Hurling gone mad

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DeclanP

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The hurling championship is a bit daft as it stands in that there is a Leinster section, a Munster championship and then the rest of them get about doing their own thing. Now the hierarchy want to bring Galway and Antrim into the Leinster championship. How mad is that? This is an exercise in bolstering an ailing Leinster championship and giving a sop to Galway when the game is crying out for an open draw between the few teams that are realistically competing for All-Ireland honours. The GAA want to preserve a Munster final and that is the bottom line and everything must revolve around that. The Leinster final drew an incredible (!) crowd of 19,000 people — christ, if Leitrim hurlers broke wind, they would get a bigger crowd than that! Rather than tinker around with the issue, it is about time that the 10 or so teams faced up to the fact that there should be no provincial finals and maybe it should be threshed out on an open draw/ round robin type basis. And forget the Nicky Rikard Cup which is given to the county which plays less rubbish than the dregs of hurling.
 
I agree with one part of your post - the Munster SH Championship is an institution and the GAA would tamper with it at their peril. They tried years ago with Galway "competing" in it and it was an abject failure - I can't remember Galway winning a single match or adding any spice to an already highly competitive series of games.

The Leinster SH Championship, given a bit of time and investment, has the makings of a good competition (maybe excepting Kildare and Wicklow currently) but parachuting Antrim, Galway or whoever into it, adds nothing, IMHO.

So what to do? Two provincial championships, a "displaced persons" championship and a separate All-Ireland series, is one possibility, but it would need a longer season to accommodate the extra matches, with qualifiers as per the Euro soccer.
 
Do you notice that when Kilkenny trash Wexford/Offaly it is because they are bad teams but when they trash Waterford or beat Cork (without having to get into third gear) it is because Kilkenny are the greatest team that ever played the game.
Wexford could easily have beaten Waterford this year - lost by a point and there was nothing between the teams. Offaly beat Limerick.
Kilkenny have taken the goodness out of the Leinster final, simply because they are so good. Adding Galway/Antrim to the mix will have a novelty value but won't change the outcome until Kilkenny lose the hunger.
 
Agree. At the moment the GAA are trying to contrive a way to prevent Kilkenny making the hurling championship a bore for everybody outside Kilkenny. They want to add Galway in the faint hope that they will present a stiffer challenge than the likes of Wexford or Offaly or Dublin (no chance) will ever mount. Is there any chance we could sneak Ger Loughnane into Kilkenny and oust Brian Coady because then that will give the rest of us a chance!!!!
 
DeclanP said:
... Is there any chance we could sneak Ger Loughnane into Kilkenny and oust Brian Coady because then that will give the rest of us a chance!!!!
Click to expand...

Is there any chance Loughnane would go and promote his sickening brand of sportsmanship in Alaska or the Sahara and allow inter-county relationships heal to the way they were prior to his interventions in the 90's?
 
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