Hurling 2022

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

They also need money.

We have a city with 100k and the potential for massive growth with one hurling club but the Ulster Council decided that it was better to invest in Gaelfast in a city with 14 hurling clubs already. Go figure that. Our county board (Derry) would rather see hurling dead and buried. Not one coaching officer sent into the city to coach hurling from Ulster Council

[imtommygunn]

The KK number 13 looks like a handy player. Billy Ryan I think he's called?

Funny Marty I was reading a thread on twitter this morning (in reply to Colm Parkinson being  dick as usual) saying how terrible the league is but I would agree with you and disagree with that. The rationale was one win and you stay in your division which happened to Limerick and Laois.

I do wonder should there be a true 1 and 2 in it rather than mish mash but I would echo that it's a great competition. They continually tweak the hurling to try and minimise the hammerings that happen (unfortunately for us that didn't work yesterday but worked the rest of the year).

There was certainly a load of dead rubbers yesterday so a lot of games were lacking intensity but with the championship just around the corner that's understandable but nonetheless it's something that the GAA decided to do when if you recall we'd really competitive leagues a few years back when Div1A was the higher league and Div1B was a lower league and there was relegation between the two and then it was decided to go with this format.

Those big batings are always likely but from an Antrim POV, would they prefer the old way where they're in a proper Div1B with Laois, Offaly and possibly Clare, Wex and Dublin (just guessing) and avoid the Limericks, Corks, Tipps of this world in proper Div1A??

In saying that Antrim have been competitive in most of their league games apart from yesterday, whereas Laois took heavier beatings but won the one game that mattered and was at home...

Pro's and Cons for both systems IMO.

And to another point, if you watch Eoin Murphy putting the ball over the bar from his own 45 and think that there is nothing wrong with the current ball then I'm not sure where we're going with the game.

The chip in the ball is just the GAA pulling back in a revenue stream they'd lost control off the last number of years.

There are about 10 strong counties. There are 2 models. A strong focus or something a bit more open which encourages the ones closest to the 10.
I think the latter is better. It's great to see Antrim, Laois etc playing the likes of Kilkenny.
As Dan Shanahan says here at 14:11, it's an honour to be playing against them fellas... and bating them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peAFdYkxbVo&t=1027s

That's one side of it, but they'd still have three games against the top 9, not 10, so they'd have two very winnable games against Laois and Offaly and then three of the others from the rest and in all fairness to Antrim gave more of the top 9 teams a run for it than Laois who were probably helped by the luck of the draw to have Antrim at home. If that game is in Corrigan the result goes the other way IMO.

Also a bone of contention is the fact that only one team goes down should be two with two coming up if the GAA were indeed interesting in promoting hurling in the middle tier as you rightly quoted Shanahan, but money talks and bullshít walks.

The focus for the next 20 years should be widening the 9 to 14- say Antrim, Down, Laois , Offaly, Westmeath

We can beat Down

Really?

[marty34]

Marty I think it would be a big mistake merging Joe McDonagh and christy ring tbh. I think there's a big enough difference between the two. The lower ones I don't know enough about but I'd be surprised if it were any different. The Joe McDonagh has been a great competition and when the ring was everyone then there were really about 2 -3 good games maximum if you were at the top.

JC teams going up always get a tougher ride than teams going down. Realistically we should probably be going down and you up but we have been the other side before so we will take it for now. I think the rationale is you need a few years at the top level to adjust or something like that - whether that be bullshit or not is another matter...

Fair enough - is there a bigger gap between the top level and Joe Mc D or between Joe McD and Christy Ring?

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

The KK number 13 looks like a handy player. Billy Ryan I think he's called?

Funny Marty I was reading a thread on twitter this morning (in reply to Colm Parkinson being  dick as usual) saying how terrible the league is but I would agree with you and disagree with that. The rationale was one win and you stay in your division which happened to Limerick and Laois.

I do wonder should there be a true 1 and 2 in it rather than mish mash but I would echo that it's a great competition. They continually tweak the hurling to try and minimise the hammerings that happen (unfortunately for us that didn't work yesterday but worked the rest of the year).

There was certainly a load of dead rubbers yesterday so a lot of games were lacking intensity but with the championship just around the corner that's understandable but nonetheless it's something that the GAA decided to do when if you recall we'd really competitive leagues a few years back when Div1A was the higher league and Div1B was a lower league and there was relegation between the two and then it was decided to go with this format.

Those big batings are always likely but from an Antrim POV, would they prefer the old way where they're in a proper Div1B with Laois, Offaly and possibly Clare, Wex and Dublin (just guessing) and avoid the Limericks, Corks, Tipps of this world in proper Div1A??

In saying that Antrim have been competitive in most of their league games apart from yesterday, whereas Laois took heavier beatings but won the one game that mattered and was at home...

Pro's and Cons for both systems IMO.

And to another point, if you watch Eoin Murphy putting the ball over the bar from his own 45 and think that there is nothing wrong with the current ball then I'm not sure where we're going with the game.

The chip in the ball is just the GAA pulling back in a revenue stream they'd lost control off the last number of years.

There are about 10 strong counties. There are 2 models. A strong focus or something a bit more open which encourages the ones closest to the 10.
I think the latter is better. It's great to see Antrim, Laois etc playing the likes of Kilkenny.
As Dan Shanahan says here at 14:11, it's an honour to be playing against them fellas... and bating them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peAFdYkxbVo&t=1027s

That's one side of it, but they'd still have three games against the top 9, not 10, so they'd have two very winnable games against Laois and Offaly and then three of the others from the rest and in all fairness to Antrim gave more of the top 9 teams a run for it than Laois who were probably helped by the luck of the draw to have Antrim at home. If that game is in Corrigan the result goes the other way IMO.

Also a bone of contention is the fact that only one team goes down should be two with two coming up if the GAA were indeed interesting in promoting hurling in the middle tier as you rightly quoted Shanahan, but money talks and bullshít walks.

The focus for the next 20 years should be widening the 9 to 14- say Antrim, Down, Laois , Offaly, Westmeath

We can beat Down

Really?

In as n Ulster championship id fancy us or at least be tight game. My point is we are not miles off Down. They are doing fantastic btw, more power to them

[imtommygunn]

Marty I think it would be a big mistake merging Joe McDonagh and christy ring tbh. I think there's a big enough difference between the two. The lower ones I don't know enough about but I'd be surprised if it were any different. The Joe McDonagh has been a great competition and when the ring was everyone then there were really about 2 -3 good games maximum if you were at the top.

JC teams going up always get a tougher ride than teams going down. Realistically we should probably be going down and you up but we have been the other side before so we will take it for now. I think the rationale is you need a few years at the top level to adjust or something like that - whether that be bullshit or not is another matter...

Fair enough - is there a bigger gap between the top level and Joe Mc D or between Joe McD and Christy Ring?

I don't find it's the top that's the problem it's the middle and the bottom. Offaly were a bit of an anomaly in the ring tbh but look how much they won it by when they were in the final. If the likes of Laois / Antrim / Offaly played the bottom team in the ring cup it would be a big scoreline I would suspect.

I can see your point but they made the Joe McDonagh competitive from top to bottom. Maybe they need another one in between it and the liam mccarthy  The big hammerings do no one any good.

[marty34]

I think the hurling set up is good in terms of playing at their own level.  Football are now only starting to do that at inter-county level.

Maybe we in the GAA are constantly looking to change/alter rules and things etc.?

[imtommygunn]

Yeah I would agree. I think the hurling setup isn't too bad for what it is and if they change it it'd likely be for the worse.

[johnnycool]

The KK number 13 looks like a handy player. Billy Ryan I think he's called?

Funny Marty I was reading a thread on twitter this morning (in reply to Colm Parkinson being  dick as usual) saying how terrible the league is but I would agree with you and disagree with that. The rationale was one win and you stay in your division which happened to Limerick and Laois.

I do wonder should there be a true 1 and 2 in it rather than mish mash but I would echo that it's a great competition. They continually tweak the hurling to try and minimise the hammerings that happen (unfortunately for us that didn't work yesterday but worked the rest of the year).

There was certainly a load of dead rubbers yesterday so a lot of games were lacking intensity but with the championship just around the corner that's understandable but nonetheless it's something that the GAA decided to do when if you recall we'd really competitive leagues a few years back when Div1A was the higher league and Div1B was a lower league and there was relegation between the two and then it was decided to go with this format.

Those big batings are always likely but from an Antrim POV, would they prefer the old way where they're in a proper Div1B with Laois, Offaly and possibly Clare, Wex and Dublin (just guessing) and avoid the Limericks, Corks, Tipps of this world in proper Div1A??

In saying that Antrim have been competitive in most of their league games apart from yesterday, whereas Laois took heavier beatings but won the one game that mattered and was at home...

Pro's and Cons for both systems IMO.

And to another point, if you watch Eoin Murphy putting the ball over the bar from his own 45 and think that there is nothing wrong with the current ball then I'm not sure where we're going with the game.

The chip in the ball is just the GAA pulling back in a revenue stream they'd lost control off the last number of years.

There are about 10 strong counties. There are 2 models. A strong focus or something a bit more open which encourages the ones closest to the 10.
I think the latter is better. It's great to see Antrim, Laois etc playing the likes of Kilkenny.
As Dan Shanahan says here at 14:11, it's an honour to be playing against them fellas... and bating them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peAFdYkxbVo&t=1027s

That's one side of it, but they'd still have three games against the top 9, not 10, so they'd have two very winnable games against Laois and Offaly and then three of the others from the rest and in all fairness to Antrim gave more of the top 9 teams a run for it than Laois who were probably helped by the luck of the draw to have Antrim at home. If that game is in Corrigan the result goes the other way IMO.

Also a bone of contention is the fact that only one team goes down should be two with two coming up if the GAA were indeed interesting in promoting hurling in the middle tier as you rightly quoted Shanahan, but money talks and bullshít walks.

The focus for the next 20 years should be widening the 9 to 14- say Antrim, Down, Laois , Offaly, Westmeath

We can beat Down

Really?

In as n Ulster championship id fancy us or at least be tight game. My point is we are not miles off Down. They are doing fantastic btw, more power to them

He's not wrong Tommy, but it would depend on getting the SN lads to commit and that's not going to happen.

It's a bit like the debate in Down as to why the Kilcoo lads won't commit to the football, why would you when you can cruise over the summer and go full tilt at the club scene.


I'd also agree with your point on it taking a few years to acclimatise to the level of Div1 and that is where Antrim are rightly placed.

I just feel with this one up, one down it's deliberately a closed shop and I really don't see those who are supposed to have the best interests of hurling at heart in Croke Park giving one shíte about those outside the top 9.

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2022/0322/1287753-hurling-census-2022-population-hurlers-density/

[marty34]

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2022/0322/1287753-hurling-census-2022-population-hurlers-density/

Not much there that we don't know.

Apart from that, the Team Ulster thing would be a backward step.

[johnnycool]

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2022/0322/1287753-hurling-census-2022-population-hurlers-density/

got to this part and realised the analysis is slightly flawed;

However, it is possible to use the most recently published GAA annual report to create a census of hurling from the breakdown of team registrations for the year from June 2021 to May 2022. For the purposes of this exercise, we are assuming that all 8,136 registered hurling teams (categorised as Adult, U20 or Youth teams in the report) had an average of 20 players (a starting 15 and five substitutes for argument's sake). The comparative strength of hurling populations that emerge are valid so long as this measure is applied for all teams at all levels across the country consistently.

Can't speak for every club but for us that would be a pipedream and dare I suggest than only Bredagh would come close to having 20 separate players per juvenile team in Down and probably Belfast in general hurling wise. We'd be doing well to have a dozen per "team" and would almost always have to dig into the age group below to get 15 on the field.

NA wise I'd say maybe only Dunloy and Loughgeil would be looking at numbers like that at underage, maybe Ballycastle.

Douglas in Cork who wouldn't be considered a big club in that city would have A and B teams all at that age and some of the Dublin clubs would be A, B, C, and D as I once commented to a well known GAA coach based in Dublin that Ballyboden have a bigger pick of minor hurlers than the whole of Down and I wasn't joking either.

Funding isn't going to sort that issue out, but at least give us a fair crack of the whip.

[seafoid]

The KK number 13 looks like a handy player. Billy Ryan I think he's called?

Funny Marty I was reading a thread on twitter this morning (in reply to Colm Parkinson being  dick as usual) saying how terrible the league is but I would agree with you and disagree with that. The rationale was one win and you stay in your division which happened to Limerick and Laois.

I do wonder should there be a true 1 and 2 in it rather than mish mash but I would echo that it's a great competition. They continually tweak the hurling to try and minimise the hammerings that happen (unfortunately for us that didn't work yesterday but worked the rest of the year).

There was certainly a load of dead rubbers yesterday so a lot of games were lacking intensity but with the championship just around the corner that's understandable but nonetheless it's something that the GAA decided to do when if you recall we'd really competitive leagues a few years back when Div1A was the higher league and Div1B was a lower league and there was relegation between the two and then it was decided to go with this format.

Those big batings are always likely but from an Antrim POV, would they prefer the old way where they're in a proper Div1B with Laois, Offaly and possibly Clare, Wex and Dublin (just guessing) and avoid the Limericks, Corks, Tipps of this world in proper Div1A??

In saying that Antrim have been competitive in most of their league games apart from yesterday, whereas Laois took heavier beatings but won the one game that mattered and was at home...

Pro's and Cons for both systems IMO.

And to another point, if you watch Eoin Murphy putting the ball over the bar from his own 45 and think that there is nothing wrong with the current ball then I'm not sure where we're going with the game.

The chip in the ball is just the GAA pulling back in a revenue stream they'd lost control off the last number of years.

There are about 10 strong counties. There are 2 models. A strong focus or something a bit more open which encourages the ones closest to the 10.
I think the latter is better. It's great to see Antrim, Laois etc playing the likes of Kilkenny.
As Dan Shanahan says here at 14:11, it's an honour to be playing against them fellas... and bating them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peAFdYkxbVo&t=1027s

That's one side of it, but they'd still have three games against the top 9, not 10, so they'd have two very winnable games against Laois and Offaly and then three of the others from the rest and in all fairness to Antrim gave more of the top 9 teams a run for it than Laois who were probably helped by the luck of the draw to have Antrim at home. If that game is in Corrigan the result goes the other way IMO.

Also a bone of contention is the fact that only one team goes down should be two with two coming up if the GAA were indeed interesting in promoting hurling in the middle tier as you rightly quoted Shanahan, but money talks and bullshít walks.

It seems to me that it is hard to sustain performance levels. Eg Laois lost Eddie Brennan and fell back. The only change in the top table over 20 years was the fall of Offaly.

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2022/0322/1287753-hurling-census-2022-population-hurlers-density/

Not much there that we don't know.

Apart from that, the Team Ulster thing would be a backward step.

Meath

[marty34]

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2022/0322/1287753-hurling-census-2022-population-hurlers-density/

Not much there that we don't know.

Apart from that, the Team Ulster thing would be a backward step.

Meath

Meath have always had plenty of hurlers but can't push on.

Population of that commuter belt area on the M50 i.e. Kildare and Meath etc., with growing populations will always have plenty playing.

[johnnycool]

They also need money.

We have a city with 100k and the potential for massive growth with one hurling club but the Ulster Council decided that it was better to invest in Gaelfast in a city with 14 hurling clubs already. Go figure that. Our county board (Derry) would rather see hurling dead and buried. Not one coaching officer sent into the city to coach hurling from Ulster Council

Have a word with big Kevin Kelly, but in general I'd ask the question what are a lot of the hurling GDO's doing and is their time well spent!!