‘Hurling elite are cut from Orwell’
Carroll blasts structures
IT’S RTÉ’s off i ci al launch of the Championships and Offaly hurler-turned-analyst Brian Carroll is talking George Orwell, the English novelist and critic whose work often explores the theme of social injustice.
It’s not clear whether Orwell was talking about the Leinster and Munster hurling Championships when he wrote: ‘Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it i s war minus the shooting.’
It’s another famous quote that Carroll invokes in relation to what he feels is the injustice of the curr ent Championship system whereby the jewel in the crown, the Munster hurling Championship, carries no automatic relegation from the round-robin. The case in Leinster is very different, with Carroll’s own county, Offaly, relegated in year one of the new system to the second-tier Joe McDonagh Cup.
Then there’s the case of Munster’s hurling outlier Kerry.
Carroll feels strongly that the sense of entitlement about the Munster Championship is unfair. ‘I’ve been saying it since this system was devised. It’s hugely unfair on one team and that’s Kerry. Even if they go and win the Joe McDonagh Cup they’re not guaranteed to go up to the Munster Championship.
‘[The message] seems to be, “Preserve the Munster Championship at all costs”.
‘It’s a fantastic competition and we want that. But not all the teams are being treated fairly; not all the teams are equal. “Some animals are more equal than others”, to quote the famous Orwell. It’s disappointing that we have a structure where essentially people have climbed the ladder and pulled it up after them.’
The new group system set last summer alight and already there are whisperings of Munster looking for more in terms of the AllIreland seedings. As it stands, the top three teams in Munster and Leinster progress, with the bottom two teams gone.
Last year, Tipperary and Waterford were the two Munster teams who didn’t make the knock-out stages of the All-Ireland competition. Carroll wonders how long that will happen.
‘You talk about Munster teams being seeded, how long will we persist with this current situation until Munster will want it changed, when they see two of the top teams not progressing to the latter stages of the Championship.
‘I think they’ll rip up the rulebook again when teams start to lose out. Last year, Tipperary and Waterford under-performed and I don’t think anyone could really gripe about them being knocked out. But if we have a rip-roaring Munster Championship this year and two of the top teams aren’t through, I don’t think we’ll see the system persist for too much longer. I think it will be tweaked.’
He cites the changes to next year’s League structure as an example. ‘It’s like the National Hurling League, it will be changed when it suits the top teams. We had a brilliant league in 1A and 1B, a quarter-final system where teams in 1B still got a chance to play against teams in 1A.
‘Because of the nature now of the Munster Championship and the games coming thick and fast, we’ve essentially created a warmup National League for the Munster and Leinster Championships. That’s hugely disappointing. It’s being done for the wrong reasons. I’d fear that is the way the Munster and Leinster Championships could go over the next couple of years.’
He has his own formula for a round-robin Championship that he thinks would be fairer. ‘We’ve 15 teams between Leinster and Joe McDonagh. I would add another team to it and go four groups of four. You’d probably have two top teams seeded, two bottom teams and it allows everyone a chance to play three games against some of the top teams out there.
‘And I think the top eight should go to the All-Ireland ‘A’ Championship and the next eight should go to the ‘B’ Championship. On All-Ireland final day we should have an ‘A’ All-Ireland and a ‘B’ All-Ireland.
‘For the likes of Offaly and Laois, if we got an opportunity to play on the same day as the All-Ireland… Realistically, we’re never going to win the All-Ireland under the current guise, and a system like that could allow counties an opportunity to play against the top teams but afterwards fall into a competition where they have realistic chances of winning.’
On the subject of Kilkenny’s chances in Leinster and beyond, he says Brian Cody’s team no longer have a ‘fear factor’ for other teams, especially in light of a deepening injury crisis.
‘Kilkenny are never gone, let’s be honest. But the injuries they’re after taking – Eoin Murphy being out injured, Conor Delaney. Cillian Buckley – it doesn’t look like he’s set to feature at all. We’re still unsure about the fitness of Richie Hogan.
‘So there’s some question marks around some key players and who’ll fill that full-back position. Kilkenny are never gone but they’re not the team they used to be.
‘The fear factor around them is gone as well. You can never write off Kilkenny, but certainly the cards are stacked against them at the moment.’