Qualifier Draw

[Zulu]

Rd. 2

Galway V Laois

Waterford V Antrim

Rd. 3

Cork V Dublin

Limerick V Offaly

Home draws for all the big teams. Looks like things will be straight forward enough.

[INDIANA]

An absolute disagrace that the weaker teams don't get home advantage. there is a cosy cabal at the top of the hurling tree that doesn't want to see anyone progress. home advantage might have made a game of it. away from home you can throw your rocks at it. people from laois, antrim and dublin won't travel for 3 inevitable hidings. all 3 may as well concede. scandaous.
offaly might give limerick a game as limerick are an average outfit. but the rest are foregone conclusions.

[Bord na Mona man]

An absolute disagrace that the weaker teams don't get home advantage. there is a cosy cabal at the top of the hurling tree that doesn't want to see anyone progress. home advantage might have made a game of it. away from home you can throw your rocks at it. people from laois, antrim and dublin won't travel for 3 inevitable hidings. all 3 may as well concede. scandaous.
offaly might give limerick a game as limerick are an average outfit. but the rest are foregone conclusions.

Yep, I agree about the random home advantage being silly.
Offaly were due to play Limerick away anyway, so justice was done.
Limerick may be limited in a lot of respects, but they have the knack of dishing out severe hammerings to Offaly.
They have scored 2-29, 6-18 and 5-19 in the last three meetings.
Unfortunately I'd expect Offaly's young and light team to be brushed aside easily by Limerick's power hurling.

[INDIANA]

not at all chief, you can beat them if you believe in yourself a bit. the offaly backs will be well able to cope with their forwards. If dublin were playing them i'd have given us a slim chance, i think offaly though could take them. limerick are not a very good side, average at best.

[The Real Laoislad]

How much of a fix was that draw anyways??

[southderryman]

How much of a fix was that draw anyways??

why? i didn't see it, but why would it be a fix?

[The Real Laoislad]

Just the way he made the draw,No attempt whatsoever to mix the canisters up,All the stronger counties got home draws too
I dunno maybe I'm just getting all Jim Corr like but it just looked plain ridiculous if you ask me..
I think its time for a FA Cup style draw where its a big black bag with numbered balls

[southderryman]

Just the way he made the draw,No attempt whatsoever to mix the canisters up,All the stronger counties got home draws too
I dunno maybe I'm just getting all Jim Corr like but it just looked plain ridiculous if you ask me..
I think its time for a FA Cup style draw where its a big black bag with numbered balls

you mite be rite, but in all honestly i dont think that the big counties gettin home advantage matters too much. no disrespect to the counties they are playing, but i dont think it would matter where the games were to be played. antrim were in casement yesterday, didnt make much difference.

[INDIANA]

thats where youre wrong. home advantage would make no difference to the result BUT would i bet plenty of laois kids might go to watch joe canning playing, they won't go now because the match is in galway. I know plenty of young dublin people would go to see Sean Og,the o connors etc but they won't go to pairc ui chaoimh. It might encourage some of them to actually play hurling later on but that opportunity will be lost now. As i said on an earlier thread they have no concept on how to market a product and seem only concerned about running the game underground in the weaker counties.
An absolute shambles and Brennan has a lot ot answer for.

[southderryman]

thats where youre wrong. home advantage would make no difference to the result BUT would i bet plenty of laois kids might go to watch joe canning playing, they won't go now because the match is in galway. I know plenty of young dublin people would go to see Sean Og,the o connors etc but they won't go to pairc ui chaoimh. It might encourage some of them to actually play hurling later on but that opportunity will be lost now. As i said on an earlier thread they have no concept on how to market a product and seem only concerned about running the game underground in the weaker counties.
An absolute shambles and Brennan has a lot ot answer for.

you dead right. tbh i never thought of it like that all. i was only thinking of the actual game itself. but as you say, seeing these players in the flesh might encourage youngsters.

[Lecale2]

A very poor draw for the outsiders and there will be little public interest in any of them. I'd expect 4 one sided games which will do nothing for the sport.

[HurlingBlog]

Yep they're not very exciting fixtures and it's stupid the way home advantage wasn't given to the weaker teams but outside of that there's not much you can do.

With only 7 or 8 top teams it's hard to strike a balance - not that the GAA have done much this year in encouraging teams 9-12, they've practically told them to f-off.

The only way forward is to scrap the provincial system and have an open draw with 3 or 4 groups but that'll never happen

[slow corner back]

I agree whole heartedly with what Indiana was saying about home advantage. Antrim were always going to get a whipping from waterford but I was hoping to bring the young boy along to see John Mullane in the flesh. I do not believe Waterford have been up in Belfast for the last ten years. I doubt if Antrim will bring 20 supporters to Waterford next week.

[squareballz]

what was needed there was something like cork vs limerick and Dubs vs Offaly. At least there would be some interest in the rnd then . You'd have bigger attendances at this stage, having a big match and give hope and interest to the weaker counties giving them a chance to get to the next rnd.