Preseason Competitions

PTH2009

can't find a pre season thread so I'll post it here

what is the benefit of these pairings in Walsh Cup ???. We have seen Kilkenny, Wexford and Dublin going up against lower tier teams (Kildare, Wiclow and Antrim) and handing them a new one. could they not have separate comps for tier 1/tier 2 teams etc

OldMrBrennan83

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Bonniedog

PTH2009 wrote: »

can't find a pre season thread so I'll post it here

what is the benefit of these pairings in Walsh Cup ???. We have seen Kilkenny, Wexford and Dublin going up against lower tier teams (Kildare, Wiclow and Antrim) and handing them a new one. could they not have separate comps for tier 1/tier 2 teams etc

I doubt the Walsh Cup will survive. Even the teams that Cats, Wexford and Dublin are putting out bear little resemblance to what will be there in league, never mind championship. Hard to imagine what benefit Kildare getting walloped by Kilkenny is to either. I know people involved in hurling in Kildare and they were posting stuff on FB about playing the Cats and so on. Bit like boasting about being eaten by grizzly bear!

Hammer Archer

Sure may as well move these into their own thread.

For the Walsh Cup, I suppose it's the only chance the likes of Kildare and Wicklow will get to play teams of a much higher calibre than they'll face in division 2 or the Christy Ring. No harm in it as far as I can see. It's only preseason so it's not as though it's going to have a massive bearing on either side in the months to come.

O'Byrne Cup semi finals are as follows:
Meath v Longford
Offaly v Westmeath

KevIRL

Wicklow have two teams in pre-season hurling for some reason. Wicklow B are playing in the Kehoe Cup.

Overall, the new championship structure means that these preseason competitions are becoming a complete irrelevance, not that they have been anything of a big deal for years now anyway.

Waterford, Galway and Tipp didn't enter into the preseason hurling competitions this year.

toonarmy1

There probably better than constant January training for players .

Was over 1500 people in Cusack park in Ennis on Sunday to see Clare play Cork in Munster Hurling League so some there is some apatite from supporters to see new players in action.

cms88

IMO they're useful. In hurling terms how are Kildare, Kerry, Wicklow etc ever going to improve if they can't play the top teams? Even if it isn't their full teams. Yes there are going to be miss matches, but in the lower tiers there are miss matches and no one seems too worried about that.

Same with football. Offaly have had some good results the last few weeks, These are better than just training during Jan surely

Hammer Archer

First free kick shootout that I'm aware of in Navan today. Was interesting if a bit weird.

OldMrBrennan83

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