National Forum

Hurling Championship 2026

(Oldest Posts First) - Go To The Latest Post


Replying To BigBàsMan:  "Who in Leinster will come within 5 points of Galway this year"
We will

Tiger1 (Wexford) - Posts: 449 - 23/04/2026 22:05:15    2668238

Link

Gillane huge loss for limerick which probably tilts the balance for cork..I hope I'm very wrong.

CTGAA10 (Limerick) - Posts: 2688 - 23/04/2026 23:24:59    2668259

Link

Replying To CTGAA10:  "Gillane huge loss for limerick which probably tilts the balance for cork..I hope I'm very wrong."
That's a big loss alright. Peter Casey to come in?

bloodandbandage (Cork) - Posts: 560 - 24/04/2026 10:16:41    2668288

Link

Replying To bloodandbandage:  "That's a big loss alright. Peter Casey to come in?"
Yes Casey in for Gillane only change to league final team

LimerickandProud (Limerick) - Posts: 257 - 24/04/2026 10:18:36    2668289

Link

Replying To katser:  "I'm not sure about walking Leinster because you know how Galway tend to make life hard for themselves, but Galway definitely will win Leinster."
Really hate this kind of talk. Only time for it is after you win.

Triffic (Galway) - Posts: 184 - 24/04/2026 10:29:21    2668295

Link

Replying To LimerickandProud:  "How are we feeling about matches this weekend?

Kilkenny and Wexford - I think this game will be tight, Wexford are well capable of going to Nowlan Park and winning, but I am expecting something of a back lash from Kilkenny after everyone downing on them last week. I think they might sneak it but not by much.

Dublin and Kildare - Similar to Kilkenny, Dublin need a response and I think they will deliver at home

Galway and Offaly - Galway at home will have too much class for Offaly (who have some super young fellas coming through but look like they are a year too early physically)

Cork and Limerick - Cork looked ordinary enough in the first half against Tipperary but obviously targeted the second half and really upped the intensity and took over. I don't think they went up the gears in the League Final against Limerick and were shadow boxing a bit. The pace they possess in the front six with Walsh and Buckley now thrown into the mix is frightening and I think they will target Diarmaid Byrnes in particular with these runs (which they didn't do in the League Final). Limerick are entering the fray with what looks like a full deck to pick from. Will they be able to get up to the pace of the game straight away? I think this could easily go either way so my money is on a draw.

Waterford and Tipperary - Waterford to me looked like team who got their S&C all wrong. They are physically big men but not as mobile as Cork, Clare or Tipperary. They might get away with this down in the tight confines of Walsh Park but I think Tipperary will target goals and do just about enough to get a result here."
KK V Wexford: I have absolutely no idea how this will go, so I'll play it safe and call a draw. Wexford always seem to raise their game for the stripey men, and this really is a golden opportunity for them. Can they take it?

Dublin to get back on the saddle and beat Kildare.

Galway will have way too much for Offaly

Expect huge improvement from Tipp and Waterford at home are dangerous, however, very reliant on Bennett for scores. Tipp to edge it.

Gillane out for Limerick is huge, although Casey is a fantastic replacement, he does not pose the same goal threat. SOB to step up??? This Limerick team have only won once in PUC, so this, coupled with Gillane's absence means it's Cork for me.

bloodandbandage (Cork) - Posts: 560 - 24/04/2026 10:41:56    2668300

Link

Ya Casey for gillane..

CTGAA10 (Limerick) - Posts: 2688 - 24/04/2026 11:01:34    2668307

Link

Whose turn is it for "everybody wrote us off" this weekend? Kilkenny? Waterford? Tipp? Wexford?

ExiledInWex (Dublin) - Posts: 1635 - 24/04/2026 11:19:26    2668314

Link

Replying To ExiledInWex:  "Whose turn is it for "everybody wrote us off" this weekend? Kilkenny? Waterford? Tipp? Wexford?"
Kilkenny are everyone's favourites for the game in Nowlan Park. No pundit is predicting we will win. So they arent being written off.
Most pundits are leaning towards Tipp in the other one.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19785 - 24/04/2026 11:27:16    2668319

Link

Replying To Triffic:  "Really hate this kind of talk. Only time for it is after you win."
If one doesn't have confidence then one is at nothing.
Bunch of 2nd level Division 2 teams are left. The big fish KK has already been fried and eaten nicely.

katser (Galway) - Posts: 2846 - 24/04/2026 14:10:27    2668357

Link

Replying To Viking66:  "Kilkenny are everyone's favourites for the game in Nowlan Park. No pundit is predicting we will win. So they arent being written off.
Most pundits are leaning towards Tipp in the other one."
Everyone writing KK off relates to the wider context of their regression. I can't imagine them scraping past Wexford this weekend changing that narrative.

bloodandbandage (Cork) - Posts: 560 - 24/04/2026 14:31:48    2668366

Link

Replying To Tiger1:  "We will"
Lol

BigBàsMan (Galway) - Posts: 277 - 24/04/2026 15:06:24    2668379

Link

These Wexford lads are deluded

BigBàsMan (Galway) - Posts: 277 - 24/04/2026 15:07:33    2668380

Link

Replying To Doylerwex:  "Dublin usually beat you in fairness."
Usually only when they have a Galway man in charge. ;)
In all seriousness, if we have ambitions to become a top team we should be winning Leinster, but nothing would surprise me. Dublin and Wexford are very capable and those games could go either way.

WanPintWin (Galway) - Posts: 2825 - 24/04/2026 15:52:10    2668394

Link

The Munster championship delivering once again! Although both games were strewn with errors, the drama was electric. Cork v limerick never fails to entertain.

bloodandbandage (Cork) - Posts: 560 - 27/04/2026 09:52:18    2669068

Link

Replying To bloodandbandage:  "The Munster championship delivering once again! Although both games were strewn with errors, the drama was electric. Cork v limerick never fails to entertain."
Great entertainment for sure. Plenty of ebb and flow. Drama too. Not champagne hurling but very exciting all the same, better than what I watched Saturday evening.
Cork looking good at the minute, you must be quietly optimistic BnB?

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 19785 - 27/04/2026 10:38:36    2669103

Link

Replying To bloodandbandage:  "The Munster championship delivering once again! Although both games were strewn with errors, the drama was electric. Cork v limerick never fails to entertain."
The gulf between the Munster and Leinster championship is widening every year really.
The intensity on show in both games yesterday,the attendances, the crowd interaction are chalk and cheese between the 2.

Goreylad1985 (Wexford) - Posts: 47 - 27/04/2026 11:04:30    2669116

Link

Firstly I am an Offaly man, and supporter of teams whom one time were in same vein as ourselves. in Munster, Limerick, Clare and Waterford were always teams I watch our for - even today. Leinster, apart from Offaly - Wexford Laois and Dublin etc. Antrim, Down and Derry etc. in Ulster. But this weekend having watched all televised games, the standard, pace, intensity we seen in Munster - was sadly lacking in Leinster games. A member of my household who does not really follow any of the GAA even remarked last night on the Sunday game - the lack lustre openess of the Offaly-Galway game etc. if you looked away there was hardly a cheer or a shout to hear to draw back ones attention. Cork and Limerick and Wateford and Tipp were rivetting games yesterday. I never agreed with Galway in Leinster - and still dont - they have done little to add to its competitiveness. If anything, they are too somehow stumbling through round robin games that they will win playing at 70%. Then when the knockout comes later in summer - they are competitive for a while but ultimately fall away..its 9 years since the won their All Ireland - havent really rattled the cage too much since.

Where is the answer? I dont know - we are gone down a serious rabit hole with Leinster - Wexford are surely not as poor as they were against a stuttering Kilkenny team, whom the pundits tried to talk up as "having gone back to old style" in their win on Saturday evening - I think more it was Wexfords surrender after the 2nd goal made Kilkenny look good. Wexford had a great U20 team including Cian Byrne who came on as a sub on Saturday and played well enough - there were more on that U20 team, if I recall, I know not everyone goes through to senior but surely there are more..The JMCD is a good tournament to a degree - nice to win it - but is it masking a bigger problem as Kildare and possibly Offaly/Laois/Antrim etc. find out when they come up to provincial. I said before, maybe let Galway go 2 yearly in either province, and if Kerry say wing JMCD they go into Munster - yes I hear people saying they would be eaten alive - but they wont improve being protected either. Antrim and Galway could rotate year about either in Leinster and Munster possibly...I dont know - the current set up - Leinster is very very flat - Offaly V Dublin the best game to date in it I would say...after that??

Fairplayalways (Offaly) - Posts: 1038 - 27/04/2026 11:23:37    2669125

Link

Replying To Fairplayalways:  "Firstly I am an Offaly man, and supporter of teams whom one time were in same vein as ourselves. in Munster, Limerick, Clare and Waterford were always teams I watch our for - even today. Leinster, apart from Offaly - Wexford Laois and Dublin etc. Antrim, Down and Derry etc. in Ulster. But this weekend having watched all televised games, the standard, pace, intensity we seen in Munster - was sadly lacking in Leinster games. A member of my household who does not really follow any of the GAA even remarked last night on the Sunday game - the lack lustre openess of the Offaly-Galway game etc. if you looked away there was hardly a cheer or a shout to hear to draw back ones attention. Cork and Limerick and Wateford and Tipp were rivetting games yesterday. I never agreed with Galway in Leinster - and still dont - they have done little to add to its competitiveness. If anything, they are too somehow stumbling through round robin games that they will win playing at 70%. Then when the knockout comes later in summer - they are competitive for a while but ultimately fall away..its 9 years since the won their All Ireland - havent really rattled the cage too much since.

Where is the answer? I dont know - we are gone down a serious rabit hole with Leinster - Wexford are surely not as poor as they were against a stuttering Kilkenny team, whom the pundits tried to talk up as "having gone back to old style" in their win on Saturday evening - I think more it was Wexfords surrender after the 2nd goal made Kilkenny look good. Wexford had a great U20 team including Cian Byrne who came on as a sub on Saturday and played well enough - there were more on that U20 team, if I recall, I know not everyone goes through to senior but surely there are more..The JMCD is a good tournament to a degree - nice to win it - but is it masking a bigger problem as Kildare and possibly Offaly/Laois/Antrim etc. find out when they come up to provincial. I said before, maybe let Galway go 2 yearly in either province, and if Kerry say wing JMCD they go into Munster - yes I hear people saying they would be eaten alive - but they wont improve being protected either. Antrim and Galway could rotate year about either in Leinster and Munster possibly...I dont know - the current set up - Leinster is very very flat - Offaly V Dublin the best game to date in it I would say...after that??"
It was like watching two completely different sports this weekend.
My own county hardly layed a glove on Kilkenny, it was played at a near pedestrian pace and you could hear the instructions from the sideline and players talking the crowd was so mute.

Cork and Limerick yesterday (ok I know they are the 2 best teams in the country) but every score is earned from manic workrate, under intense pressure and played at enormous pace.

Alan Connolly got a great goal yesterday but from the time Brian Hayes flicked it to him to it going in the net he was hounded, hit and finally met and buried by Nickie Quaid.

Goreylad1985 (Wexford) - Posts: 47 - 27/04/2026 12:21:29    2669164

Link

Replying To Fairplayalways:  "Firstly I am an Offaly man, and supporter of teams whom one time were in same vein as ourselves. in Munster, Limerick, Clare and Waterford were always teams I watch our for - even today. Leinster, apart from Offaly - Wexford Laois and Dublin etc. Antrim, Down and Derry etc. in Ulster. But this weekend having watched all televised games, the standard, pace, intensity we seen in Munster - was sadly lacking in Leinster games. A member of my household who does not really follow any of the GAA even remarked last night on the Sunday game - the lack lustre openess of the Offaly-Galway game etc. if you looked away there was hardly a cheer or a shout to hear to draw back ones attention. Cork and Limerick and Wateford and Tipp were rivetting games yesterday. I never agreed with Galway in Leinster - and still dont - they have done little to add to its competitiveness. If anything, they are too somehow stumbling through round robin games that they will win playing at 70%. Then when the knockout comes later in summer - they are competitive for a while but ultimately fall away..its 9 years since the won their All Ireland - havent really rattled the cage too much since.

Where is the answer? I dont know - we are gone down a serious rabit hole with Leinster - Wexford are surely not as poor as they were against a stuttering Kilkenny team, whom the pundits tried to talk up as "having gone back to old style" in their win on Saturday evening - I think more it was Wexfords surrender after the 2nd goal made Kilkenny look good. Wexford had a great U20 team including Cian Byrne who came on as a sub on Saturday and played well enough - there were more on that U20 team, if I recall, I know not everyone goes through to senior but surely there are more..The JMCD is a good tournament to a degree - nice to win it - but is it masking a bigger problem as Kildare and possibly Offaly/Laois/Antrim etc. find out when they come up to provincial. I said before, maybe let Galway go 2 yearly in either province, and if Kerry say wing JMCD they go into Munster - yes I hear people saying they would be eaten alive - but they wont improve being protected either. Antrim and Galway could rotate year about either in Leinster and Munster possibly...I dont know - the current set up - Leinster is very very flat - Offaly V Dublin the best game to date in it I would say...after that??"
Its not the role or responsibility of munster counties to develop other counties either inside or outside the province. Thats the role and responsibility of the respective county boards for each county. There is a reason that the Munster Championship is so well attended. The 5 competing counties push each other on thus driving up the standard and intensity of the battles. It doesnr always work out that way but , more often than not, it does. Winning Munster is also , still, very much a big deal to all 5 counties.

I disagree with you on Galway and what they bring to the Leinster Championship. If they are only operating at 70% and winning then that's on the other competing counties. They are not putting their best foot forward. What happened in Offaly hurling over the previous 20 years is all on the Offaly clubs and county board. What is happening in Wexford is all down to the Wexford clubs and County Board. The rise of Kildare is a testament to what can be done and should serve as a wake up call to Wexford. The excuses have to stop if anything is to improve. Offaly stopped feeling sorry for themselves when the security of tenure in leinster was removed and they reacted positively. That can only be a start though. It cant be the end.

Every serious competition the world over has different levels. We have promotion and relegation in our club championship and , very often, its the promoted team that goes back down. Noone is crying that we are not doing enough to help that club and parish develop. Its the cut and thrust of competition and inter county hurling should be no different. I disagree wholeheartedly with 6 teams in Leinster. Imo it damages the integrity of the competition and dilutes the quality significantly. The paying public agree. They aren't interested in whats on offer atm and that extra team and the safety net that it provides plays a significant part in that. Im against Kerry coming into Munster for that very reason. I know that the decision has already been made but I remain of the opinion that it will damage the brand that we all have worked so hard to create should it happen.

Tadhg2020 (Limerick) - Posts: 438 - 27/04/2026 12:23:48    2669165

Link