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Great article/ piece with Jim Mcguinness in today's Irish News, a full throated defence of USFC & the provincial series. He made the point, that has been made here before, that counties trying to compete v Dublin and Kerry need financial support and development plans to make them competitive  again - as a better alternative to just scrapping them.

The provincial structure is broken and most people just want them moved to the start of the season. Most counties voted for a structure in 2021 which would see them be played first followed by a league based championship. Now we've ended up with a structure which tries to please everyone and is condensed into half the year despite having more games.

Leinster GAA chief says provincial football and hurling championships are 'alive and kicking'

Maybe hurling but he must be living in a different world to the rest of us when it comes to football. Take Dublin out and you'd have a competitive championship.

[areas]

Re. Football & Hurling areas in Carlow, Laois & Offaly

At a guess I'd say the area split would be two-thirds football and one-third hurling - I'm open to contradiction.

Most clubs across these counties would be dual - football clubs fielding at minimum junior hurling teams and vice-versa.

Carlow - hurling strongest in areas bordering Kilkenny & Wexford
Laois - hurling strongest in areas bordering Kilkenny, Offaly & Tipperary
Offaly - hurling strongest in areas bordering Galway, Tipperary & Laois

There was a good programme on TV some time ago about Bord na Mona and how the employment it provided was a big factor in the rise of Offaly football in the 1960s through to 1980s.

Westmeath is another county similar to Carlow, Laois & Offaly with a proud football & hurling tradition.
Of course Offaly's record as a dual county is the envy of all the smaller dual counties.

Always found it very interesting to see the split in counties.

As someone once said the Hurling areas in Ireland is Tipperary and every county it borders.

With the exception of Wexford pockets of North Kerry and the Glens of Antrim.

Hurling used to be a lot bigger in Ulster/Connacht/North Leinster. There's a few clubs in Donegal which used to play hurling. Ulster hurling was similar to Shinty in Scotland.

https://www.historyireland.com/the-geography-of-hurling-11-2/

TWO VERSIONS
By the eighteenth century it is quite clear that there were two principal, and regionally distinct,versions of the game. One was akin to modern field hockey, or shinty, in that it did not allow handling of the ball; it was played with a narrow, crooked stick; it used a hard wooden ball (the 'crag'); it was mainly a winter game. This game, called camán (anglicised to 'commons'), was confined to the northern half of the country; its southern limits were set sharply where the small farms of the drumlin belt petered out into the pastoral central lowlands.

It declined after Cusack formed the modern sport based on the southern rules.

Thus, when Michael Cusack set about reviving the game, he codified a synthetic version, principally modelled on the southern 'iomán' version that he had known as a child in Clare. Not surprisingly, this new game never caught on in the old 'commons' area, with the Glens of Antrim being the only major exception.

This is the biggest hurdle to growing hurling. The traditional game became extinct and you've had a century of generations only knowing Gaelic football or soccer. I do wonder what would have happened if both versions of the game had been preserved.

Breheny (must be past retirement age) spouting in the "Independent" that there should be 20 Counties in Sam.
Him, Prenty, Spillane and the rest moaning about the current system and calendar never produce an overall plan of how their soundbite alternatives would work.

They spent years complaining about one sided games. The provincials are the biggest sticking point here. Prenty's proposal would make the group stage meaningless for Dublin/Kerry. Provincial councils will never give up. Having the Div 3 champs qualifying would only work if the provincial link is broken because then they won't overtake a Div 2 county.

People shouldn't be surprised when one company raises their prices and the others follow shortly after. 80% of the beers on tap in most pubs are made by two companies.

Diageo - Harp, Guinness, Smithwicks, Rockshore and Carlsberg (under licence).
Heineken - Heineken, Coors (under licence), Murphys, Beamish and Moretti.
Asahi - Peroni
C&C - Tennants (if you live in Ulster).

That's the ones available in my locals. We don't have tied houses like the UK but it might as well be.

From the premierviewpodcast



Donegal 10 Burt, Setanta, Buncrana, Mac Cumhaills, Eunans, Cl'aneely, Carn, A Ruadh, J
= Four Masters and Letterkenny Gaels

Cloughaneely don't field hurling teams. Senior = Setanta, St. Eunans, Carndonagh, Buncrana, Sean Mac Cumhaills and Burt. Junior = Aodh Ruadh, Dungloe, Four Masters, Letterkenny Gaels and second teams from Burt, Setanta and Sean Mac Cumhaills.

Surely if they are serious about promoting hurling in these 5 counties they would be providing funds for underage development. There would need to be a long term plan.

How many clubs has Mayo? Toreen and Ballyhaunis are only 2 I've heard off, how did they escape the chop. Toreen have been to an intermediate all ireland final, maybe the likes of the Mayo clubs should be used as a guide for hurling clubs in traditional football counties.

Mayo have 4 clubs competing in the Senior champ.

Senior: Tooreen, Ballyhaunis, Castlebar Mitchells and St. Ciarans. St. Ciarans is an amalgamated team made up of players from 7 junior clubs.

Junior club are Claremorris, Moytura, Westport, Ballina, Ballyvara, Caiseal Gaels and Gaeltacht Iorrais. That is 13 clubs total.

Tooreen and Ballyhaunis look to be good bit ahead of other clubs when it comes to quality given some of the scores they put up.