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Should the tiered hurling championships be abolished?

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    #32
    Bonniedog
    Registered Users Posts: 6,665 ✭✭✭Bonniedog


    There is no way in my opinion that counties who do not have a hurling tradition will ever take up the game seriously. As the post about Cavan proves, it is the preserve of a small number of clubs. Lisnaskea in Fermanagh be the equivalent of Mullahoran, Just not possible to get a competitive county team from such a small base.

    Dublin is sort of strange in that hurling had mostly disappeared up to foundation of GAA. It was country fellas working here that made it a popular sport, and in a lot of cases it was and indeed is the offspring of those country lads who are mainstay of the game still. My own family is Tipperary originally and I would safely say that we would never have played hurling were it not for that. Other counties get the odd Garda and teacher who play, but not to same extent as Dublin did 100 years ago.


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    #33
    C__MC
    Registered Users Posts: 3,057 ✭✭✭C__MC


    The decline of Antrim has been desperately sad. They have major population and the game is popular up there in parts but it is unlikely they''ll be back in the top table any time soon.

    The hurling landscape wont change anytime soon I would think. The Dublin revolution at the start of this decade was great. Imagine if dublin won the double in 2013! But as others have said, the gap is so big between each competition. Leitrim were out of their depth this year in the NR. Derry were in the NR last year and absolutely walked it.

    The whole hurling thing is hard in Ireland. It just isnt' popular in parts. People say we should promote the game more in the lower competitions but the publicity isn't there. I love to see it promoted like League Two in England but they do not get the crowds. You would be lucky to get 50 at a Lorey Meaher game.


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    #34
    I says
    Registered Users Posts: 1,936 ✭✭✭I says


    I’m all for this new format as was said earlier scrap the league and have 2 groups of six open draw and winners and runners up in groups qualify for AI semifinals. Home and away format the JMD cup has been a great addition maybe if RTÉ showed a highlights package on a Monday night or the GAA sold the rights of it to TV3 might help it


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    #35
    conor05
    Registered Users Posts: 937 ✭✭✭conor05


    Hurling Rankings wrote: »
    The parish I'm living in at the moment fields 3 adult clubs at senior, intermediate and junior.

    In Cavan, Mullahoran won every county title between 1990 and 2010, the Cavan championship was basically Mullahoran versus an amalgamation of every other player who can hurl in the rest of the county.

    For years they only had 2 or 3 adult hurling teams in the county, there are clubs in traditional hurling counties that have as many clubs and players as that entire county had.

    As far as I'm aware Cavan have a few more clubs now, but you have a number of counties who only have no more than a dozen adult hurling teams to choose from. In Limerick, there are about 52 unique clubs who field 86 adult teams in this years county championships at all 5 grades (Senior, Premier Intermediate, Intermediate, Junior A, Junior B).

    There'd be three or four counties with greater playing numbers with Limerick in that respect, that's one end of the scale. The likes of Cavan, Sligo, Fermanagh, Leitrim are at the other end of the scale, and there are many levels in between.

    The hurling championship is structured quite well, taking into account the various demographics involved.

    A county with say only 16 adult teams to pick from is not going to be able to compete with a county with 60+ teams to pick from. Changing the structures of the senior county championships will do nothing to change that, it won't magically make football only clubs all over the country decide tomorrow morning they're going to go dual and spend years putting in a concerted effort to promote and train and develop underage hurlers and hope that enough of them stick around long enough to eventually be able to field decent adult teams down the line.

    Final point, I think the Ring and Rackard Cups have been brilliant. The Meagher Cup was a shrewd introduction as it recognised the gulf between the top and bottom sides in both the former competitions and enabled all counties in all three tiers to play against a smaller number of teams who were all more closely matched. The McDonagh Cup has further improved matters, providing a competitive national championship for a handful of teams who were a bit too strong for Ring Cup hurling and not strong enough to be contenders for the McCarthy Cup.

    As it stands the vast majority of counties can realistically aspire to win a national title at Croke Park, take the tiered competitions away and that dream is taken away from all bar the usual suspects in the traditional counties.

    Great post!

    I can stand over the gulf in class between each tier.
    I have seen quite a few Kildare Hurling matches.
    Kildare (Christy Ring) played Louth (Nicky Rackard) a few years back in a preseason cup and absolutely walloped them. Game over after about 20 minutes.
    Later that year Kerry played Kildare in the semi final of the Christy Ring cup and Kerry absolutely hammered Kildare 6-27 to 0-9.

    That’s why kerry and the likes of Antrim needed a new tier like the JMD Cup. Great idea.

    It will take as long for Louth and Donegal to reach the standard of Kerry and Carlow as it will for Kerry and Carlow to reach the level of Galway.


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