Number of hurling clubs in each county?

Hawkeye9212 · 03-02-2020 10:10pm #1

How many hurling clubs does your county have? All grades are counted.

rossie1977 · 03-02-2020 10:13pm

7 clubs in Roscommon

Zetor19 · 04-02-2020 1:44am

36 in Kilkenny . 12 in each grade. Senior inter junior.

Big dog daly · 04-02-2020 4:14am

Zetor19 wrote: »

36 in Kilkenny . 12 in each grade. Senior inter junior.

I don't think that's correct. I think there is 41 clubs in total in kk and included in that is railyard which are football only. So to answer the question 40 hurling clubs

Local_Chap · 04-02-2020 4:55am

Big dog daly wrote: »

I don't think that's correct. I think there is 41 clubs in total in kk and included in that is railyard which are football only. So to answer the question 40 hurling clubs

38 hurling clubs I believe? Railyard, Kilmoganny and Muckalee are the three football clubs.
Threecastles and Carigeen are the two other hurling clubs whose first team is below Junior.

Wexford have 49 I think.

conor05 · 04-02-2020 8:47am

15 Adult hurling clubs in Kerry

8 Senior
(Kilmoyley, Ballyduff, Lixnaw, Causeway, Ardfert, Ballyheigue, Abbeydorney and Crotta O Neills)

5 Intermediate
(Kilgarvan, Tralee Parnells, Kenmare, Dr.Crokes and Lady’s Walk)

2 Junior
(St Pats and Duagh)

conor05 · 04-02-2020 9:00am

Local_Chap wrote: »

38 hurling clubs I believe? Railyard, Kilmoganny and Muckalee are the three football clubs.
Threecastles and Carigeen are the two other hurling clubs whose first team is below Junior.

Wexford have 49 I think.

Correct 49 gaa clubs in Wexford and 46 of them are dual clubs.

Oulart the Ballagh, Rathnure and Buffers Alley don’t play any football.

The Young Wan · 04-02-2020 9:36am

33 adult clubs in Waterford. Some are amalgamated at juvenile levels.

Luimneach2018 · 04-02-2020 9:51am

Limerick

16 senior, 8 premier intermediate, 12 intermediate, 26 Junior A, Junior B can be anywhere between 24 and 30. (Total 86-92)

50 hurling clubs, the rest are B teams and two clubs (Na Piarsaigh and Doon) field C teams.

Hammer Archer · 04-02-2020 9:58am

21 hurling clubs in Meath (not including second and third teams).
12 are in senior, 8 in intermediate, no first teams in junior and one team (St. Pat's) fielded an adult side in Junior 2 for the first time in a number of years last year.

CrabRevolution · 04-02-2020 10:49am

conor05 wrote: »

15 Adult hurling clubs in Kerry

8 Senior
(Kilmoyley, Ballyduff, Lixnaw, Causeway, Ardfert, Ballyheigue, Abbeydorney and Crotta O Neills)

5 Intermediate
(Kilgarvan, Tralee Parnells, Kenmare, Dr.Crokes and Lady’s Walk)

2 Junior
(St Pats and Duagh)

I've heard before that Lady's walk are Ballyduff's junior team. How does that work? Do players have to transfer between the teams?

randd1 · 04-02-2020 10:59am

Big dog daly wrote: »

I don't think that's correct. I think there is 41 clubs in total in kk and included in that is railyard which are football only. So to answer the question 40 hurling clubs

There's 38 hurling clubs in Kilkenny. One football only club (Railyard). Two clubs go under different names for hurling football (St Martins/Muckalee & Dunnamaggin/Kilmoganny).

interlocked · 04-02-2020 1:37pm

Fermanagh 1
Leitrim 2
Cavan 3
Longford 3
Mayo 4
Tyrone 4
Louth 5
Donegal 6
Monaghan 6
Sligo 7
Armagh 7
Roscommon 7
Derry 8

In other words,draw a line across from Galway to Meath and north of it,these are the results. The bottom eight counties have only 28 clubs between them.

Martin Fogarty, the National Hurling Development Manager is putting huge focus on this area. Next year will see the introduction of a senior club league, on a geographical basis , in order to give those teams more matches and reduce familiarity breeding contempt within counties who are playing the same fixtures eternally.
This has already been introduced at underage level and has been a success and some area have already taken matters into their own hands by playing cross county leagues, but these counties need Croke Park to finally take the bull by the horns and implement a focused long term strategy and that means long term allocated funding. "The greatest field game in the world"(c) is hanging by a thread in the northern half of the island but hey, at least we have the Fenway Classic, don't we.................

CrabRevolution · 04-02-2020 2:15pm

interlocked wrote: »

Fermanagh 1
Leitrim 2
Cavan 3
Longford 3
Mayo 4
Tyrone 4
Louth 5
Donegal 6
Monaghan 6
Sligo 7
Armagh 7
Roscommon 7
Derry 8

In other words,draw a line across from Galway to Meath and north of it,these are the results. The bottom eight counties have only 28 clubs between them.

Martin Fogarty, the National Hurling Development Manager is putting huge focus on this area. Next year will see the introduction of a senior club league, on a geographical basis , in order to give those teams more matches and reduce familiarity breeding contempt within counties who are playing the same fixtures eternally.
This has already been introduced at underage level and has been a success and some area have already taken matters into their own hands by playing cross county leagues, but these counties need Croke Park to finally take the bull by the horns and implement a focused long term strategy and that means long term allocated funding. "The greatest field game in the world"(c) is hanging by a thread in the northern half of the island but hey, at least we have the Fenway Classic, don't we.................

Like the Táin leagues that have been running for years?

I think the "Croke Park needs to hand over money" line is a bit of an easy excuse out for weak counties, especially when the counties themselves don't care all that much about hurling.

Every year we hear about county teams costing more and more, with 7 figure sums becoming common. If these counties have found a way to raise hundreds of thousands of euro every year that they didn't a few years ago, I'm sure they can spend a few more pennies on hurling.

Uncle Pierre · 04-02-2020 2:25pm

conor05 wrote: »

Correct 49 gaa clubs in Wexford and 46 of them are dual clubs.

Oulart the Ballagh, Rathnure and Buffers Alley don’t play any football.

Not true, I'm afraid. Used to be 49 clubs all right, but Clonee have been defunct these past few years, so that leaves 48 now. And of those 48:

Football only
Sarsfields
St. Mary's Maudlintown
Volunteers
St. Joseph's Bishopswater
Kilanerin

Hurling only
Tara Rocks
Faythe Harriers

And then there are other clubs like Buffers Alley, Rathnure, Oulart/The Ballagh, and Shamrocks, who are 99% hurling but who may or may not play football in any given year by putting out a team at Junior B level. But even if you take them as being dual clubs, that leaves a grand total of 48 clubs altogether, with 41 of them being dual.

interlocked · 04-02-2020 2:39pm

CrabRevolution wrote: »

Like the Táin leagues that have been running for years?

I think the "Croke Park needs to hand over money" line is a bit of an easy excuse out for weak counties, especially when the counties themselves don't care all that much about hurling.

Every year we hear about county teams costing more and more, with 7 figure sums becoming common. If these counties have found a way to raise hundreds of thousands of euro every year that they didn't a few years ago, I'm sure they can spend a few more pennies on hurling.

The county boards are part of the problem in football dominated counties, they're simply not interested in diverting money into hurling. The current complaints are the cost of funding county hurling teams despite the fact that most of the player expenses are agreed with the GPA at a national level.

This needs direct input from Croke Park,whether it's something as radical as a separate hurling over body or sanctions on county boards for not implementing agreed programmes. The entire area will require increased GPO's at county level and that demands central funding. There is huge enthusiasm for hurling at national school level but it needs resources to grow and transfer to a club level. This no short term fix, it's going to take decades to see real progress, the alternative is continuing indifference.

Utopia Parkway · 04-02-2020 2:45pm

Think I counted 43 hurling clubs in Galway.

A handful of the junior clubs would be better known for football but play a bit of hurling on the side.

arctictree · 04-02-2020 2:52pm

11 Hurling clubs in Wicklow fielding Adult teams:

Senior (7):
Bray,Greystones,St Pats, Avondale, Carnew, Kiltegan, Glenealy

Intermediate (3):
Kilcoole, Barndarrig, Arklow

Junior (1):
Aughrim

There were a lot more years ago.

Uncle Pierre · 04-02-2020 3:18pm

An interesting measure of the number of teams in each county, rather than the number of clubs: see page 126 of the GAA's 2018 Financial Report, available at https://www.gaa.ie/api/pdfs/image/upload/nlvhtgiloh9tbt50rx3s.pdf

The number of teams is larger than the number of clubs because if a club has say a senior hurling and a junior hurling team, then it's counted twice.

I think it's interesting from a number of points of view. For example, despite the flak that Kilkenny often get for "not bothering with football", clubs there make much more of an effort to play football than clubs in many other counties do to play hurling. 25 teams togged off to play football at some level that year, and 88 in hurling.

Compare that to counties like Derry (67 football but only 6 hurling), Louth (75 football, 5 hurling), and Cavan (79 football, 2 hurling).

Also, see page 76 and the total income/expenses for each inter-county competition. Total gate receipts from Nickey Rackard Cup were just €1,150 but total expenditure (matchday costs + team and player expenses) were approx €130,000. Total receipts from Lory Meagher Cup were just €310 (!) but total costs were €90,000.

So plenty of money going into running competitions for the weaker counties already, but they just don't seem to really care.

Hesh's Umpire · 04-02-2020 5:34pm

22 in Laois

CrabRevolution · 04-02-2020 5:45pm

Uncle Pierre wrote: »

An interesting measure of the number of teams in each county, rather than the number of clubs: see page 126 of the GAA's 2018 Financial Report, available at https://www.gaa.ie/api/pdfs/image/upload/nlvhtgiloh9tbt50rx3s.pdf

The number of teams is larger than the number of clubs because if a club has say a senior hurling and a junior hurling team, then it's counted twice.

I think it's interesting from a number of points of view. For example, despite the flak that Kilkenny often get for "not bothering with football", clubs there make much more of an effort to play football than clubs in many other counties do to play hurling. 25 teams togged off to play football at some level that year, and 88 in hurling.

Compare that to counties like Derry (67 football but only 6 hurling), Louth (75 football, 5 hurling), and Cavan (79 football, 2 hurling).

Also, see page 76 and the total income/expenses for each inter-county competition. Total gate receipts from Nickey Rackard Cup were just €1,150 but total expenditure (matchday costs + team and player expenses) were approx €130,000. Total receipts from Lory Meagher Cup were just €310 (!) but total costs were €90,000.

So plenty of money going into running competitions for the weaker counties already, but they just don't seem to really care.

I didn't believe that when I first saw it. But when I think about it, these games have a few dozen at most at them, and every player and backroom member gets 2 tickets each, plus a few for county board types. Hurling is a small community in these counties so most people who want a free ticket can probably get one. Then the only game that might attract a few non-hardcore fans would be the final, where the gate is lumped in with the CR and NR.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 05-02-2020 12:22am

I think Mayo used to have 6 clubs, but some folded. There are more clubs at underage.

castletownman · 05-02-2020 8:41am

conor05 wrote: »

Correct 49 gaa clubs in Wexford and 46 of them are dual clubs.

Oulart the Ballagh, Rathnure and Buffers Alley don’t play any football.

The latter sentence isn't strictly true. Buffers Alley won the junior B football title last year.

Luimneach2018 · 05-02-2020 9:55am

Uncle Pierre wrote: »

An interesting measure of the number of teams in each county, rather than the number of clubs: see page 126 of the GAA's 2018 Financial Report, available at https://www.gaa.ie/api/pdfs/image/upload/nlvhtgiloh9tbt50rx3s.pdf

Thanks for the link.

Put them in order and it's a very clear demonstration of why there are giant gaps in quality between the tiers. People often speak of smaller counties needing more exposure to the bigger teams in order to improve, the suggestion of Ulster and rest of Connacht super teams has been suggested. Wouldn't work because the quality of hurler a county produce is most likely directly linked to playing numbers within that county.

A rest of Connacht team is a combined total of 31 teams (Galway still has three and a half times this)

Westmeath also has 31 teams but the players on these 31 teams have come through a much more competitive environment and underage structure than any player on a non Galway Connacht team. I believe Westmeath would comfortably beat a rest of Connacht team by 15/20 points.

All of Ulster is 104 teams. It's a bit mad to think that four counties have more hurling teams than an entire province.

And Cork has more clubs than all of Ulster, and all of Connacht.

I knew Cork had the most teams but it surprised me that they have a hundred more than the next county. Adds a bit more context to the 15 year famine they are currently enduring.

It also shows how well Carlow have done in recent years. They have generally been between the 10th and 12th best team in the last few years along with Westmeath and Laois, they have outperformed and regularly beaten 7/8 teams above them in terms of playing numbers.

220 - Cork
120 - Tipperary
112 - Dublin
106 - Galway
90 - Wexford
88 - Kilkenny
85 - Limerick
76 - Waterford
68 - Clare
54 - Laois
44 - Antrim
43 - Offaly
39 - Meath
31 - Westmeath
28 - Kildare
23 - Kerry
21 - Wicklow
19 - Carlow
18 - Down
13 - Derry
13 - Roscommon
8 - Armagh
8 - Sligo
6 - Donegal
6 - Mayo
6 - Tyrone
5 - Louth
5 - Monaghan
4 - Leitrim
4 - Longford
2 - Cavan
2 - Fermanagh

Mantis Toboggan · 05-02-2020 10:30am

Some counties are a disgrace the way they've allowed hurling to become a minority sport in their county and i'd include the likes of Carlow and Kildare in that.

Luimneach2018 · 05-02-2020 12:25pm

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

Some counties are a disgrace the way they've allowed hurling to become a minority sport in their county and i'd include the likes of Carlow and Kildare in that.

I'd reposition the criticism of those county boards towards not doing enough to grow hurling in their county because I think it would be unfair to accuse them of allowing hurling to become a minority as the problem goes back to before the GAA was formed in 1884, when the individual county boards were being formed the sport was already a minority or even completely dead in some of those counties. Only Galway, Wexford, Tipperary, Dublin, Clare and Kilkenny entered teams in the very first All Ireland hurling championship.

I don't like to pick on individual counties but I find it hard to understand how with the GAA now being 136 years in existence we have counties that still don't even have 10 hurling teams. Why is it so hard to grow hurling in these counties?

ChippingSodbury · 05-02-2020 12:53pm

It seems impossible to redress the balance at county board level in the weaker counties from within. Remember the county board is made up of delegates elected from clubs: if you have way more football clubs than hurling clubs in a county, the county board selection (and 99% of their decisions) will also reflect that.
Our county has one GPO covering all of our county and a good bit of the county next door. I think there are three football GPOs for the county. GPOs are how change can happen: they go into schools and teach kids the basics and hopefully get them interested. This is the single most important route to getting more players in weaker counties. If we had three hurling GPOs for our county, the difference would be enormous. If Martin Fogarty had funding to provide or subsidise these (not funding to county board to provide them because it'll be spent on football probably!), change would happen.

I like football but I love hurling. Unfortunately, hurling is treated like a competing sport (soccer/ swimming/ rugby/ tiddlywinks etc) by some of the football heads in my parish...

Luimneach2018 · 05-02-2020 12:56pm

ChippingSodbury wrote: »

I like football but I love hurling. Unfortunately, hurling is treated like a competing sport (soccer/ swimming/ rugby/ tiddlywinks etc) by some of the football heads in my parish...

Yep, absolutely hate this carry on, and for the sake of balance it has to be said that there are hurling communities that treat football with the exact same contempt.

ChippingSodbury · 05-02-2020 1:04pm

Luimneach2018 wrote: »

Yep, absolutely hate this carry on, and for the sake of balance it has to be said that there are hurling communities that treat football with the exact same contempt.

Without outside intervention, these situations won't change. Maybe it's time for a "gender quota" type system for both sports on a county board? When either code is very dominant, it creates a problem.

On a side note, will you be changing your username to Luimneach2020? If not, I might do it myself

randd1 · 05-02-2020 1:54pm

Luimneach2018 wrote: »

I'd reposition the criticism of those county boards towards not doing enough to grow hurling in their county because I think it would be unfair to accuse them of allowing hurling to become a minority as the problem goes back to before the GAA was formed in 1884, when the individual county boards were being formed the sport was already a minority or even completely dead in some of those counties. Only Galway, Wexford, Tipperary, Dublin, Clare and Kilkenny entered teams in the very first All Ireland hurling championship.

I don't like to pick on individual counties but I find it hard to understand how with the GAA now being 136 years in existence we have counties that still don't even have 10 hurling teams. Why is it so hard to grow hurling in these counties?

There is a huge decline in hurling. Most counties used to have a healthy enough club scene, but that has dwindled to nothing in modern times.

To be honest, I think there's three reasons.

The first, and most obvious, is that for many football is the more popular sport, and people aren't going to be force to play a game they don't want to play.

Which I think is a result of the second reason; football and hurling are in competition with each other for players. When it was straight knockout at inter-county, there was plenty of time to run off the county championships, both hurling and football. These days, the clubs barely have their players at all for the first 8 months of the year, so the timeframe for running off the county championships has been squeezed to the last. And something had to give, which for many, was the minority sport. And as football and the demands for it have become greater, so hurling has been increasingly marginalised and has become less popular.

And the third; Hurling is harder to play, and requires a lot more time breed in the basics. You have to be playing it or training regularly to be adept at it. Football, being easier to play, doesn't require the same length of time to bed down the basics, and is a more accessible sport to play. Shown by the fact that even in virtually every hurling county, there is a decent football scene.

Uncle Pierre · 05-02-2020 2:25pm

Overall though, thing is it’s perfectly natural for somebody to prefer one game over another. The very fact that there’s a few of us here who’d like to see hurling being played more widely is a sign that we probably have a strong preference for hurling over football (I know I definitely do). So the flip side is that it’s perfectly natural for other people to have a strong preference for football too.

I sometimes think that overall it’s bizarre that the GAA even exists in the way that it does. I can think of no other sporting organisation in the world that tries to govern two sports and has an ideal of the two sports being treated equally. Particularly when you consider that there are really no similarities between hurling and football at all, other than the scoring system, the size of the pitch, and the number of players on each team.

It’d be a bit like if there was just one association to govern both soccer and hockey.

Number of hurling clubs in each county?

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