Messages

["what the hell are we putting in all of this effort for and putting the rest of our lives on hold for?"]

I think a three tier championship as per the club scene is the best option in the short term.......in the long term the only hope is that the top teams begin to ask themselves "what the hell are we putting in all of this effort for and putting the rest of our lives on hold for?"..... and hopefully they will come back to the pack.........if you were a young lad from Down Derry Armagh Antrim Fermanagh etc would you be willing to put your life on hold over the next few years just to try and close the gap? When Harte goes Tyrone will prob come back to the pack and prob the same in Monaghan post orourke.......when Donegal lose another few especially Murphy they will come back down too......then we might see a competitive ulster championship again anyway.........dunno what we can do with the dubs and Kerry though!!!!!

Why should others come to the question of what the hell they are doing putting in all this effort? What is negative about people pushing themselves to be the best they can be in whatever field they choose?

Why shouldn't the onus be on other counties to also step up to the plate? The likes of Antrim, Down and Derry as cited by yourself, and others outside Ulster like Kildare, need to get their houses in order. The size of population in those counties is conducive to producing good GAA teams. I know you can roughly halve the populations of Antrim, Down and Derry, but they are still very sizeable places.

I understand population isn't a foolproof recipe for success. If it was, my own county, Kilkenny, wouldn't be consistently eating at the top table as we're relatively small. But get good youth structures in place, put local squabbling apart and work for the overall good, and each county will have it's unique problems, treat players properly and success will invariably follow to a greater or lesser degree. A huge difference between the haves and have-nots is the value in the county jersey. In all successful counties without exception, the county team is the pinnacle. The respect players have in Dublin, Kerry, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Cork etc. have for the county jersey is phenomenal. Not all counties have that and it doesn't just materialise, it needs to be cultivated. Instead of praying the big boys slacken off, the aim should be to emulate them and do things even better.

I agree. Seedings need to be introduced
However, that means that counties won't get a favourable draw but it will be almost predetermined.

It would be predetermined in so much as first would know they played second etc. It would still have an element of the unknown though in so much as an unexpected team could still top the pile.

Anyone know who Gowran and/or Piltown are hosting?

Also, is there anywhere I can get my hands on the list of teams which have qualified?

Anyone who thinks Tipp are going to be a soft touch this Summer is in for a shock. They will be there when it matters

Nobody who knows anything about hurling thinks Tipp are going to be a soft touch. They're going to have their work cut out this year though as to get into an All Ireland they're probably going to have to beat three, possibly four, top teams before September.

The danger with round robins I fear are dead rubbers. If you have say top two go forward and nothing for third and fourth then you can easily have a situation whereby there is absolutely nothing riding on the last two games in any group.

You might get away with it in terms of 3 v 4 because they may still feel they have pride left to play for, particularly if they're local rivals. 1 v 2 could be a nightmare though as managers would almost certainly feel compelled to pay squad players to avoid injuries and any chance of suspension for later on in the tournament. That's almost a certainty in Leinster where there are a number of tier 2 teams.

This is particularly so when you look at the stupid set up currently with the Leinster round robin where there is no seeding for finishing top. This season Laois finished first and played Wexford, getting hockeyed in the second half, whilst Westmeath finished 2nd and played Offaly, almost beating them. Basically first ended up playing the better team. Similar scenario last year when Westmeath finished top and played Galway, with Offaly second who played Laois  . That's ludicrous as second meant, in both years, that you had a better chance of progressing in the next round.

The GAA need to put their thinking caps on on this one. Possibly round robins of four teams, how they work that out with 9 teams in Leinster and 5 in Munster is another day's work, with something at stake for third place as well as first and second. The third placed teams in each group could potentially play qualifiers against each other to get back into the championship proper, thereby removing the dead rubbers in the bottom half of the tables. Then some form of seeding for first and second to avoid that problem there too.

The fourth placed teams could possibly enter a tournament of their own to extend their summer as intercounty hurling finishing for teams in May does nobody any favours. That may devalue the Christy Ring Cup though.

I am an Interista and no-one will ever come close as a bandiere in my book to Zanetti. I found the farewell ceremony yesterday for Totti very moving though. Whilst I have great respect for players who have stuck loyally to a club, like Maldini, Del Piero, Buffon and Javier, perhaps Totti is due even more credit for sticking with a club where he didn't even win half of what he could, perhaps should, have done elsewhere. The others I mentioned have medals coming out of their ears which Totti, and De Rossi has to be mentioned here also, doesn't.

[Galway never got out of 3rd gear.]

Joe should've been sent off.

Galway never got out of 3rd gear.

Dublin will have some good players in a couple of years...can't wait to see them play football

It was impossible to judge Galway yesterday because of this. They never really needed to up the ante at any stage. It could be to their detriment that they have a handy route through to the Leinster final. Whoever wins between Kilkenny and Wexford will have come through a scrap in that match and be more battle ready I would think.

Waterford's defence was good today, though the Kilkenny forwards were shockingly poor. Come the summer they will have made a massive improvement and it will be interesting to see how the Deise get on against forward lines which are more in form come the warmer months. I think the amount of wides Waterford hit will be a major concern for them, as I recall there was a similarity last season and it will cost them if they don't solve it.