Provincial Hurling Finals

Looks like my earlier prediction for the Munster Hurling Final was right, it'll be Tipp V Waaaaaaaaaaterford. Unbelievable 10 goals by Cork on saturday
Galway also meet with Clare in the qualifiers- can they redeem themselves? And since nobody's mentioned it I'll also make this a Dublin hype thread for the Hurling, building them up for the game, and going into fits of histerics if they end up getting I expected a big year for the west brit hurlers but their beating KK in the NHL final and setting up another final with them in Leinster has still taken me by suprise.

So I thought we can have some predictions on the provincial wee ball finals, GW's are-
Tipp by 8
Dubland by 3

You are forgetting the ulster final next week where Our Ma face off against Interim for a beating.

It mustn't be forgotten how well our ma have done to reach the final.
It also mustn't be forgotten how little Antrim have to do to get there.

The GAA should consider scrapping provincial championships. The last time I looked there were four provinces. The only one that has had any meaning for years is the Munster.
Put Kilkenny into Munster and the Dubs if they can prove this year is anything other than a flash in the pan and let them get on with it. Then perhaps we can move on from this farce.
The nail in the coffin for me was the ridiculous 10-20 scored, reminds me of an u-12 match.
Do those that recognise west brits not recognise that Ulster has a provincil championship. While its been demeaned by the GAA in search of improving Antrim in isolation credit should go to Armagh hurlers for making the final for the first time in a lifetime. If the weeball is to ever rival the big ball game the old boys club need to be challenged or remove the sham tht it is an all ireland title.

Ar aghaidh le cheile wrote:The GAA should consider scrapping provincial championships. The last time I looked there were four provinces. The only one that has had any meaning for years is the Munster.
Put Kilkenny into Munster and the Dubs if they can prove this year is anything other than a flash in the pan and let them get on with it. Then perhaps we can move on from this farce.
The nail in the coffin for me was the ridiculous 10-20 scored, reminds me of an u-12 match.
Do those that recognise west brits not recognise that Ulster has a provincil championship. While its been demeaned by the GAA in search of improving Antrim in isolation credit should go to Armagh hurlers for making the final for the first time in a lifetime. If the weeball is to ever rival the big ball game the old boys club need to be challenged or remove the sham tht it is an all ireland title.

What a load of rubbish you just spouted. You slate the provincial titles then you use a qualifier with Cork playing Laois as an example??? Typical paranoid northern attitude really thinking were all against you in the south. The Dublin county board has done a lot of work to improve hurling in the county, I don't see any Ulster team's making an effort and until they do the Ulster hurling champ will continue to be a complete joke.

My understanding is that there has been lots of money fired at the Dublin County Board to promote hurling ovr the last ten years. Money that wasnt always wisely spent and wasnt available to the other weaker counties.
In terms of an All Ireland title its not. In the Big ball game all the counties have a chance. In the wee ball game how many actually get to enter the major competition.
Paranoia -Why encourage others into a closed shop

Im not sure exactly who has put the money into Dublin hurling so I can't comment on speculation. There are only 13 counties in the top teir bacause the other's cannot compete, if you look at the 13, Laois are in it and they obviously can't compete any more so there is actually an argument to have less than 13 team's in it.

As for your point about more team's having a chance in the football, yes more team's do have a chance but that's because football is an easier game to play in every aspect, and to reach the top level in hurling you really have to be playing it form a young age and stick with it. In today's world you just have to be fit and be able to hand pass the ball 100 time's in 70min's to play football.

No doubt hurling is the more skilful game but your point regarding football is simplistic in the extreme.
Claiming that the current hurling chmpionship results in an all ireland winner is a bit like the americans and their world series in Baseball. Unless the GAA put serious work into developing hurling then it will continue to a spectacle appreciated by a minority.

Oi! The Dubs are going to win, so

Speaking of my team, Bernard Brogan's starting his blog on the dub Hub tomorrow...I hope he does a good job of it, and it's not just clichéd bollix...

Ever since hurling begun it has been dominated in the main by 3 county's Kilkenny, Cork, and Tipp with a few other county's winning the odd one here there so it's alway's been kind of a minority sport and by having an open draw with everyone in it, you will get a lot more hammering's like the one Cork gave Laois. The g.a.a can invest all the money they want but if the interest is not there then it's pointless and clearly the interest is not there in certain part's of the country. If you take Carlow for an example they are actually making an effort to improve hurling in the county by getting coaches in from traditional hurling counties to coach their underage team's and it's making a difference.

Quite right there RB, musn't forget the nordie hurling, up oor ma!

BTW lads, this is an old arguement we've had before in the other place. Dublfcynwa is quite right in saying that football is more competitive and it is easier to play. Its probably always going to be the more popular code but even football has the same problems in the wee ball strongholds. Just look at the KK footballers as an example of how the lesser code has been neglected in small counties (e.g. big ball in KK & wee ball in cavan). But there have been improvements in recent years, but you still need to take into account the small population of some counties and that the fact that they will mostly concentrate on what they are best at. For this reason you've got very few counties that can boast strength in both codes. We've agreed that the championship format needs changed, but its easier to say just make an open draw in the more even big ball, but with the wee ball situation you need different tiers. For you to degrade the AI title in hurling for the reason you have, Ar aghaidh le cheile, is ridiculous, the format may not be the best but it dosen't change that it is fought out by the best counties in the game. Put it this way the SPL in soccer has a muck format (spit etc) and OF dominance for the best part of a century but it dosen't change the fact that the league winner are scottish champions just because 10 of 12 clubs don't stand a chance. And don't get me started on you're ignorant comment about US baseball, the MLB champs are more or less WORLD champs at club level, for the same reason the Hurling championship results in an AI winner.

hurling should reintroduce 4 match quarter finals to allow smaller teams like carlow armagh laois down etc the chance to play killkenny or tipp in an all-ireland quarter final at croke park. they could only learn from the experience an experience they rarely get and for the gaa to deny this is wrong.

it has worked in football fermangh are a good example never won ulster but were close to winning their semi with mayo after beating armagh who were big favourites and all this after a hammering by tyrone at the same stage 12 months previous. they progressed with tough experience.


hurling needs a change killkenny played only 4 championship matches across 4 months in the last 3 years if they beat the dubs it will be the same again. an extra match like a provincal quarter or all-ireland quarter wouldnt hurt.

Who are the present World road bowls champions is it Armagh or Cork. Anybody know who are the current all ireland rounders champions.
As regards baseball you cant be world champions unless you have other countries or continents involved.
Hurling cant really claim to be an AI title as All of the counties in IRELAND cannot according to the current rules of competition compete.
Your comparison to the Scottish Premier LEAGUE is the wrong competition the correct comparison is the Scottish cup, for obvious reasons.

Take your point on the SPL comparison but you can see what I'm getting at. As far as road bowls and rounders, you've just helped me prove my point, they are not as popular as football and hurling, just as hurling isn't as popular in football counties which is why you can't have ALL counties competing in the hurling AI at the top level. As things stand it'd be a waste of time and a farce! You have the best counties in the game competing for Liam, the other counties aren't good enough, the playing field is far too unequal. It dosen't change the fact that they are still AI champions, if other counties were good enough then they'd be competing at the top level with the tipps, corks and KK's- but they're not.

You also clearly don't know much about baseball, it has an international following, the MLB champs are WORLD champs at club level as other leagues such as the Mexican, Korean, Cuban and Japanese leagues are nowhere near good enough to compete with MLB. (Which has been proven in a champs league style baseball competition). Also there are many non-Americans in MLB, there not all a bunch of ignorant cowboys who don't know where Europe is on a world map (as many people here think), you don't hear Japanese fans moaning about US World champions. At international level Japan are the current winners of the World Classic so they are WORLD champs at international level. Even though it was probably tounge-in-cheek, did you correct RB when he wrote up Cork as world champs of football?

London and New York compete for Sam. Ergo we are world champs.

The camogie set up is pretty good. It can operate across a couple of tiers and it isn't about excluding counties from competing for the top prize, rather ensuring there is a bit of competition.

The lesser counties learn little from getting an absolute hiding. They learn more from competing against teams in and around their same ability.

Been away for a few days.
Cork are not world champions but masters of the universe as we all know Ireland is the centre of the universe. As your man Hawkins