THE GAA’S RULING Central Council will meet on Saturday to finally decide on the structures of next year’s Allianz Hurling League.
A decision was supposed to be made more than a month ago, but a new proposal was put on the table at the 11th hour so the vote was postponed in order to allow time for reflection.
The top flight of the League this year was made up of 12 teams divided up between Division 1A and Division 1B, with what were judged the strongest six teams in 1A.
This proved unpopular with the 1B teams and following Cork’s relegation this year and Limerick’s continued failure to win promotion to 1A the GAA decided to propose change. On Saturday Central Council will meet at Croke Park and there are four options to chose from. One of them will be picked and implemented in next year’s League.
Here TheScore.ie takes you through what’s on the table plus the pros and cons of each model.
PROPOSAL 1 - Status Quo
The Hurling League continues as it was — the six top teams in Division 1A , the next six in 1B and so on down the table. The winner of the Division 1B final is promoted and goes through to the Division 1 semi-finals along with the top three teams in 1A.
Division 1A: Clare, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Waterford
Division 1B: Antrim, Carlow, Cork, Offaly, Limerick, Wexford
Pros – The League is a sprint with five played off in a compressed time-frame; all of the top teams are (supposedly) grouped together
Cons – Teams only get five matches meaning managers don’t have time to experiment and revenue is reduced due to smaller number of home games; Cork and Limerick will be excluded from the elite; only one promotion place
PROPOSAL 2 – Six and Eight
This was the model put forward by Croke Park to the last Central Council meeting, though in the end it was never voted upon. It would see an eight team Division 1A and six in 1B. The top three teams in 1A would be joined in the semi-finals by the 1B winners, who are also promoted. The bottom team in 1A is relegated with the second bottom team meeting the loser of the 1B final in a promotion/relegation play-off.
Division 1A: Clare, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford
Division 1B: Antrim, Carlow, Laois, Offaly, Westmeath, Wexford
Pros – The top eight teams in the country would be grouped together, ensuring quality competition; each team guaranteed seven games, maximising the exposure hurling gets
Cons – Wexford and Offaly argue that they remain excluded from the elite which hampers their progress and allows the top teams to pull further clear of second level counties; Wexford and Offaly virtually guaranteed to be in the final
PROPOSAL 3 – The Crossover
The top 12 counties are split into seeds – A, B and C. Two A Seed teams are put together in a six-team group with two B Seeds and two C Seeds. This will form Section I and the same process will make up Section II.
Each team plays the other counties in their group, giving them five games. They then play two teams that share the same seeding in the opposite section, making for a seven-game regular season. The top two teams in each section make the semi-finals, the bottom in each play-off for relegation.
This proposal was put forward by Michael Burns of the National Fixture Planning Committee.
Seed A: Galway, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Waterford
Seed B: Clare, Cork, Dublin, Limerick
Seed C: Antrim, Offaly, Laois, Wexford
Section I (sample): Galway, Kilkenny, Clare, Cork, Antrim, Offlay
Section II (sample): Tipperary, Waterford, Dublin, Limerick, Laois, Wexford
Pros – all of the top teams are included, developing counties are given entry and assured games at their own level; semi-final and relegation structures are simple; it seems to keep everyone happy
Cons – it’s complicated; the likes of Laois and Antrim are likely to get several heavy beatings
PROPOSAL 4 – Let Us In!
Carlow and Westmeath are annoyed that they are allowed to play in the Liam MacCarthy Cup (the senior All-Ireland), but aren’t deemed good enough for Division 1. Their proposal is to be included in Division 1, meaning two sections of seven teams each. Each section would be made up of two Seed A teams, two Seed B teams and three Seed B teams. All of the rest of the structures would remain the same as Michael Burns’ proposal outlined above.
Pros - see Proposal 3
Cons – too many weak teams in the top flight leading to lop-sided matches; it is likely to be ruled out of order by Central Council because their rules state that the League has to be played from start to finish inside nine weekends – this proposal would require eleven weekends unless midweek games were played and this is deemed impractical.
I wonder would this article exist if Clare got relegated…
You wonder? The poison dwarf himself was complaining about it only being a 6 team top division before the relegation play off . Can you imagine the whinging from him afterwards about the “little fish” if they had lost the playoff?
Is that the small “haughyesque” figure of Frank Murphy your referring to??
That ‘poison dwarf’ you refer to managed to win the All-Ireland this year with a bunch of young fellas playing lovely hurling – why so bitter I wonder?!
Thanks for the information update , champ, but did it ever occur to you that not everybody likes Davy or his persona or his whinging or his childish aggression on pitchside and that dislike may have preceded 2013? Do you absolutley love every single person and figure in the GAA and ,if not, does that make you “bitter”? Anyway, the point I made to another Clare fella hopping on the conspiracy theory bandwagon was that Davy himself complained about the league structure before the relegation playoff saying it should be 8 teams in the top tier but don’t let that bother you.
You may not like him but be a man about it and call him something that you would to his face.
Of course Davy wanted it changed, it’s right to change it. Increase the number of games.
I assume Clare would be happy with a change, the point is had Clare been relegated nothing would have been done.
I agree that nothing would change if Clare were relegated. Fitz is a great character, love him or like him, he brings energy and enthusiasm to the hurling scene. Cork being away from top flight hurling won’t be tolerated, its unfair but thats life. Whichever proposal mentioned above has Cork in the top tier, that’ll be the one chosen.
*I mean hate, lol
Format 3 please, I know there will be some one sided games if the big 4/5 teams field there full strength teams against the weaker counties. This won’t happen as these teams will use these games to experiment a bit, mix of youth and experience. Why should the weaker counties not be entitled to see some of the great players currently, Shefflin, Canning, Nash, Rush etc etc this could only help with the advertising of the game in the so called weaker counties. Just make sure the weaker counties get home draws to encourage the neutral crowds to attend in bigger numbers.
I would personally like to see Propasal 3. It be interesting to see how the other seeds would get on in finally 2 games.
I dnt rateoption 2. Why should Offaly/Wexford be given a guaranteed semi when they are not deemed good enough to be in the top group
Crazy that we are in this position all because Cork couldn’t be men and take their relegation on the chin. Will it be changed next year if Cork are relegated again? I hope to see that happening as it’s what they deserve. We are half way through November and still no league dates for teams to prepare themselves for. Absolutely ridiculous that Cork have held the whole hurling world to ransom because they can’t take their relegation like men. I hope to see any team except Cork win the league or championship next year.
With all those wild inaccuracies and tinfoil hat conspiracy theories you just have to be from Kilkenny. Are you a,k.a. “Steve” ?
Or the facts? With your denial you just have to be from Cork. Only Cork people and possibly Limerick people see no problem with the proposed changes. In fairness to Limerick they just got on with it in Division 2 like real men, unlike Cork.
Like “real men” what are they fake men? Are they made out of plastic? No1 knows for sure what goes on in that gaa HQ. but you know if the voices in your head keep telling you one county is overpowering everyone else, well then I just feel pity for you. And don’t label every cork person the same there are plenty who believe the format should remain the same
Real men take their beatings and don’t just throw their toys out of the pram for any reason, as we have seen in Cork many times. There are not many Cork people on here who want to see the system stay the same. When the proposed changes were on an article here there were many many Cork people thanking Frank Murphy for doing it. Everyone knows what he has done in the past and what hand he had in these proposed changes.
That’s bull I remember that article. And people in cork do not like frank Murphy. That’s a fact. Keep waffling your rubbish spiteful crap
You shouldn’t be concerning yourself too much with that bile towards Cork. “Holding the hurling world to ransom”, absolute rubbish. Plenty of Cork people believe we should have gone down but that doesn’t change the fact that the league was deeply flawed last year. A type 3 or 4 scenario as described above is what’s best for the growth of hurling which is the most important thing. Get over yourself Mike Neil.
The current structure was to stay in place for another year. It’s more than a coincidence that changes have been brought forward as Cork were relegated. Frank Murphy has a lot of admirers in Cork. There was a general love towards him when these proposed changes were first announced. We have just had the best league in a long time followed by an open and exciting championship so why would anyone want to change it?? It’s got to do with revenue and inside Cork influences. Only Cork people see any problem with the current league structure.
Good man Steve. How you do like to repeat yourself over and over in the majority of gaa articles even if you do like to call yourself something else now. The agenda is always the same with you. It’s getting a bit old now.
Yep, “Mike”, you didn’t answer the question but you are definitely either “Steve” , who was the resident Kilkenny crackpot here before, or his equally loopers twin who seems to be going by the name of “Mike” now. By telling me I have made some “denial” (what “denial”) you are just like “Steve” Either way, one thing that is for sure is that you’re from Kilkenny. As for Frank, he has far more “admirers” in Kilkenny than he has from Cork, total love-in for him around 2009. Can you show us these instances where “hen the proposed changes were on an article here there were many many Cork people thanking Frank Murphy for doing it”.
“Many, many” sounds a lot, so surely you can provide a link. Or maybe you could provide a link to the ” general love towards him when these proposed changes were first announced”. I suspect however that this , like the “many, many Cork people thanking Frank Murphy” or the supposed “denial” I made ( please tell me what exactly I ‘denied’) that it is just a figment of your imagination.
Mike (or Steve) , is it tough finding someone to agree with your tinfoil hat stuff since the stripeymen.com went down the tubes?
All old articles can be searched for. Go look for them yourself and don’t be looking for another handout like your hurling team has already got.
Hon the Dubs. Robbed by Cork who got their answer in the final.
I’m a clare man and believe we need all strong hurling counties in division
You’re the one who made all these claims about people on this site supporting your tinfoil hat Kilkenny conspiracy theories, ah , “Mike”. But (surprise, surprise) just like the unlamented “Steve” you can’t back them up and have as good as admitted that they are entirely bullshit and are a figment of your vivid Kilkenny imagination. It must be really hard on you not to have the other crackpots on the stripeymen.com to agree with you anymore. LOL.
Think proposal 3 is the best but whichever one they pick people won’t be happy. They will have to keep it for at least 2 years changing it every year is ridiculous. Also in proposal 1 it would be Laois instead of Carlow is that correct?
Just to point out a something. ..its factually wrong to say limerick have failed to win promotion from 1b…they did but the GAA changed the format
What happened that year with Limerick? Cork wouldn’t have let that happen. Obviously nobody from Limerick sitting at the top table like that Frank Murphy con artist.
Out of proposals listed above, stick to status quo. Last year most exciting and competitive I can remember, all teams had all to play for in 1a on last match day and produced some brilliant matches. 1b also highly competitive and standard didn’t affect teams hugely I thought, considering Dublin and limerick won their provinces. Also we just had best championship in years. Why change any part of last years structures? Let cork down to 1b and earn their way back to 1a.
Think this years championship was so good is more to do with Kilkenny’s injury problems and lack of form them it had to do with the League structure. Kilkenny dipping their extraordinarily high standards this year opened up Leinster and the all Ireland series.
Stop tinkering with two flawed competitions, they need to link the league with championship. Some sort of provincial based league-championship, including crossover matches between different provinces, similar to option 3 above please.
All the Cork people on here are well suited. I think they might all be the same person. Hard to believe there can be that many egotistic people from the one county that all comment on this site. Anyway I’m done discussing this. The changes will be made and whatever they are I just hope Cork get relegated again so the rest of the country can have a right good laugh at them.
I’m glad Cork people class Cork as it’s own republic as it explains why the other 31 counties on the island of Ireland all have nice and honest people in them. All the cocky, egotistic and annoying people seem to have been exiled to Cork somewhere in our history! Best of luck to ye down there.
LOL,
You were Kilkenny nut “Steve” before,. Now you are Kilkenny nut “Mike”. We eagerly await the next incarnation of the Kilkenny conspiracy theorist refugee from thestripeymen.com. What will be your next username then?
I’m amazed the Shane O’Neill and karma analogy hasn’t been rehashed once again by Steve in this latest flurry of rubbish. A classic!
Yerra, have a bit of pity on “Steve” or “Mike Neil” or whatever he’ll be calling himself next week. He’s feeling a bit lonely ever since the haven for Kilkenny loonytoons , thestripeymen.com, went the way of Eddie Keher’s sense of reason and to the four winds and has no one to agree with his ludicrous rants.
Hi Steve ya sausage