ROLE MODEL TO FOLLOW

O’gorman and Wexford huge fans of knockout format after summer of their lives back in ‘96

THE last time the senior hurling championship was a straight knockout affair was in 1996.

Wexford reigned supreme at heady summer, capturing hearts across the country in their march to a first Liam Maccarthy Cup triumph in 28 years.

Now,

some

24 years later, the chances are that the GAA will revert to the same format for the first time since then if they attempt to run off the county Championships by the end of 2020.

Larry O’gorman was the Hurler of the Year as the Model County made an historic breakthrough. He believes going back to old ways is the right course of action in the circumstances.

“If they want to run off a season fairly quickly, that’s the best way of going about it,” O’gorman said.

“It’s hard to know if they’re going to play the province or do a complete knock-out – or lose one game and get a second chance in the backdoor. If it is knock-out, it’ll be short.

“I actually got the message from Liam Griffin the other night to say we were the last team to win the All-ireland in the proper hurling Championship.

“It’s all changed since then, which is better for hurling overall because you’re seeing teams improving every year.”

Leinster had introduced a round-robin series for the last two years – and the format threw up the excitement of last summer’s last round drama that saw Dublin qualify for the All-ireland series as Galway bowed out.

Reverting to the old system,

Wexford could receive a bye into the provincial semi-finals as a consequence of reaching the All-ireland semi-finals last year.

“It would be a little bit different, but yeah, I think it would be good,” said O’gorman. “If you’re beaten, you should be gone.

“I could never see a back door system for anyone (during his playing days), but it creates more games and more volume to the inter-county scene.

“But I think club level has struggled the last number of years because of the back door.

“Your county players are tied up a lot more than they were back in my day, when you were