Would you be in favour of a second tier?

[Rossfan]

I think it is self evident that the introduction of the Qualifiers has led to a greater disparity between the elite counties and the rest, the super 8 will serve only to widen this disparity and the introduction of a tiered championship will be the death knell for county football in many weaker counties.

The tiered championships in hurling has led to the almost complete demise of hurling as a competitive sport in Ulster as far as I can see.

Yes indeed them Ulster boys sure were able to put Cork, Tipp Kilkenny etc in their boxes from 1884 till the Ring Rackard etc came in.

[sligoman2]

I think it is self evident that the introduction of the Qualifiers has led to a greater disparity between the elite counties and the rest, the super 8 will serve only to widen this disparity and the introduction of a tiered championship will be the death knell for county football in many weaker counties.

The tiered championships in hurling has led to the almost complete demise of hurling as a competitive sport in Ulster as far as I can see.

Yes indeed them Ulster boys sure were able to put Cork, Tipp Kilkenny etc in their boxes from 1884 till the Ring Rackard etc came in.

Nice one rossfan 

[Esmarelda]

I think it is self evident that the introduction of the Qualifiers has led to a greater disparity between the elite counties and the rest, the super 8 will serve only to widen this disparity and the introduction of a tiered championship will be the death knell for county football in many weaker counties.

The tiered championships in hurling has led to the almost complete demise of hurling as a competitive sport in Ulster as far as I can see.

Yes indeed them Ulster boys sure were able to put Cork, Tipp Kilkenny etc in their boxes from 1884 till the Ring Rackard etc came in.

Nice one rossfan 

Hardly. Nobody said the Ulster boys did anything. The point, right or wrong, was that the weaker hurling counties had gotten weaker.

Rossfan is not at his usual best on this thread, in my opinion.

[Syferus]

Good points by AZ about the Yanks of all people levelling the playing field as it were.
Westbound the main reason the LM/ Ros games had bigger crowds in 9/10/11 was that LM had a hope of beating us then ( we were D3 and D4 then).
Last 3 years we had gone beyond having any possibility of close and exciting games with them and 5k people were giving the game a miss.

Esmarelda - would the Rackard, Meagher and weaker Ring hurlers like to be thrown into a 35 Co McCarthy cup race?

There was fûck all chance of Leitrim giving us a game and us Connacht champions in 2011.

[seafoid]

I would support  a second tier featuring Dublin and Kerry.

[FermGael]

Derry gave Mayo a serious scare and Longford seemed to have troubled Donegal .
Leave things alone

[dublin7]

Derry gave Mayo a serious scare and Longford seemed to have troubled Donegal .
Leave things alone

If either had one they would still likely have been well beaten in their next game. Neither team would have any chance of winning the All Ireland. Surely it would be better to put them in a competition they would have a chance to win.

[FermGael]

People over reacted last week on the back of Dublin hammering Westmeath.
The Sunday game had a part of the show dedicated to it.
You really think lads would play with that drive for a 2nd tier game ?
Not a chance.

[dublin7]

People over reacted last week on the back of Dublin hammering Westmeath.
The Sunday game had a part of the show dedicated to it.
You really think lads would play with that drive for a 2nd tier game ?
Not a chance.

If it was a proper competition with decent rewards then yes absolutely. Hurlers don't have a problem playing in the Nicky rackard and Christy ring competitions. Teams of similar standards playing against each other with promotion and relegation based on performance. A lot of sports have been using this simple basis for their competitions for centuries!!!!!

[FermGael]

If you look at the hurling model it's been a diaster.
The secondary competitions are all over by mid June.
None of the finals were on national TV.
The gap between the top tier and in the rest is getting bigger and bigger.

[Captain Obvious]

Derry gave Mayo a serious scare and Longford seemed to have troubled Donegal .
Leave things alone

If either had one they would still likely have been well beaten in their next game. Neither team would have any chance of winning the All Ireland. Surely it would be better to put them in a competition they would have a chance to win.

More to cup competitions than just winning them. Upsets like Down last week or competitive performance from the underdogs like Derry,Longford  today draws plenty of interest. Down,Kildare,Roscommon,Cork all underdogs in the upcoming provinal finals would all take a provincial title over some 2nd tier Championship title.

[giveballaghback]

What will we call the competition? The half all-ireland championship

[From the Bunker]

What will we call the competition? The half all-ireland championship

We have that Already it's called Hurling!

[ONeill]

The weird thing is that a lot of the two-tiered county vocalists are supposedly avid club men.

If that's the case, who gives a fook how many tiers there are at county level. The sooner your club men are out the better.

[johnneycool]

If you look at the hurling model it's been a diaster.
The secondary competitions are all over by mid June.
None of the finals were on national TV.
The gap between the top tier and in the rest is getting bigger and bigger.

It wasn't always that way.
The finals used to be played before the AI semi-finals in August then we'd "hurling" men in Nicky Brennan and Christy Cooney coming in and changing it so that the minors were back in before those games.

Can't argue with your last point though although Westmeath, Carlow and Laois would be a bit yoyo from CR to AI series.

Ulster hurling is on its uppers and is poorly served by the Ulster Football Council.