Hurling 2026

[imtommygunn]

"Not today's table tennis rules" 

Quote from one of the old Offaly guys talking about padraig Horan on laochra gael.

[marty34]

Big win for the Treaty men last night in Semple Stadium. Hard to know were Limerick that good or were Tipp that bad? Probably a mixture of both.

Limerick never tested Hogan at all in goals but when you can shoot that number of points, it is some going in them conditions and soft sod. Not sure what it was but Limerick's scoring conversion was high.

Tipp looked flat enough. Connor's sending off sucked the life out of the game and it was like  training game after that. Funny enough that Aidan O'C is on the frees instead of Gillane. I wonder why this is and will it continue on into the season?

Bull O'Brien is so good at ff. Just play him any sort of ball - high or low and he'll not shy away from it. Plus he's so strong. Craig Morgan was literally hanging off him at times but O'Brien just shrugged him off.

Matt F. seems a real good find in defence for Limerick. Showed well last night. Adds a bit of freshness to defence and is similiar to Barry Nash in a way. Byrnes, Tom Morrissey and Reidy all came on in the second half. No Finn or Lynch either. Competition for places is strong.

Strange seeing the Mc Graths playing so early. I thought they'd be doing a 'T.J.' and only playing in last 2 league games - to get ready for championship.

Munster will be another dog fight this year. With O' Connor adding that bit of steel and fire to Cork, the Tipp/Cork game will be savage.

High scoring draw between Dublin and Wexford in Croke Park. Plenty of action there. I thought Dublin would have beaten them but Chin is a solid boost to Wexford. Definately makes a difference.

Kildare just get edged out by Clare. Hard to know if playing in Div. 1A or Div. 1B is more beneficial. Some people say you'll be undercooked in 1B while others say you'll be overcooked in 1A before championship. You could say the two are valid...depending on how your season goes.

But great to see Kildare are pushing on. Maybe a bit over reliant on Naas players. In a year or two, if they bring a few more players on, they'll be moving upwards. They have the population.

It always surprises me that Wicklow aren't doing a 'Kildare' and rising up through the leagues, both in hurling and football. I assume they have a big population bordering south Dublin and Bray is a big town. I think Bray play in the Dublin hurling league - similiar to what Nass did in Kilkenny.

Big day for Antrim and Davy Fitz today. I think it'll be tight but they should edge Carlow. Might be a red card or two as Carlow will not take a backward step and leave thm timber in. Could be their downfall. It's cost them before in crucial games but they're a credit to be so consistent at that level, considering the no. of clubs they have at senior level.

Derry have  50/50 game away in Trim. After a good home win V Mayo, this game will be a good test. Div. 2 is a league of 2 leagues. Monaghan not pushing on in hurling - a bit static but Cavan had a good win over Lancashire. Sligo had a big win over Warickshire...who only acored 3 pts. In saying that I think the NHL needs these 2 English teams in the league as it's an extra game for teams in the third tier. But crtainly they have regressed in recent years. London will always be strong.

I see Andrew La Touche Cosgrave played for Louth yesterday. I remember him playing underage for Limerick. I think it was Limerick? Not sure if it was the minors or their excellent U21 teams. Just that the name stood out.  I wonder did he ever play senior for Limerick? What actually helps these lower level teams is the parent rule, as well as people working/moving to the county. Be good to find the accurate stats for this in the third tier teams.

As an aside, good wins for Antrim and Down camogs yesterday. 

[EoinW]

Nice assessment of the hurling situation.  I'm continually puzzled by the enormous activity on the football page yet very little on hurling.  The latter sport is better than ever, while the former is going through a crisis period.  I guess people are drawn to the negative aspects of sport.

When was the last time you saw Kyle Hayes playing a league game?  It appears the goal at Limerick is massive competition for every position, to get the hunger back in the veterans.  No more sleepwalking through games, like Dublin last year.

Where did Kildare come from?  I'm not used to a tier two county competing with the big boys.

[gallsman]

This Waterford kit is dreadful.

[johnnycool]

Limerick looked pretty ominous on Saturday night, but maybe Tipp made them look good, who knows?

I wasn't sure why Seamus Flannagan got dropped over the winter, I think now we're seeing why.

Bull O'Brien suits their style of play as we know Limerick will leave the two lads up front with not another Limerick player within 30 yards of them, initially. Both himself and Guillane will keep most defenders busy, hold up the ball till the cavalry arrives.

It's only February and Tipp didn't have the physicality to stop the running game and one of the corner backs in particular, a young lad was badly exposed physically when caught on one on ones. They didn't conceded a goal though, so maybe Tipp are just flying under the radar, aiming to peak for Munster knowing they've the hurlers standing over the fence able to match anyone in Ireland.
A tad risky and they may maintain their "one in a row" for another few years.


Originally I thought Antrim's win may be facile, if somewhat good for the camp morale if they can't get points from Dublin as well but now that I look at the table Carlow are very much in trouble too so if Carlow don't get the points in Kildare then it's one from three between Kildare, Antrim and Carlow to decide who goes down.

If anything Antrim should be the better placed as irrespective of how they get on v Dublin Down who are already down probably won't be up for the fight even if they really should be.
The team that loses in Kildare will go down.

[imtommygunn]

I know Tipp are AI champions but I really don't think they're that good. Cork capitulated and really it was Cork - Limerick and then the rest which they were the best of. I'd expect normal service to be restored this year but they have various players had the game of their lives in AI final and Cork the way they played helped that. 9 out of 10 times it wouldn't have happened IMO.

I don't think Antrim will do too much against Dublin though hope I am wrong. Carlow Kildare when it happens will be very interesting.

[moonster]

This Waterford kit is dreadful.

One of the nice jerseys. Bought for grandkids last week.

[moonster]

Tough defeat to take against the cats. Kilkenny no 6 should have got the line. Different rules for Klikenny as always.

[johnnycool]

Tough defeat to take against the cats. Kilkenny no 6 should have got the line. Different rules for Klikenny as always.

That's manly hurling down on the Noreside (c) Eddie Keher.

[Milltown Row2]

No easy games at Nowlan Park, that was always the case of course but Cork had to grind that result out yesterday, thought Kilkenny have improvement in them and the weather was poor enough which wouldn't have suited Corks game so a good leveler

[NAG1]

No easy games at Nowlan Park, that was always the case of course but Cork had to grind that result out yesterday, thought Kilkenny have improvement in them and the weather was poor enough which wouldn't have suited Corks game so a good leveler

Said it last year and think same is applying this year, KK going no where fast. Think they are good bit behind the top teams, as the ground firms up (if it ever does) only going to exacerbate it.

[Deerstalker]

No easy games at Nowlan Park, that was always the case of course but Cork had to grind that result out yesterday, thought Kilkenny have improvement in them and the weather was poor enough which wouldn't have suited Corks game so a good leveler

Said it last year and think same is applying this year, KK going no where fast. Think they are good bit behind the top teams, as the ground firms up (if it ever does) only going to exacerbate it.

They aren't Kilkenny of the mid to late 2000s but as recent as last year they should have beaten Tipp in AISF & scored 0-30.

Not sure that's a team going nowhere but they could do with a bit of surgery for sure.

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2026/03/02/hurlings-rule-book-has-been-left-behind-by-the-modern-game/

But when there are half a dozen players or more hunched like a workman over a manhole, how is a referee supposed to decipher who made the first illegal contact? In those situations, nobody is making a shoulder charge, hip to hip, which is the only physical tackle defined in the rule book. But everybody is doing something to shift somebody else out of the way.
Of the roughly 30 unpenalised infringements in Sunday's game, none of them are tagged to rucks. Going down that route would be pointless. In hurling the ruck is a modern intersection between common practice and accepted practice. It is not accounted for in the rule book, even though it is one of the key sources of primary possession in the game now. Instead, it is refereed by precedent. Going into a ruck, players know what they can get away with. Referees are just inclined to let them at it.
In hurling, the contact zone has been transformed by how the ball is moved and minded. In the 2010 All-Ireland final there were just 48 attempted stick passes; by 2021, according to data collated by Gaelic Stats, there was an average of 153 stick passes per game. Over the last five years those numbers have not dropped.
Most of the passes are short or mid-range and designed to go to hand. That is where the rules have been left behind. For generations, possession was transacted in hurling by putting the ball into dispute. The original emphasis on hitting the ball as far as possible, as quickly as possible, stretched the pitch. Most contests for the ball were one-on-one duels.
In that environment hooking, blocking and flicking the ball off the hurley were clean and dynamic ways for possession to change hands. Those skills, though, have been marginalised to one degree or another. In Nowlan Park on Sunday there were three clean blocks and a handful of effective hooks. Players are so conditioned to recycle the ball in tight situations now that throwing it up and swinging hard is the last thing on their minds.
In the history of the game, the ball has never spent more time in players' hands. From that starting point, players are more encouraged than ever to run at opponents and break the tackle. But what kind of tackle are they breaking? It is not a foul to meet an incoming player with an outstretched arm, but it is a foul as soon as that arm makes a holding motion.
 
Cork's Alan Walsh catches the ball on the way to scoring a goal. Photograph: Inpho
Most players will not be stopped by that kind of contact, and because they can usually break through, the referee will ordinarily not blow for a foul. "The tackle that a fella is breaking, is it a legal tackle? Probably not," says one former intercounty referee.
But in that kind of contact zone the risk for the player in possession is to be accused of charging. When a player is bottled up now, he is invariably penalised for overcarrying, regardless of how he has been manhandled in the maul. Has somebody been dragging at his arm trying to dislodge the ball? Probably. Taking their cue from rugby, "use it or lose it" has become the governing principle in those situations.
That's not in the rule book either, but it has become accepted practice.
The way the game is played now requires a lot of consent. If players weren't prepared, or physically conditioned, to absorb hits and carry on the game would descend into anarchy. More than that, players don't expect full protection from the rules. Fouls now are blended into the sauce of a hot dish.

[Milltown Row2]

A simple answer to that was the weather and pitch conditions

Boggy pitch shitty rain and high winds..

The game becomes an arm wrestle to use a rugby term..

There are less of these rucks when the pitches are better, firmer and weather clearer

[didlyi]

A lot of what he says is true. The possession game is ugly compared to the past. Its more of a game of hands than hurls now. The game is full of fouls and most of them to do with hands either pulling, dragging or throwing.