National Hurling Leagues 2026

Antrim are currently on the one win in Division 1B. The expenses Davy Fitz is getting paid from the Antrim county board certainly is proving to be money well spent.🤣 It's a shame really because i'd love to see Antrim make the big breakthrough someday.

Only 1 team have conceded less than Cork, and that’s Tipperary, who have a total of 7 points fewer conceded, but also have played 1 less game. When will this Cork delusion end? :D

Maybe, but Galway are quietly building a solid squad now and Kilkenny's squad has probably not been as weak as a good number of years. They have to go to both Salthill (where they haven't won in the round-robin) and Parnell park, a potential banana-skin in Tullamore and Wexford at home, who at least stand up to them in the championship. Drop points in Pearse stadium and other venues too and there's no guarantee they'll make the Leinster final. This year to date they've already lost 3 league games and had 2 narrow wins at home against the 2 weakest teams. Opponents are finally starting to play Kilkenny the team rather than Kilkenny the reputation.

Plenty of good players midfield up but a definite shortage of good backs.

It's in Limerick if it's a Limerick v Cork final

If that's what the GAA allow. They might demand a neutral venue for a double header.

Dont know would i call Cork bottlers.. think thats going a bit too far...

Lets look at the evidence..

2013 all-ire final 1st game.. a sympathethic ref gave Clare a chance to equalise... everyone including myself assumed once puckout by Clare keeper was taken whistle would blow.. didnt happen... cork beaten well in replay..

2021 no bottle job just beaten by much better team

2024 no bottle job just beaten by a team that was better on the day..

2025 a complete malfunction in 2nd half but i wouldnt call it a bottle job.... even though 6pts up at break Tipp had plenty chances in that 1st half to be closer at break but didnt take them.. obviously Barretts goal on stroke of halftime gave scoreline a better look for Cork but you wouldnt say Cork deserved to be 6 up.. 2nd half a mystery but it can happen...

Like if you go back to 2021 munster final Tipp 10 up at halftime and in the end beaten by Limerick.. was that a bottlejob i would not say so.. Tipp scored 6 times in 2nd half versus 19 scores for LK..

My own opinion is Cork are just not good enough to win all ireland just yet... and i think the goalkeeper and fullback line are the biggest issues they have..

Limerick v Offaly in 1994 was a bottlejob… Cork last July were just swamped by a Tipp tsunami..

Ya definitely agree about the Wexford match. They were puke on the day unfortunately and never got going at all. No offence to Wexford folk intended but I would have rated Offaly alot higher

you know your prob right about 1996.. but Limerick were awful hyped up before the start of that game… leaving parade early.. they were very on edge.. donegal last july reminded me of Limerick in 1996… hard to do yourself justice when in that state of mind

Have a running joke with my friends about this, that whoever breaks from the parade first has lost the psychological battle already

That's a good point about the things that don't matter. I know there's some teams down the years that have put a big emphasis on little details, like that time mayo went down to warm up at the hill end and it completely screwed with the dubs, or in rugby when England wouldn't move from the red carpet to meet the president and Ireland had to stand in the muck, and it was seen in both these instances as a way of asserting dominance.

But to me, in general, that sort of stuff is only bullshit that distracts from what you need to focus on: knowing your job and doing your job. I always think of Cody with that. One example, around the mid 2000s was when teams started to stand together for the anthem instead of standing in their position beside their opposite man. I might be wrong here but I've a feeling kk were one of the last teams to stop doing that, and I think it was just a case of, that sounds like nonsense, keep doing what you're doing. I doubt they ever once discussed when they'd break from a parade or anything like that either. Just seems like thinking about those things was amateur hour.

Of course then we got into the handshake thing with shefflin and wouldn't you know it, it becomes a pointless distraction for all involved. Focused on things that don't matter when shaking his hand would have been the sensible thing to do