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Kilkenny and Tipp Give Us A Traditional All Ireland Hurling Final

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Replying To riverboys:  "Well done to Tipp but it still doesn't feel right, the All Ireland hurling final should be played on the 1st Sunday in September, imagine our greatest sport ended mid August and nothing at county level again til the new year, this idea of freeing up sept for club matches didn't work last year and won't work this year either. Put our finals back into September"
Spot on Riverboys. Even just logistically September was better because kids were back in school and families weren't on holidays. No fear of GAA moving the football final to third Sunday in August.

As Cody keeps saying the GAA's solution to fixture congestion was more inter county games.

Killarney.87 (Tipperary) - Posts: 2513 - 27/08/2019 18:46:39    2229893

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Replying To riverboys:  "Well done to Tipp but it still doesn't feel right, the All Ireland hurling final should be played on the 1st Sunday in September, imagine our greatest sport ended mid August and nothing at county level again til the new year, this idea of freeing up sept for club matches didn't work last year and won't work this year either. Put our finals back into September"
Moving inter county games was right to give more time to the clubs. Clubs should look at themselves to get more games played earlier in year and in summer time.
As few games as possible should be played in later autumn and winter and earlier all ireland finals help that or should at least

KillingFields (Limerick) - Posts: 3496 - 27/08/2019 21:01:50    2229933

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Replying To Killarney.87:  "Spot on Riverboys. Even just logistically September was better because kids were back in school and families weren't on holidays. No fear of GAA moving the football final to third Sunday in August.

As Cody keeps saying the GAA's solution to fixture congestion was more inter county games."
It's a thorny one as in many ways the inter county game is our 'shop window' and it's important we keep our games in the public eye albeit the greater TV exposure on quality club games will help in this regard too

Only way the finals could/should move into September is if more 'windows' are created for clubs like the April period but that will require the county managers to release players etc but would allow more club games in good weather

PaudieSull1 (Down) - Posts: 738 - 28/08/2019 09:21:03    2230013

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If youse lads want the All-Irelands put back to September you obviously haven't hurled in or been to many matches in October/November.
If I had my way, I would have the inter-county season finishing in July. I am sick to death of summers rolling by without matches and am probably in my last year of club hurling as a result (aged 22)

StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 1732 - 28/08/2019 12:35:47    2230088

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Replying To StoreysTash:  "If youse lads want the All-Irelands put back to September you obviously haven't hurled in or been to many matches in October/November.
If I had my way, I would have the inter-county season finishing in July. I am sick to death of summers rolling by without matches and am probably in my last year of club hurling as a result (aged 22)"
No offence, but strange post by you.

Wexford have (unfortunately) been finished by the end of July every year since 2007. And with the inter-county season the way it is now, the only way we'll be hurling into August in the future is if we reach an All-Ireland Final. Wouldn't be a bad problem to have.

So, the bulk of the club championships here have been played during August/September every year since then. Generally only three games played in October - the two county semi-finals, and then the final. Don't know what club you're with yourself, but again, most clubs would consider playing in October not a bad problem to have.

Only way you'd be hurling in November is if you won the county final and went on to the Leinster Championship. My club would love to have that problem too.

You said in another thread that this is just your third year in adult hurling. Seems now that you're saying you're ready to walk away from it already, because you don't like playing county semi-finals, finals, and Leinster championship in October and November? Not a bad problem to have.

Wish I'd had those problems back in my own playing days.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2229 - 28/08/2019 14:20:41    2230146

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Replying To KillingFields:  "Moving inter county games was right to give more time to the clubs. Clubs should look at themselves to get more games played earlier in year and in summer time.
As few games as possible should be played in later autumn and winter and earlier all ireland finals help that or should at least"
Good point there killing fields. I too like the shortened season, if team managers and county boards could agree on a fixtures schedule, more games might be played in the summer weather.
I would scrap the O'Byrne Cups/Walsh Cup, McKenna Cup, and similar competitions.

thelongridge (Offaly) - Posts: 1735 - 28/08/2019 14:21:22    2230147

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StoreysTache, hurl for as long as you can, hanging up the hurley should only be an option when the body can't do it anymore or the Junior B team is flooded with quality younger players.

I am sick to death of summers rolling by without matches and am probably in my last year of club hurling as a result

slayer (Limerick) - Posts: 6480 - 28/08/2019 14:52:56    2230157

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Replying To StoreysTash:  "If youse lads want the All-Irelands put back to September you obviously haven't hurled in or been to many matches in October/November.
If I had my way, I would have the inter-county season finishing in July. I am sick to death of summers rolling by without matches and am probably in my last year of club hurling as a result (aged 22)"
Couldn't agree more. Inter county finishes and the county club championships are played off like a blitz.

dakid (Australia) - Posts: 284 - 28/08/2019 15:36:49    2230182

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100% good advice from Slayer. You'll regret it in future years if you stop playing now. I drifted away from hurling and football for a few years myself while I was in my twenties. But ended up playing Junior B even at the age of 40, and wishing I'd played more when I was younger.

Anyway, don't mean to hijack this thread to make it all about the Wexford club scene, but have had a look at the number of hurling matches my own club have played this year.

We've both a senior team and junior team. Senior team had one match in March (league), two in April (championship), three in May (league), one in June (league), two in July (league), and two in August (championship). That's a total of 11.

Junior team had one in March (league), two in April (championship), two in May (league), three in June (league), two in July (league) and two in August (championship). That's a total of 12.

We also have intermediate and Junior B football teams. Both these sides would have had a roughly equal number of games from March to August as well.

So, most adult dual players in my club have probably lined out between 15 and 20 times since the middle of March - that's an average of three or four games a month.

There's an issue all right that the league competition isn't taken very seriously in Wexford, but at least there are plenty of games to be played. It's not as though you're going for months on end with nothing to do at all.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2229 - 28/08/2019 15:53:42    2230186

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Replying To slayer:  "StoreysTache, hurl for as long as you can, hanging up the hurley should only be an option when the body can't do it anymore or the Junior B team is flooded with quality younger players.

I am sick to death of summers rolling by without matches and am probably in my last year of club hurling as a result"
Get into coaching, in particular coaching camogie or ladies football. That's where all the resources are going into with the 20x20 campaigns, that's where the dollars is!

Bon (Kildare) - Posts: 1898 - 28/08/2019 16:55:15    2230210

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Good point there killing fields. I too like the shortened season, if team managers and county boards could agree on a fixtures schedule, more games might be played in the summer weather.
I would scrap the O'Byrne Cups/Walsh Cup, McKenna Cup, and similar competitions.
thelongridge (Offaly) - Posts: 1131 - 28/08/2019 14:21:22 How many sports hold competitions as pre season games?
Just have friendlies. Your number of pre season games shouldnt be determined by how many games you win/lose. Just have 2/3/4 games as many/as few you kike

Couldn't agree more. Inter county finishes and the county club championships are played off like a blitz.
dakid (Australia) - Posts: 213 - 28/08/2019 15:36:49 where are they played off like a blitz?

There just needs to be a proper calender made and every one has to stick to it
very few games cancelled and only for very viable reasons which isnt case right now

KillingFields (Limerick) - Posts: 3496 - 28/08/2019 21:06:58    2230257

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The league is a pointless competition in Wexford, we played 4 matches in 17-18 days since Wexford were knocked out, what's the point? So its a bonanza of games now so the county final can be played before the end of October.
Morale in our club was non-existant throughout the summer, we stopped training in May and just showed up for the league games.

StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 1732 - 29/08/2019 10:21:47    2230354

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Can we learn from other sports like English Soccer?

League Cup, FA Cup, League, European Competitions, International Competitions, all played during a defined season. Everyone seems to be happy!

Ban (Westmeath) - Posts: 1415 - 29/08/2019 12:27:15    2230397

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Replying To Ban:  "Can we learn from other sports like English Soccer?

League Cup, FA Cup, League, European Competitions, International Competitions, all played during a defined season. Everyone seems to be happy!"
In hurling, the NHL & Championship were ran side by side in 1997. It was interesting. In our case, we lost the Munster Semi Final to Tipperary in June. the All-Ireland Final was played on September 14th (Clare v Tipp) and the final game of the year was the NHL Final on October 5th (Limerick v Galway) in Ennis. It was strange having the NHL final after the AIF.

slayer (Limerick) - Posts: 6480 - 29/08/2019 14:22:34    2230428

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Replying To Pikeman96:  "100% good advice from Slayer. You'll regret it in future years if you stop playing now. I drifted away from hurling and football for a few years myself while I was in my twenties. But ended up playing Junior B even at the age of 40, and wishing I'd played more when I was younger.

Anyway, don't mean to hijack this thread to make it all about the Wexford club scene, but have had a look at the number of hurling matches my own club have played this year.

We've both a senior team and junior team. Senior team had one match in March (league), two in April (championship), three in May (league), one in June (league), two in July (league), and two in August (championship). That's a total of 11.

Junior team had one in March (league), two in April (championship), two in May (league), three in June (league), two in July (league) and two in August (championship). That's a total of 12.

We also have intermediate and Junior B football teams. Both these sides would have had a roughly equal number of games from March to August as well.

So, most adult dual players in my club have probably lined out between 15 and 20 times since the middle of March - that's an average of three or four games a month.

There's an issue all right that the league competition isn't taken very seriously in Wexford, but at least there are plenty of games to be played. It's not as though you're going for months on end with nothing to do at all."
Nothing to do with the thread, just saying hello to a fellow forty*COUGH* year old playing Junior B. Nothing like the satisfaction you get using old tricks to by-pass younger legs. Shame I only get to do it once or twice before I keel over in exhaustion.

'Hon the Branch!

festinog (Galway) - Posts: 3097 - 29/08/2019 15:45:32    2230461

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Replying To StoreysTash:  "The league is a pointless competition in Wexford, we played 4 matches in 17-18 days since Wexford were knocked out, what's the point? So its a bonanza of games now so the county final can be played before the end of October.
Morale in our club was non-existant throughout the summer, we stopped training in May and just showed up for the league games."
Again, I don't know what your club is or what level you play at. But if you seriously all stopped training for most of May/June/July, then I'd suggest that there might be issues in the club that you could look at first.

But anyway, for anyone who likes to gripe about the current set-up, I like to ask what's the alternative? Would be genuinely interested to hear realistic ideas from a current player like yourself.

I happen to think things are far better today than they used to be. I know it's a bit frustrating to go from late April/early May until August without an actual club championship game. But I remember how for many years, the championships were straight knock-out, so half of the clubs only got one game, three-quarters of clubs only got two games, etc.

And then for a good few years, the round-robin stages were groups of four. So you were only actually guaranteed three championship matches.

But now there are groups of six, so you're guaranteed at least five matches, and ten of the twelve clubs in each grade get at least six matches.

Again, genuinely interested to hear any ideas from you that you think would work better.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2229 - 29/08/2019 15:48:30    2230462

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Replying To Pikeman96:  "Again, I don't know what your club is or what level you play at. But if you seriously all stopped training for most of May/June/July, then I'd suggest that there might be issues in the club that you could look at first.

But anyway, for anyone who likes to gripe about the current set-up, I like to ask what's the alternative? Would be genuinely interested to hear realistic ideas from a current player like yourself.

I happen to think things are far better today than they used to be. I know it's a bit frustrating to go from late April/early May until August without an actual club championship game. But I remember how for many years, the championships were straight knock-out, so half of the clubs only got one game, three-quarters of clubs only got two games, etc.

And then for a good few years, the round-robin stages were groups of four. So you were only actually guaranteed three championship matches.

But now there are groups of six, so you're guaranteed at least five matches, and ten of the twelve clubs in each grade get at least six matches.

Again, genuinely interested to hear any ideas from you that you think would work better."
It's common in most counties I believe to stop training for at least a few weeks if not longer in the summer. The system is a farce.

tiobraid (Tipperary) - Posts: 4119 - 29/08/2019 20:47:50    2230522

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Unsustainable I'd say. I can see the county scene divorcing itself from the club scene in the near future, i.e. County Managers picking a panel of 35 players who no longer play club hurling. With the demands on county players and the large gaps in the season for club players it might be proposed as a solution.

tiobraid:

It's common in most counties I believe to stop training for at least a few weeks if not longer in the summer. The system is a farce.

slayer (Limerick) - Posts: 6480 - 30/08/2019 08:34:10    2230589

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Few weeks is one thing. A fortnight off wouldn't be unheard of. But I read his post as saying they stopped for the entire summer.

Anyway, same question to you as to anybody else who says the system is a farce. Can you come up with a realistic, genuine alternative?

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2229 - 30/08/2019 09:22:00    2230598

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You must not be as clued in as you seem to think. We stopped training in May for the month of May. Almost every senior club in Wexford did the same. We started in mid-June and it was mid-August before we got a game again.
You asked for an alternative, I already gave one above that the All-Ireland should be played in mid-July. F the traditionalists I am sick of them, easy to look back with rose tinted glasses to a time when the GAA and hurling was all people had.
Young people now days aren't bothered with the love of the parish tripe spouted by "traditionalists". All traditionalists do is stifle progress in almost every walk of life.
And I am playing for a senior hurling club. I am starting work next month for the 1st time and WONT be bothered with the product the GAA offers. That is all I am saying.
So no, I don't agree that the AI should be put back to September to suit the schools going back. The GAA have no problem playing 4 club matches in 16 days, imagine they asked Liam Sheedy or Davy Fitz to do it, what would the reaction be? Player welfare blah blah but don't worry about player welfare for the club player, they don't count?

StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 1732 - 30/08/2019 11:12:37    2230634

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