Wexford Hurling Thread

Replying To Pikeman96:  "I must really be getting old, because more and more, I find that I don't like change :D

I agree Group 1 would be a bit of a snooze fest, and I'm not sure Group 2 would be much better. Examiner tells how if it was in place based on this year's standings, the groups would be:
Group 1 - Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Offaly
Group 2 - Carlow, Kildare, Laois, Wexford

Will consider ourselves first. Much as we've struggled in recent years, I and probably anybody else would still expect us to beat at least two of those other three teams in championship in any given year, and make a quarter-final. Same would go for any of the Group 1 teams there that might find themselves in Group 2 some year.

So really, what Group 2 becomes is a contest between three teams who've flitted between Leinster Championship and Joe McDonagh under the current structure, with a prize of a quarter-final spot for one of them, which they'd normally be expected to lose. It wouldn't be all that different from the system we've just gone away from, where Joe McDonagh winners or runners-up played 3rd in Leinster.

Group 1 would be basically three matches to decide whether you go straight to a semi-final, or go into a quarter-final where you'd probably be favourites to end up in a semi-final anyway. The competitive one would probably normally be expected to be any two of Dublin/Offaly/Wexford, but still, the Group 1 team would probably normally be the fancied one.

And overall, possibly the biggest issue is how if the idea of expanding the Leinster Championship is to "give more teams a chance to develop by playing at a higher level", it doesn't really achieve that. In the example here, Carlow, Kildare & Laois only get one game against a "higher level" county, and that's just against the fifth best in Leinster. They don't get the chance to test themselves regularly against the stronger counties at all.

One of them eventually gets one chance against a stronger county, but again, that's essentially a repeat of the old Joe McDonagh winners v 3rd in Leinster matches, and barring one surprise result back in 2019, we know how the rest of them went.

But hey, maybe I'm just getting too old and set in my ways, that I'm tending not to like change!"