Saffon proposals for National Hurling Leagues

Antrim have drafted up a set of proposals for the HDC with regards to the NHL and SHC. Enclosed are all the details.

The statement from the Antrim county board reads:

Before detailing our specific proposals we feel it is important to emphasise certain points particularly relevant to Antrim hurling:

- Antrim senior hurling cannot hope to progress to a level where we can be regularly competitive with the top ranking hurling counties unless we are allowed to compete regularly with these counties.

- The only competition that can currently provide this without impinging significantly on club fixtures is the National Hurling Leagues.

- The standard of competition in the Ulster Hurling Championship is not currently comparable with that in either Leinster or Munster and therefore cannot be considered to provide ideal or adequate preparation for the McCarthy Cup series.

- The suggestion that Antrim along with Galway should enter the Leinster championship in its current format is entirely unrealistic for a number of reasons:

1. Should Antrim draw Kilkenny for example, at an early stage in the Leinster championship there is a very high likelihood that they would be eliminated after just one match which would therefore be entirely self-defeating.

2. Should Antrim progress or should the current structure of the Leinster championship change to prevent immediate elimination from this competition, this would unquestionably have a negative impact on club fixtures.

3. Any further down-grading of the Ulster Championship can only have a negative impact on the development of hurling in Ulster

- While Antrim have appreciated the fact that they have been allowed to play in the Walsh Cup series in January, this has usually only provided us with one competitive match, which has always involved travelling to play opponents in Leinster. No such competition exists in Ulster and these subsidiary provincial competitions do not allow for the “minnows” of hurling participating. Should we be encouraging non-participation?

- In last year’s National League, Antrim had only 2 home matches, the year before they had 3. 5 home matches in 2 years in the National League do nothing for promoting hurling in Antrim, never mind Ulster.

- We are fully cognisant of the need to ensure that National fixtures must not have any further impact on club activity. However, we believe that in most counties club hurling leagues are not likely to begin until the end of April or the beginning of May. Next year, from 6th January until 27th April inclusive, there are 17 weekends available over which the National Hurling leagues could be held. These proposals are unlikely to have a significant impact on club hurling activity.

- It has been possible to have National hurling and football fixtures played on the same weekend on some occasions. With the increasing availability of floodlighting at many county grounds, with most county’s now having a second county ground and development of full-sized 3rd generation Astroturf pitches, we believe that it is possible to increase the number of dates available for playing games in the National Hurling leagues. This should not have any significant impact on club activity and we certainly do not believe that having a closed weekend for hurling when the Fitzgibbon Cup is scheduled, does anything to help promote hurling in most counties.

- There is currently no substantial opinion or willingness to consider radical restructuring of the hurling championships which might therefore involve altering the current status of the Leinster or Munster championships. We believe that while the current proposals for the championship series are not ideal, if there was a willingness to ensure that we have more competition in the National leagues, we would be relatively happy with the proposals for the championship – provided a qualification series remains for Antrim and Galway.

- Several years ago the Strategic review set us a target of having 12 teams being realistic challengers for the McCarthy Cup. Having less than 12 teams playing and being competitive in the McCarthy Cup begs the questions as to whether this competition really merits the title of being called the “All Ireland” hurling championship. We must do something radical to alter the current status-quo in hurling.

- The play-off situations that we have become used to at the end of the league campaigns create more competition for the stronger teams at the end of the campaign, no competition for the middle-ranking teams and “let-off-the-hook” scenarios for some teams that have not performed well in the league itself. This downgrades competitiveness in the leagues and does not reward those teams who have performed more consistently throughout the league itself. This combination of events only serves to preserve the gulf in standards that exists between teams. We should run a league and a “league only” campaign and stop destroying leagues by having a knockout competition at the end of these leagues.

- The currently proposed 9 team Division 1 structure with its associated play-offs will require 14 weekend dates to complete. An eight team Division 1 or 2 etc, with associated play-offs would require at least 11 weekend dates to complete. Our proposal requires 10 weekend dates to complete.

- We believe that league status should reflect championship status. If we really want more teams to be real contenders for the McCarthy Cup, then we should structure our leagues in such a way that those counties “not good enough for the McCarthy Cup, but too good for the Christy Ring Cup” get an opportunity to compete regularly with each other.

Our proposals for the National Hurling leagues would be:

1. A division 1, 2, 3 and 4 of 6 teams each, with Division 1 and 2 teams competing in the McCarthy Cup series. Divisions 3 and Division 4 to compete in the Christy Ring series. Division 5 to consist of the 9 remaining teams in the National League competing in the Rackard Cup.

2. Divisions 1, 2, 3 and 4 to be played on a home and away basis, ensuring 5 home and 5 away matches for each of the participating counties. Divisions 5 to be played on a single round basis ensuring 8 games for each county participating in these Divisions.

3. Promotion and relegation between all divisions as follows:

- The team that finishes bottom of each division is relegated to the lower division for the following year. The team that finishes top of each division is promoted for the following year.

- The winner of each division is based only on the results of the league games and play-off situations to decide winners should be discouraged.

- (If time constraints allow) The team that finishes second from bottom of each division could have a play-off with the team that finishes second from top in the lower division; the winner of this will either be promoted or relegated depending on the result. We are not advocating this but would accept such an amendment if this was agreed.

As an example only we have included possible structures of the leagues:

Division 1 - Waterford, Kilkenny, Cork, Galway, Wexford, Tipperary

Division 2 - Clare, Dublin, Limerick, Offaly, Antrim, Laois

Division 3 - Down, Westmeath, Wicklow, Kildare, Derry, Kerry

Division 4 - Carlow, Mayo, Armagh, Meath, Roscommon, Sligo

Division 5 - London, Louth, Longford, Donegal, Tyrone, Leitrim, Fermanagh, Monaghan, Cavan

- Currently the subsidiary provincial competitions (e.g. Walsh Cup) do not provide any competition for the lower ranked teams. Therefore the National leagues should take precedent over these subsidiary competitions in the calendar of events.

- An increased number of games for all counties at senior level in hurling is a clear indication of our intention to promote hurling in all counties and will help to ensure that all counties will have to pay more than just lip service to promoting hurling.

- There is no “comfort-zone” in these proposals for any team in any of these leagues, nullifying the well established practice of some teams “making a charge” in the latter stages of the leagues. Competitiveness should be maintained throughout the league campaign thereby increasing spectator interest.