Quote from: Kieran Shannon
Alternative Ulster
Ulster hurling. Even the sound of it feels like hard work, let alone trying to promote it.
Call to mind a sports scene far more familiar to make the point that it does not have to be this way. Last November 82,000 people in Croke
Park witnessed Ireland defeating South Africa. Now ask yourself: do you really think Ireland would have beaten the world champions in the professional era if the ERC had blocked provinces competing in the Heineken Cup?
That it could have happened if the clubs of Munster, instead of pooling their talents, were still independent little republics operating in
the All-Ireland League? With Ronan O'Gara's Cork Constitution being routinely hammered in the Heineken Cup by everyone other than Treviso, the inevitable consequence of so small a base operating against superclubs such as Wasps and Toulouse? If the furthest and highest Marcus Horan could go at club level was to move into Limerick and play with Shannon?
Of course not. If all this talent was diluted would be crushed by the sport's traditional powers – a bit like Antrim and Down and Derry
are in hurling.
Not long ago, RTÉ's Sunday Sport devoted nearly 20 minutes of primetime television to this very subject. The same clichés were trotted out: 'start with the kids', 'get the coaches into them', 'it's going to take hard work and it's going to take time'. About the most imaginative it got was the idea of Antrim playing in the Leinster Minor Championship.
Michael Duignan felt there was some hope for Derry, Down and perhaps Armagh but none for the others. "They're wasting their time in a
lot of the football counties," he said. "Forget about it: it's not going to happen." Never, in the course of those 20 minutes, was Team Ulster mooted. It is by time the GAA faced up to one of its hidden realities: the county system may have served football very well but it has essentially failed hurling. Whereas hurling has remained a two-province sport, the domain of ten to 12 counties, the decade just past saw 18 different counties contest an All-Ireland Senior football
quarter-final. 26 experienced the hype and buzz that went with a Senior provincial final.
In fact only three counties – Carlow, Kilkenny ...
Kieran Shannon makes the case for a combined Ulster hurling team in the latest edition of Sliotar Magazine, John McIlwaine also analyses the performance of the Ulster Counties in the NHL and previews the Championship from an northern perspective.
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