do enough with it.

marco_polo

I mean the other thing worth pointing out is that this Kilkenny team are one of if not the greatest of Hurling teams of all time, so you can't really expect the other counties could possibly catchup without them dropping their standards a little.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

A good comparison, in soccer terms, would the champiosnhip this year being like the premiership, and in recent years it being like La Liga. Tipp and Kilkenny in AI for 3 years running, it wasn't good for the rest. This year the overall standard is better but the standard at the top is worse.
Personally I'm delighted. Every year teams were realistically hoping to avoid Kilkenny so maybe they could get to an AI final. This year all remaining teams actually have realistic ambitions of winning, which is something we've haven't been able to say for over 10 years now. It's great for the sport in those 6 counties, and also the rest. Wexford, Waterford and Antrim can only be encouraged by this years championship, and then of course Tipp will again be challengers next year.

Flukey

It is certainly is one of the best championships in years, and only Kilkenny winning it would spoil that. We need a new winner. Being from Dublin, I'd like it to be us.

Gambas

corny wrote: »

Depends on what you enjoy.

Tipp and KK winning every year but playing hurling beyond the rest.

or

Tipp and KK coming back to the rest and as a result a more competitive championship.

Being from Dublin i prefer the latter.

What's this Tipp winning every year stuff? Tipp have won twice in the past 20 years. That's once more than Wexford.

Flukey

Anything that breaks the Kilkenny/Cork/Tipperary triopoly is good. We have 5 in a row of winners in the mid 90s, the longest streak ever, but since Offaly in 1998, it has been the big three. At least we know that we are guaranteed another one gone in the next round, and hopefully the last one standing will fall after that. We've had the Division 1B finalists winning their provincial titles. Wouldn't it be great to have a repeat of the Division 1B final in September? Same result too!

premierstone

It's certainly the most entertaining and exciting championship for quite some time but I think anyone who is been anyway honest will admit that the standard has been ordinary at best.

MaroonAndGreen

For me (a football fan from a traditional football county) the hurling has been brilliant and alot better than the football championship so far this summer!

Maybe the games havent been high quality but they have been very exciting and I think Kilkenny's refusal to die in this year's championship could turn out to be a great story if they can go onto win it!

Also another team I find very interesting are Clare, very excited to see how they fare against Galway.

The fact is that any of the 6 teams could probably beat eachother on any given day.

Its certaintly better to watch than the football, where you have Mayo, Dublin, Donegal and Kerry/Cork completley cruising through their provinces in recent years!

InchicoreDude

Cant say yet

Flukey wrote: »

It is certainly is one of the best championships in years, and only Kilkenny winning it would spoil that. We need a new winner. Being from Dublin, I'd like it to be us.

Well, thats a pile of ****e anyway. If Kilkenny deserve to win it and go on to win it, why would it spoil it? It should be a good thing that the best team wins the championship.

Anything that breaks the Kilkenny/Cork/Tipperary triopoly is good

I dont see why

but in years to come which year is going to stand out most?

For me, the KK Tipp finals have been far far better than what we have seen so far this year. They will be games that will not be forgotten.

But Who knows? Maybe we will have a final like that yet this year. But so far, it suggests we wont cos the standard has not been as high.

mickmackey1

All these things go in cycles, does anyone think that Cork or Meath would have won those football titles in the late 80s if the great Kerry team had still been around? Throughout the history of the GAA we've seen top teams dominate before fading away, allowing 'lesser' sides to hoover up a few titles before the next great era begins.

tommy2bad

Well it's still for the taking 'tho Limerick looked good yesterday. I fancy them to go on to win it out.
The hurling hasn't been great, no real moments that gladden the heart but the weather has been great, the matches close and tbh hurling needed this even if it's because of KK's failing rather than the rest catching up.
Young lads in 6 counties will be out searching for sliothars in ditches for a few weeks yet.

niallo27

People have to remember it's impossible for teams to reach the standard that Kilkenny reached in the last few years. It's has to be good for hurling that the championship is competitive again and the only way this was going happen was if Kilkenny dropped off a bit although they must be still strong favorites.

MaroonAndGreen

Whats the opinion on Galway now?

Still able for Kilkenny or Dublin?

HazDanz

Like a phoenix from the flames Kilkenny will rise again. Getting through the last month will make them stronger and hungrier.

It makes this years championship more interesting but like what has been said the overall quality in matches has not been excellent. It's been competitive granted but we've yet to see two teams really excelling at the one time.

Still plenty of championship hurling to get through though so high hopes.