THE NATIONAL HURLING league threw in this weekend but some of the country’s top managers disagree on the merits or otherwise of the competition’s new structure.

GAA chiefs changed the format of the league in a bid to ensure there’s more at stake in more games.

Brian Cody yesterday watched his All-Ireland champions Kilkenny get off to an impressive winning start against beaten All-Ireland finalists Tipperary at Nowlan Park.

Afterwards he admitted reservations about the format.

“Look like I said already before the start of the league, I think most county boards and most counties weren’t in favour of it because of the shortened number of games and other points of view like revenue,” Cody told RTÉ’s Ger Canning afterwards.

“But it’s there and I’m not going to start worrying about it because you can only tag on whatever’s in front of us and we’ll take in on from here. I don’t know [if it's best for the game]. I don’t know.

“Maybe the general opinion is that it’s possibly not the best for the games. But my brief is… I’m not going to get caught up in worrying about things like that because I can’t control it.”

Cody’s Offaly counterpart Ollie Baker meanwhile insisted that the shortened fixture list will mean hurling fans see more exciting games.

“The result last night in Limerick and the result today up in Casement Park kind of puts this league into perspective – that this is a very competitive league” Baker said after his side’s rout of Laois.

“You’re going to have to score highly to get out of this league. So there is tougher games ahead. The pressure is now everyone who hasn’t won today or this weekend and they want obviously to be hurling competitively coming into April as well.

“I think the way the league is structured  this year is fabulous and there’s going to be competitive games every Sunday which is what the public want,” he added.

Do you agree?

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