Hurling more competitive at the top end ? The top two are well ahead of the rest . The whole country is hoping Galway and Waterford will maintain momentum and offer up strong challenges to Tipp and Kilkenny . Hurling has a massive problem with competitiveness and it is getting worse .

Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 6031 - 22/06/2015 21:50:35    1741281

Why was Joe Cannings goal not disallowed on saturday obvious square ball....

kikfada (Louth) - Posts: 2091 - 23/06/2015 10:43:56    1741376

I think people get a little carried away when they see huge scores in hurling when compared to football.

In hurling for example a team 6 points behind chasing the game can suddenly find themselves 12 or 13 behind just like that but scores arent as easy to come by in football so the scorelines dont look as bad.

The hurling is more competitive in my opinion than it has been for a while evidenced by Waterford winning the league from the 2nd tier for example albeit last weekend didnt prove that.

tearintom (Wexford) - Posts: 1341 - 23/06/2015 11:32:49    1741427

M Lester. Any one of those teams are capable of beating each other. Kilkenny and Tipp are out in front yes but its not like they ealk into the final. How Limerick didn't beat Kilkenny last year was actually amazing

deadybai (Kilkenny) - Posts: 63 - 23/06/2015 11:59:24    1741450

@kikfada - re joe cannings goal - he was outside the small square when the ball was hit. thats all that counts. doesnt matter if he was in the square then when the ball arrives. its just bad full back play that he didnt keep joe pushed out and let the ball into the goalies hand. that ll come with experience for laois though!

jkiamasnake (Galway) - Posts: 81 - 23/06/2015 12:16:05    1741465

county man
County: Limerick
Posts: 831

1741259
Football is more competitive overall but hurling is more competitive at the top end. We knew that at the start of the year that the All-Ireland will be won by one of 4/5 teams, Dublin, Kerry, Mayo,Donegal & Cork an outside bet, and hurling had up to 8 contenders then (there are not 8 now!) but below that football is far more unpredictable & competitive.

dont agree with the numbers
who are the cntenders in your mind in hurling
for me it has kilkenny and tipp with waterford possibly able to take out one of them on the day
but I dont think they would beat both of them so thats three contenders at the top.
in football you said four with cork in a similair position to waterford to make it five at the top

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 23/06/2015 13:38:05    1741541

hurling has been shocking this year, i expect two good provincial finals though, and the semi finals should be good but there is only three maybe four serious contenders. Kilkenny, Tipperary and maybe Waterford depending on how other teams figure them out, Limerick look off the pace, Clare are a shambles like Wexford, Cork have gone down hill as well, I see Galway as the best of the outsiders this year.

hurlorhurley (Wexford) - Posts: 1660 - 23/06/2015 13:51:18    1741559

See where Tomas O Shea was blown away by the skill of Kilkenny and hurling in general last weekend. I have to agree that Kilkenny always are a joy to watch even in in one sided games.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/hurling/tomas-s-nowlan-park-visit-a-reminder-of-hurlings-enduring-beauty-31330723.html

ZUL10 (Clare) - Posts: 693 - 26/06/2015 15:46:54    1743175

I just wonder how Kilkenny will fare v Galway in the Leinster Final, they had the Wexford game won by half time. I expect Galway to ask a lot more questions of Kilkenny's defence the next day.

thelongridge (Offaly) - Posts: 1741 - 26/06/2015 16:49:15    1743194

Galway didn't get much of a test last 2 days out either!

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 26/06/2015 17:34:22    1743213

ZUL10
County: Clare
Posts: 251

1743175
See where Tomas O Shea was blown away by the skill of Kilkenny and hurling in general last weekend. I have to agree that Kilkenny always are a joy to watch even in in one sided games.

Agreed. Kind of. They are to be admired. However, if they do that to everybody, the whole thing will get boring and will not be a joy to watch!

Tipp were good to watch as well.

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 26/06/2015 17:43:05    1743216

The 'myth' that the hurling championship is now ultra-competitive, and is in a better state than football, comes from sources that only watch one hurling game a year. I raised at least one eyebrow a few weeks ago when a prominent member of the GPA, in a discussion about footballs competitiveness following the Dublin/Longford game, urged change for football, but seemed to think hurling was now more competitive, and not requiring the same surgery. That's rubbish.

Hurling is in the same state its been in for the past 5 years. There are clear favorites for the AI, but its not a foregone conclusion. The worst aspect of the hurling championship, is that people tend to write it off after a few rounds of games. Kilkenny have played one game in the championship, the result is not enough to write everyone else off.
Galway have handed out similar thrashings twice already, they are as likely as anyone to win it out, I really like them this year.
Waterford are league champions, and unbeaten this year. Anyone that's counting them out of the AI race isn't watching much hurling.
Tipp are looking good also, we're capable of beating anyone this year, just got to keep focused.
I also have a feeling Clare aren't finished this year, if they get on a run, they could be hard to stop.

In any case, Kilkenny are favorites, but not clearly, we are far from the situation we were in from '06 to '09. There are still 4 or 5 teams that could win it out this year, so we shouldn't write off the championship before its really started. I'm actually fairly confident we won't have another Tipp v Kilkenny final this year.

Marlon_JD (Tipperary) - Posts: 1823 - 26/06/2015 19:07:36    1743241

Hill16 - Contenders were Tipp, Limerick, Waterford, Cork, Clare, Kilkenny, Galway & Dublin.

In January, you could have made a case for anyone of these winning the All-Ireland. Some obviously were longer odds than others but it was a possibility that any of them could win. Now with hindsight you can write off everyone except, Tipp, Waterford, Kilkenny & Galway. You couldn't say in January that it was just going to be between Tipp & Kilkenny.

Football was always going to be one of the 5 I mentioned and that hasn't changed. Below that is competitive but at a distance behind these except maybe for Monaghan who could get to an All-Ireland semi final but that would be their limit.

county man (Limerick) - Posts: 1102 - 26/06/2015 19:09:45    1743244

The contenders are still the same as mentioned above, any one of them could win it, cork and dublin at longer odds. when tipp won it, didnt they hammered out the door by cork in the first round, and when clare won they were beaten easily by cork and made to look useless in the munster final

flack (Dublin) - Posts: 1054 - 26/06/2015 19:59:45    1743262

Although I believe hurling is more exciting and competitive than football I'm going to shoot myself in the foot here and say even in January I only fancied tipp,Kilkenny and limerick. Now I'd say tipp Kilkenny and Galway. Limerick have been disappointing so far. We all want to.believe clare can make a statement but they've shown nothing in two years. Ourselves and Dublin have been poor also. Cork have some nice hurlers but I can't see them doing anything. Waterford are certainly the story of the year but I'm still expecting a team to find our their style and absolutely hockey them. That could well be the munster final.

Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 2674 - 26/06/2015 20:02:49    1743264

Yet another, boring, insecure, chip on the shoulder post from a football fan. If I go on here about how great hurling is, I'll be called a hurling snob. Funnily enough you see plenty of Gaelic football clubs or GFCs in football counties. But in Tipp you only seem to get GAA clubs.

The green eyed monster is alive and well. Really narrow minded post. The last four Tipp vs Limerick hurling matches are tied 2-2 but you conveniently bring up the outlier. The hurling championship has been enthralling for the last 2 - 3 years but your authority on the hurling championship is isolated to one weekend.

Killarney.87 (Tipperary) - Posts: 2513 - 26/06/2015 20:49:09    1743285

This is akin to comparing the difference between a cart horse and a race horse. Hurling is a thoroughbred sport, an art if you will. It's very high maintenance. With modern day fistball you just fire a few aul buckets of oats at the beast and then let it meander around the meadow snorting and farting and sweating doing it's work

Maroonatic (Galway) - Posts: 1060 - 27/06/2015 16:06:18    1743426

22/06/2015 11:12:02
bennybunny
County: Cork
The problem with both GAA sports is that they are not serious competitions until August.

The problem with the Champions League is that is does not get competitive until after Christmas.

legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 7857 - 28/06/2015 09:06:26    1743610

From what I heard Galway v Laois would have been a bit closer only for the strong wind played into Galway's hand. Laois typically used a blanket defence but Galway were just able to go over them. Scoring from way out unchallenged. Built up a big lead in the first half. I could be wrong. In football its harder to overcome the blanket defence.

crikey (Australia) - Posts: 355 - 28/06/2015 09:39:59    1743617

The opening post does kind of highlight the difference in how the 2 sports are reported (despite being covered in a lot of cases by the same journalists).The default position in football journalism is to take the negative stance and the default position in hurling journalism is to take the positive stance.

Kilkenny rightfully got praised when they were at their best for being so far ahead of other counties yet when the likes of Dublin and Kerry are dominant in football there are complaints about the lack of competitiveness and no admiration for their brilliance.If Dublin hammer Kildare today I doubt we'll see glowing articles in next weeks papers about how brilliant Dublin are.

For example Tomás O'Sé's article in the independent on friday was pure bull and frankly I'm amazed the article was even printed considering he is paid to be a football expert and there is plenty of football to be written about but because it reinforced the idea that everything in hurling is great it was allowed to go ahead with a complete waste of an article.

uibhfhaili1986 (Offaly) - Posts: 1296 - 28/06/2015 12:12:32    1743695