There is something for all in this exciting new hurling system

YESTERDAY was a good day for hurling. It was important that the Central Council motion was passed and that the hurling Championship was restructured. It needed to happen as with the Super 8 next year, there are going to be a lot more highprofile football games and if the status quo had been retained, there would have been gaps in the calendar when it came to hurling.

And the game didn’t need that, not after coming off one of the best Championships in years. Okay, perhaps not in terms of quality but just in the context of the number of contenders that have now emerged.

We saw the first ever AllIreland final between Galway and Waterford, Limerick claim their second Under 21 title in three years, Wexford have risen again, Cork are Munster champions. Hurling is where it was in the mid-1990s, with six or seven counties believing they can win the Liam MacCarthy.

That these teams will play more matches over a shorter time-frame, and that they will play these matches in provincial venues like Pearse Stadium and Cusack Park is only going to add to the excitement. I have seen myself what can happen in Tullamore when a massive Championship clash comes to town, as the KilkennyGalway game did back in 2014.

If I was still playing, I would love to be stuck in the middle of this and be excited by the possibilities that the next three years will hold. There may be a little bit of a divide now and maybe my own county, Offaly, are the side that are hanging on by their fingernails at the bottom of the top group of five.

But the amendment that Laois, Offaly and Meath proposed was an important element in the restructuring of the Championship. It means that if a team like Offaly does drop into the secondtier competition, they won’t fall off the radar altogether.

They could even benefit from a year in that competition as it will give them a bit of breathing space to reassess things and refocus.

And now, if they get to the final of that second-tier competition, they have a pathway back into the All-Ireland Championship.

Teams like Laois, Offaly and Antrim probably should be doing better than they are but this secondtier competition will now give them an opportunity to develop their teams over a year or two — and avoid getting hidings of 20 or 30 points, which simply demoralise players.

And even the fact that Offaly will welcome Wexford and Dublin to Tullamore and Birr next season will give the players a bit of a pep in their step. We shouldn’t be afraid of those counties at home. And there may be a shock or two as this new Championship comes to life next summer.

We came to Croke Park, looking for change and looking for progress. And that is what we got.

In hurling now, we have got 16 counties — the top 10 and the six teams in the second-tier — who have something to play for. You couldn’t have said that a few years ago. It shows that progress has been made.