Hurling 2022

[seafoid]

Are they goosed ?

https://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2022/0310/1285701-shefflin-tragedy-showed-the-gaa-is-a-family/
It's fine for all of us to have a great debate on the throwing of the ball, asking are Limerick goosed, league structures etc.

[johnnycool]

Watched a bit of the Kilkenny v Waterford game yesterday and there's a few green shoots emanating from Kilkenny..

They've some deadly accurate forwards who rifled over some good scores yesterday, Eoin Cody came on and cemented my opinion that's he's a serious operator and will have a big impact for kilkenny this year and years to come.
Lawlor is a fine defender and will probably man the 3 berth again, but I suppose they've still to find a commanding, modern No 6, Richie Reid is a good hurler and was stationed there yesterday, will be interesting to see if he holds that berth with Paudie Walsh now in the forwards.
They look to be trying to work the ball out yesterday, but near the end when under a bit of pressure did lump it forward on top of Wallie Walsh, whilst a big man doesn't hold onto many clean catches when the balls lobbed in, albeit the ball more often than not breaks off him, I'm sure if they're struggling come championship and revert to that, teams will work them out.
As for Waterford, a bit poor in the shooting front, left a lot of space in defence but you could watch Tadgh DeBurca all day long, touch, balance, pace, decision making, the defensive version of Tony Kelly in that regard, great to see him back after two cruciate operations.
A few key players rested after a weeks heavy training and were still in the game till the end even if they were second best throughout, Cahill had the semi-final berth sown up already prior to throw in, so maybe keeping the powder dry for a while yet..

Wexfords big forwards caused a weakened Cork issues,  Rory O'Connor with a big tally from play, he's a handful against anyone but Cork need to work out how to deal with lads like him if they want to start claiming AI's again.

[marty34]

Watched a bit of the Kilkenny v Waterford game yesterday and there's a few green shoots emanating from Kilkenny..

They've some deadly accurate forwards who rifled over some good scores yesterday, Eoin Cody came on and cemented my opinion that's he's a serious operator and will have a big impact for kilkenny this year and years to come.
Lawlor is a fine defender and will probably man the 3 berth again, but I suppose they've still to find a commanding, modern No 6, Richie Reid is a good hurler and was stationed there yesterday, will be interesting to see if he holds that berth with Paudie Walsh now in the forwards.
They look to be trying to work the ball out yesterday, but near the end when under a bit of pressure did lump it forward on top of Wallie Walsh, whilst a big man doesn't hold onto many clean catches when the balls lobbed in, albeit the ball more often than not breaks off him, I'm sure if they're struggling come championship and revert to that, teams will work them out.
As for Waterford, a bit poor in the shooting front, left a lot of space in defence but you could watch Tadgh DeBurca all day long, touch, balance, pace, decision making, the defensive version of Tony Kelly in that regard, great to see him back after two cruciate operations.
A few key players rested after a weeks heavy training and were still in the game till the end even if they were second best throughout, Cahill had the semi-final berth sown up already prior to throw in, so maybe keeping the powder dry for a while yet..

Wexfords big forwards caused a weakened Cork issues,  Rory O'Connor with a big tally from play, he's a handful against anyone but Cork need to work out how to deal with lads like him if they want to start claiming AI's again.

A lot of 'weakened' teams out of the week-end.

Kilkenny seem to be uncertain on puck-outs. Not sure if Murphy is as good as Quaid etc. in pucking out into green space. Maybe forwards' movement isn't helping. But they need to nail that going forward.

Cody got an unreal point, down by the sideline, as his touch, pick and strike was fantastic. Padraig Walsh will be in the forwards now as he'll chip in with a few scores from play. Lawlor is developing into a good full back as there is about. ..as long as there's a few bodies in front of him.

Waterford will be happy enough, got a few Ballygunner lads back in and rested a few others. Be interesting but you could probably say that KK will be the only team going out to win the league for sure. That's their mentality. The other 3 maybe are looking more to the first round of the respective championships.  Kilkenny have their 2 'easier' teams first so maybe they can time it better.

I have to say the league is a great competition.  Really good competition.

[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).

[Milltown Row2]

Be interesting Leinster this year. Wexford Kilkenny and Galway, Dublin are nearly all at the same standard, though very different players...

You'd assume that Limerick will eventually find their feet and kick on in Munster and after a promising start by Waterford it would be likely they would challenge but Clare with the main man can pull out a shock and Cork, who knows, capable of anything, as for Tipp I hope they don't think they are back after that result against a very poor Antrim team on the day, but will do their attacking players no harm.

[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.

[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

[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.

[marty34]

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.

Is that not the same thing JC - whether it's one or two?

At least if Offaly or Antrim lose, one of them will get another year in the top flight.  If they do that, for a year or two, they're gaining vital experience.

If two go down, two up, more than likely the same two will go straight down again.

As I said, I think the Joe McD and Christy Ring should be merged and the other 2 competitions should be merged.  Not a massive gap between them and I think there'd be far more chance of development.

[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.

Is that not the same thing JC - whether it's one or two?

At least if Offaly or Antrim lose, one of them will get another year in the top flight.  If they do that, for a year or two, they're gaining vital experience.

If two go down, two up, more than likely the same two will go straight down again.

As I said, I think the Joe McD and Christy Ring should be merged and the other 2 competitions should be merged.  Not a massive gap between them and I think there'd be far more chance of development.

And do you think that Laois, Offaly/Antrim and whoever comes up won't be bottom of their respective groups next year?

Are Westmeath, Down, Kerry and an emerging Kildare not entitled to experience this level?

Two up, two down in every football division for some reason! A bit of a closed shop if you ask me.

[marty34]

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.

Is that not the same thing JC - whether it's one or two?

At least if Offaly or Antrim lose, one of them will get another year in the top flight.  If they do that, for a year or two, they're gaining vital experience.

If two go down, two up, more than likely the same two will go straight down again.

As I said, I think the Joe McD and Christy Ring should be merged and the other 2 competitions should be merged.  Not a massive gap between them and I think there'd be far more chance of development.

And do you think that Laois, Offaly/Antrim and whoever comes up won't be bottom of their respective groups next year?

Are Westmeath, Down, Kerry and an emerging Kildare not entitled to experience this level?

Two up, two down in every football division for some reason! A bit of a closed shop if you ask me.

My take on that is they deserve to come up, after winning that group. It's a battle to get through that group and deserve to come up. These teams will get there chance, if they're good enough. An extra year here will do them no harm whatsoever.

The problem is there's too big of a gap between them and the rest of the Div.1's. That's clear to see.

Outwith Laois, under Eddie Brennan, beating Dublin a few years ago, that gap is still big.

[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...

[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.

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

[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

[seafoid]

They also need money.