We shouldn’t pay more for poorer hurling ‘MANAGERS NOW HAVE A BIT OF ROOM TO TRY A FEW NEW THINGS’
Furore over ticket prices puts plans to revamp divisions into sharp focus
I’M NOT sure if the penny has dropped with a lot of supporters yet in terms of the hurling league. There is no relegation this year from Division 1A. Of the top 12 teams, just one goes down – the bottom-placed team in Division 1B – while one comes up from the next division.
In 2020, the top 12 teams will be jumbled up so as to balance out the best across two different groups.
It’s being done because 1A is so competitive – almost too competitive given the provinces have now moved to a round-robin or minileague format. But I don’t think it’s a good idea. The decision to keep the quarterfinals means that four teams qualify from 1B – if you’re good enough, you get through, with the carrot of a shot against one of the four best form teams in the country.
Given the furore over the ticket prices on match day rising by a third for League games, there is an irony in upping prices when the product has been downgraded. Where is the logic in that?
Supporters might be able to live with forking out for high-quality games. Kilkenny host Cork this afternoon, All-Ireland champions Limerick travel to Wexford, and the GAA clearly feel they can get away with hiking prices up from €15 to €20.
But then you take Division 1B where Galway host Laois at Pearse Stadium and Galway’s winning margin could very well be doubledigits. When they mix up the divisions next year, the likelihood is that there will be even bigger hammerings.
So the GAA are lessening the quality of the product and decide to charge more. How does that make sense?
It’s always a challenge for other teams to make the step-up. That’s just the nature of hurling. It can be so hard to bridge the gap.
I played for Offaly in the old Division 2 when the same argument was going on about whether or not it was best to develop counties by exposing them to the highest level.
I managed Meath when the county played League hurling in Division 1 and ended up beating Laois in the Leinster Championship. I thought it was a good year but some players didn’t come back – they maybe felt the scars of a few hammerings along the way.
Plenty in football can be heard saying the League is better than the Championship because the teams in each division are playing at their level. Yet hurling has gone the opposite way.
Hurling has always had a problem bridging the gap outside the top eight or nine – now we’re saying there will be more lob-sided matches next year and supporters will have to pay more.
Connacht Council secretary John Prenty spoke mid-week of a cap on inter-county training costs.
I do think the GAA have fundamentally missed the point on this one.
It’s all the training that is flogging players and leading to burnout – not the matches. It’s the lack of joined-up thinking with players featuring on multiple teams, expected to jump from Fitzgibbon Cup to inter-county.
Look at other codes and, professional or not, players are lining out week on week. Yet now we’re saying an elite hurler can’t play five or six competitive League matches before he gets maybe the same in Championship – that it’s too competitive?
It’s the training to playing ratio that is still way too high. Say training for a county player averages out at roughly four times a week. That’s 200 sessions. For maybe 12 games. That has to be the highest ratio in the world in terms of field sport.
I’ve said this before, playing games should be a release for players. The League should be as competitive as possible, that’s what is helping to drive up standards.
The fact that any relegation or promotion pressure is off for the top six in Division 1A may filter into team selection. Managers have a bit of room to experiment.
Davy Fitzgerald is in year three now with Wexford. After a good win against Kilkenny in the Walsh Cup, a Galway team with 14 men and an experimental lineup beat them in the final. That’s got to hurt.
It’s a huge year for the former Clare boss. Last season couldn’t have worked out better for Limerick. It suited them to be in Division 1B. With the Na Piarsaigh players clubtied, John Kiely saw fringe players emerge – Seamus Flanagan the prime example.
The Flanagan that started the year and finished were two different players. Aaron Gillane was another who got not just a game but an extended run.
Being promoted to 1A suits them this season. The Na Piarsaigh contingent aren’t club-tied and not as many are involved in Fitzgibbon competition.
So this is the perfect opportunity to blood the next six or seven players in line.
Kilkenny-Cork is the other big game. Cork is arguably the most historic county overall when you take in hurling and football and look at the exploits of past players like Christy Ring and Jack Lynch.
The past 20 years though have seen too many problems, from player strikes to the financial burden of the new Páirc Uí Chaoimh. For a county of its size, there is no doubt it has been under-performing. This year is critical, in both codes.
Cork failed to close out last year’s All-Ireland semi-final, no doubt a huge source of regret. But they did tighten up at the back and I love the style of hurling they play. What’s lacking is a little of that traditional Cork self-belief.
In Division 1A last year, 15 matches translated into 11 home wins. That’s a 75 per cent home win record. In the round-robin Munster Championship, only one team won a match away from home – Clare against Tipperary. Waterford had no home venue as such.
It shows the importance of home advantage. While strong cases can be made for Limerick and Cork to win, I’m going to be led by the stats rather than my gut. Even though Kilkenny are missing a lot of regular faces, Cork have plenty involved in Fitzgibbon competition too.
Kilkenny to win at Nowlan Park and on the basis that Limerick are only back at it, Wexford might grind it out in front of a big home crowd.