GAA Hurling 2017

I dunno does it really make any difference, we only have 9 Liam Mac teams, Offaly are there in name only, and won't be after this season, so under any format you like, you are basically getting rid of 3 teams, usually 2 Leinster ones and 1 Munster one, before the QF's.  This will take a handful of games more to arrive at the exact same conclusion. 

The championship structure for 2018-20 is as follows

'The Liam MacCarthy Cup will be reduced to 10 teams and the five-team Munster and Leinster championships will be played off on a round-robin basis.

The top two teams in each provincial group would face-off in the provincial final, while the third placed teams advance to the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

The bottom two teams in either group play-off would reach the quarter-finals. The quarter-final winners play the provincial champions in the All-Ireland semi-finals.

The Tier 2 championship will include the four counties currently in the Leinster championship qualifier group and two other counties based on finishing positions in 2017 championship.

It would be run on a round-robin basis with the top two teams contesting the final. The finalists from the Tier 2 competition meet the third-placed teams in Munster and Leinster in the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals.

The participants in all three lower tiers (Christy Ring/Nicky Rackard/Lory Meagher) are to be based on finishing positions in this year’s championship, and they’ll all be played on a round-robin basis'

Good God Munster is going to be helter skelter where Leinster have Offaly for the other 4 to slaughter and then the tier 2 teams may get slaughtered by the 3rd place Munster/Leinster teams in the Prem round game. Top 2 in each province play in the prov final (winner into AI semi final, runner up All Ire QF)

The Gilroy/Cunningham combo is one of those 'outside the box' decisions that could work for the Dubs. The first thing they need to work on is getting the the 'hurlers' who walked away from the panel during Ger Cunningham's  tenure  Then the job will be to try and get the football hurlers who make up the Dublin b team to commit to hurling for 2018 and that's where Gilroy could make a difference.

'but the history of lads with a football background becoming successful hurling managers is a short one (and vice versa)'
Might be a short one but a successful one. Sean Boylan

Dublin would have a serious hurling team if they got some of the footballers on board (tbh what else do they have to achieve in the football they've won 3 in a row)

Going back a good bit but Kevin Heffernan won a Dublin SHC as manager with Vinnies IIRC. Gilroy a great man manager by all accounts too so DCB maybe looking at this as a joint managerial type of thing (with clearly defined roles for Gilroy and Cunningham)

Edited by Denis Irwin - 26 Sep 2017 at 11:37pm

Denis Irwin wrote: Indo reporting Pat Gilroy for the Dublin job with Anthony Cunningham as part of the ticket http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/hurling/pat-gilroy-set-for-dubs-hurling-hotseat-and-will-have-a-wellknown-coach-in-his-backroom-team-36169026.html

I heard on Friday that it might be Pat Gilroy and Mattie Kenny. I was in Galway at the weekend and mentioned this to a few of the cousins and they said they would be surprised if this was to happen. as hey couldn't see Kenny working with Gilroy so it's looking more like that it will be Gilroy and Anthony Cunningham.

Edited by SuperDub - 27 Sep 2017 at 6:57am

Green Devil wrote: Even though every Inter-County player (depending on code) gets two free All-Ireland tickets?

The players have to pay for them, €80 a pop.

Bit more to the Cork/Kingston thing than meets the eye it seems, there were disagreements over the past year about expenses, the Cork CB vetoed his idea of bringing the squad to the AI final and a few other small time attempts to undermine him. The Examiner kind of hinted as much today with Ml Moynihan asking ''Did the CB do enough to keep him'' without mentioning the issues in too much detail.