Hurling 2024

[seafoid]

Antrim seem to have put in a good shift.

I know that the hurling league isn't as dynamic as the football but repeated exposure to the  top teams has to be good for the Joe Mac/all Ireland interface  crowd

[Eire90]

scrap provincial championships  maybe play them early in season make the current league setup the all ireland only bring in semis and quarter finals group winners get bye to semis  you can still  name the other competitions after people  it could  be named all ireland division  2 joe mcdonagh cup all ireland division 3 christy ring cup etc.

[Milltown Row2]

Laois Antrim Westmeath are a level above Joe McDonagh, but well below the top 6 when it comes to the business end of the year... maintaining and adding to the panels will give more player's exposure to this level which can take them up... still waiting on Dublin to breakthrough and they are a level above us

[imtommygunn]

Limerick, cork, Waterford, tipp, Clare, Galway, Wexford, kk, Dublin then the rest. Gap is massive between anyone and that.

Antrim, Laois , Westmeath then the likes of Kerry , Offaly and Carlow seem to have dropped off but I think Kildare have upped it. Offaly will likely make that a top ten in a few years.

Gap between those 9 and the rest is very big bar the odd blip.

[seafoid]

If counties wanted more high quality competition something new would need to be tried, like evening up teams by transferring players from the stronger counties to drive standard improvement.
But I don't think they are interested.

[Milltown Row2]

If counties wanted more high quality competition something new would need to be tried, like evening up teams by transferring players from the stronger counties to drive standard improvement.
But I don't think they are interested.

It's about transporting a mind set, a passion a drive and a willingness to put the effort in..

Antrim Laois and Westmeath don't lack that they just don't have enough of it, whether that's from clubs or school's structures feeding into it I don't know.

I could use the excuse of geography and where Antrim are but the likes of Westmeath and Laois are in the thick of it. So there's something missing

[imtommygunn]

Transferring players has been tried. It doesn't work and how would you transfer up the north for example. Wouldn't work.

Numbers, passion etc a huge thing. Dual also a factor in counties.

[seafoid]

Another way to do it would be to start a project at under 12 and build a team of winners. That is what Glen did. It happens all the time in club.
A lot of it is psychological but you would also have to look at drop out rates. It takes a long time to build a serious hurler. You need a certain amount of them in a county to kick on.
You need to feed the best specimens into the hurling.  It's all about the iterations. Galway did  it in 2011 when they dropped most of the panel and based the panel on an u 21 team. Limerick did it. You need to give them regular exposure to the highest level.

[Milltown Row2]

Davy's enthusiasm is creating issues, 2 reds at home and a draw is a poor showing

[burdizzo]

Limerick, cork, Waterford, tipp, Clare, Galway, Wexford, kk, Dublin then the rest. Gap is massive between anyone and that.

Antrim, Laois , Westmeath then the likes of Kerry , Offaly and Carlow seem to have dropped off but I think Kildare have upped it. Offaly will likely make that a top ten in a few years.

Gap between those 9 and the rest is very big bar the odd blip.

Anything to be said for divisions of 8 again? Would make it competitive. Though, I suppose, there's be too many games in a condensed season...

[seafoid]

3 groups of 4 with round robin , home and away

[imtommygunn]

3 groups of 4 with round robin , home and away

Not your worst idea ever....

I don't know why they don't do the four eights. I think the team(s) who would be too good would kick up too much.

[seafoid]

It's probably too early for a view on Tipp

https://twitter.com/TheSundayGame/status/1622361498830995458

[seafoid]

If counties wanted more high quality competition something new would need to be tried, like evening up teams by transferring players from the stronger counties to drive standard improvement.
But I don't think they are interested.

It's about transporting a mind set, a passion a drive and a willingness to put the effort in..

Antrim Laois and Westmeath don't lack that they just don't have enough of it, whether that's from clubs or school's structures feeding into it I don't know.

I could use the excuse of geography and where Antrim are but the likes of Westmeath and Laois are in the thick of it. So there's something missing

Mind set, a passion, a drive and a willingness are all secondary.
First of all you need a system. A priest from Cork I think introduced hurling to Antrim and Down. That needs a reboot.

Hurling is very different to football. Say it takes x hours to master. Football might be a quarter of that. Three quarters  of the hurling hours have to be at the right level. You need games. And coaches with up to the minute drills . And managers. Eddie Brennan did an impressive job with Laois for 2 years I think but the developing counties would need that sort of support for 20 years with no county board bullshit. And you need a mindset of excellence. In Mickey Linden's Laochra Gael there is an interview with Barney McAleenan who was his PE teacher and football coach. Linden was top notch but only on his right foot . McAleenan told him he would need to kick points from both feet in Croke Park. So he practiced. And in the 94 final scored with his left foot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=337EaNOMHVs&t=120s

In terms of Galway, which is one of the insider counties, from say 2006 to 2011 the team was hurling at maybe 70%. They got up to 90% in 2012. It still took another 5 years to get to 100%. It is very difficult.  But it's fantastic when it works.

Any viable solution has to involve the insider counties. And funding of top level coaching. And scouring the county for the best talent underage.
It would be like Crossmaglen but with a higher skill level.   

[burdizzo]

A priest from Cork I think introduced hurling to Antrim and Down. That needs a reboot.

Are you sure about that?!