The future of laois hurling

[Galtee1]

As a neutral, it wasn't a brilliant game in the u20 the other night as Harps were much the better side and to their credit it was a dominant display. Eoin Murphy centre back was immense for a guy only 17 years of age. Abbeyleix decision at HT to leave him free while 5 points down was crazy while on the other hand, The Harps got their match ups right.

Someone from Harps at the game told me Cody Comerford is called into the senior panel also.

[John1]

Cody Comerford u20 again next year ?
Laois always seemed to have issue between u20 & Senior bringing in too many u21 players too soon. This resulting in a large group taken away from training with their team-mates on the u21 / now u20 Squad & they never made progress at that age-group although this should be deemed a vital age-group.
Players not getting enough game time, missing out with their own pre season games of u20 & setting them back confidence , interest & performance wise , as well as getting used to hurling with their own players

Views on 12 team Senior & Intermediate proposal  ?
Is it basically not although seeded on next years performances going into the 2025 Season, a Senior A/B & Intermediate A/B Competition set-up without stating . Don't get me wrong something has to be done to aid improvement of both the standard of games and the interest of neutrals to go to games, but lets say if a Clubs 2nd Team gets to an Intermediate Semi Final next year they cant gain promotion as their 1st team are already up senior , or will they be allowed as its ( Senior B )  & does a Team that was not good enough to make a semi-final Intermediate gain automatic promotion on this default.  Then the teams that lost all /  majority of their senior b games don't get relegated & allowed stay up otherwise

[SpeculativeEffort]

I cannot understand the clamour for major structural change to hurling championship.

Proposals

2 12's Senior and Intermediate

Positives

+more games (of disputable quality/competitiveness

Negatives
-dilutes the quality of both championships

-gets rid of a championship which takes the fill-up of success and the motivation for success away from more teams. Team 8-12 know they have no chance of winning either championship. Preparation will suffer. Standards will drop.

-Leinster: currently our 9th best is competitive in province but our 13th certainly will not be. 2024 could see BK bounce back with a Leinster Intermediate title. Wouldn't they come to senior in 2025 well prepared?

-teams lower down will suffer as senior teams can hold back players if playing lower seeded teams first.

10 team Proposal
Positives
+more games (of disputable quality)
+safety blanket for lower down senior teams

Negatives
- Bye weeks will leave an unfair advantage to senior clubs who could stack a second team if their seniors have a first round Bye. It distorts the other championships.

- teams 9 and 10 will be out of their depth (eg Ballyfin)

-again it negatively affects our clubs chances in Leinster

-why was their no clamour for change when Abbeyleix, Ballinakill etc were relegated.

Overall to be fair to all clubs the championships should be left at 8 teams.

Abbeyleix showed how going down Intermediate isn't a terminal blow and can be used to gain momentum.

[burdizzo]

Yes, I agree, I think 8 teams is fine - it gives everyone something achievable to aim for.

[Laois Rising]

We have a bloated football championship that doesn't work and now we want to bloat our hurling championship. I would rather a 6 team championship played as a round robin with top team straight to the final and second v third through to a semi-final. Every club is guaranteed five competitive matches and with the progress Abbleyleix, Castletown and The Harps are making we could realistically expect six competitive teams to make up the group. We then would be sending our seventh ranked club into the Leinster intermediate who should be competitive at the standard.

For the development of the game the more championship games the top teams are playing against one another where there is something on the line the better. Ballyfin are the tenth ranked team presently in Laois and they are a long way off the standard required to compete at senior. What is the point of having them play at that level to be comprehensively beaten and weaken the senior and intermediate championship. 

 

[SpeculativeEffort]

We have a bloated football championship that doesn't work and now we want to bloat our hurling championship. I would rather a 6 team championship played as a round robin with top team straight to the final and second v third through to a semi-final. Every club is guaranteed five competitive matches and with the progress Abbleyleix, Castletown and The Harps are making we could realistically expect six competitive teams to make up the group. We then would be sending our seventh ranked club into the Leinster intermediate who should be competitive at the standard.

For the development of the game the more championship games the top teams are playing against one another where there is something on the line the better. Ballyfin are the tenth ranked team presently in Laois and they are a long way off the standard required to compete at senior. What is the point of having them play at that level to be comprehensively beaten and weaken the senior and intermediate championship. 

 

I think the 6 team cship would have merit over last 3 years but I do think with Camross, CB, RE, Abbeyleix strong and Harps
 castletown making progress and a possible return of BK then 8 teams is quite competitive. Its also a good number to allow some variety of structure.

Eg 2 x 4s groups
Open draw with qualifiers as previously
Or
Even 1 group of 8 with top 4 in semis and bottom 4 in relegation.

[Downtheroad]

10 team format will dilute the championship as the pressure will be off the mid division clubs if the likes of Ballyfin are playing senior. There is nothing wrong with the current format apart from clubs fearing relegation which should be a good thing. 

[burdizzo]

10 team format will dilute the championship as the pressure will be off the mid division clubs if the likes of Ballyfin are playing senior. There is nothing wrong with the current format apart from clubs fearing relegation which should be a good thing. 

Thought the 10 team format was explicitly off the table? It's either the status quo, or the twelve?

A 12 team intermediate would be quite a weak championship.

[Verbal]

I think they are proposing 12 because it's safe to assume that will fail.
10 was too risky- it might have passed.

I think 6 would be a poor move.
The only benefit being that we'd be strong in Leinster Intermediate. Hardly the be all & end all.

We have 8 teams. It works as a number.
No need to change that.
But I do think the CB have strongly influenced the proposal of 12 being on the table- Safe in the knowledge that it would be a lot more likely to fail than 10!

[SpeculativeEffort]

I think they are proposing 12 because it's safe to assume that will fail.
10 was too risky- it might have passed.

I think 6 would be a poor move.
The only benefit being that we'd be strong in Leinster Intermediate. Hardly the be all & end all.

We have 8 teams. It works as a number.
No need to change that.
But I do think the CB have strongly influenced the proposal of 12 being on the table- Safe in the knowledge that it would be a lot more likely to fail than 10!

With both proposals significantly inferior to what we have already, I've no issue with that. All Championships have peaks on troughs. I think we are just out of a trough and the next few years will be better fare.

[Laois man]

If they go with 10 teams what 2 teams will come up.?

[SpeculativeEffort]

Presumably Portlaoise as PIHC champions and Ballyfin as finalists while BK would not be relegated.

[burdizzo]

Lads, the 10-team option is specifically not proposed. It's either eight, as now, or the fairly convoluted 12-team set-up. Personally, I favour the status quo.

[Laois man]

The 10 team option is gone back to the clubs to vote on I believe.

[burdizzo]

Oh, really? That's not what Laois Today reported?