Advertisement

Advertisement

Tiered Leinster SHC

(Oldest Posts First) - Go To The Latest Post

You need to Login to Post

Replying To Doylerwex: "Round robin statistics don't suggest that the top 4 group would make the semi final every year. Galway, Wexford and Dublin have all been inconsistent. Offaly are improving but one good underage team isn't enough to sustain that consistently. I would be most worried about the top team in the second group to be honest." So far in 7 years of Round Robins every county has finished outside the top 3 at least once. As regards the proposal, the top team in the 2nd group, or the 2nd team either, I presume if they won their quarterfinal they would be in the other group the following year? Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20757 - 30/09/2026 10:14:11 2695639 Link
Replying To Seanfan: "What incentive is there for winning the McDonagh Cup (2nd tier AI championship) in this new proposed system?" A night out on the lash, and a medal. But in terms of a county's placement for the following year's championship - none at all. Group 2 in Leinster each year would be made up of the two losing Leinster quarter-finalists of the previous year, and the two McDonagh Cup finalists of the previous year. So in those terms, if you make the McDonagh Cup Final, doesn't matter if you win or lose. You'd still be in Group 2 of Leinster the following year anyway. Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 4086 - 30/09/2026 11:48:09 2695658 Link
Replying To Viking66: "So far in 7 years of Round Robins every county has finished outside the top 3 at least once. As regards the proposal, the top team in the 2nd group, or the 2nd team either, I presume if they won their quarterfinal they would be in the other group the following year?" On the first part - true, but you'd have to suspect Kilkenny coming fourth this year was a real anomaly, and that going forward, they won't be outside the top two very often, never mind the top three. Second part - also true. Group 1 each year would be made up of the four semi-finalists of the previous year. So yes, means that if you come through Group 2 and then beat a Group 1 team in a quarter-final, you'd be in Group 1 yourself the following year. Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 4086 - 30/09/2026 11:50:37 2695659 Link
Replying To legendzxix: "The 3 tiered solution just seems like an offering that something was offered while eventually keeping the status quo. Green Proposal: status quo. Red Proposal: 3 tiered offering." I'm lost - I've no idea what that means. omahant (USA) - Posts: 3570 - 30/09/2026 12:00:27 2695663 Link
Replying To Pikeman96: "On the first part - true, but you'd have to suspect Kilkenny coming fourth this year was a real anomaly, and that going forward, they won't be outside the top two very often, never mind the top three. Second part - also true. Group 1 each year would be made up of the four semi-finalists of the previous year. So yes, means that if you come through Group 2 and then beat a Group 1 team in a quarter-final, you'd be in Group 1 yourself the following year." Basically the 2 counties with the most hurlers, Kilkenny and Galway, will likely be playing mostly in Group 1, while the other 2 Group 1 places will possibly vary a little year on year? Isn't that something like what we have already? Or from a development point of view something worse than we have already? At least under the current format the 5th and 6th placed teams get to play Kilkenny and Galway every year. Carlow drew with Kilkenny only recently. Under this new system most of the group 2 counties will hardly ever get to play Kilkenny or Galway. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 20757 - 30/09/2026 12:24:19 2695667 Link
Replying To omahant: "My feed to mixed groups: HURLING LIAM MCCARTHY CUP (14 teams; could be amended to other 'even quantity' of teams) All teams play mixed-province, inter-group ties, encompassing all Prov 'KO ties', prior to AIC KO - Munster KO 5 & Leinster KO 9 - AIC with two groups of 7 (A & B) - Groups 'formed', not drawn (after Prov SFs) - Muns QF loser to Group A, winner to B - SF1 opponent of Muns QF winner to A - Muns Finalists placed in opposite groups - Muns SF losers to opposite groups - There is a Muns trio in A & pair in B - Lein Prelim winner to Group A, loser to B - QF1 opponent of Lein Prelim winner to B - Lein QF1 & QF2 winners (SF1); Lein QF3 & QF4 winners (SF2); and Lein Finalists, each placed in a group opposite teams played - Lein QF & SF losers, each to a group opposite teams played - There is a Lein quartet in A & quintet in B - Merge to form two groups of 7 (A & B) - Each team completes a 7-game inter-group schedule, including all their Prov KO ties (1-4) - Prov KO is 'winner on the day' (1 point each, if drawn at full time) - All teams play in the last inter-group round on June 6/7, including Prov Finals [could be June 20/21 if AIC Finals were flipped (football first) and played on opposite sides of the August Bank Holiday weekend - Top 6 of 14-team table advance to AIC KO - Top 2 earn QF byes (not necessarily including Prov Champs) - AIC KO targets non-repeat 'intra-group ties' - AI QFs could be 3v6 & 4v5 (if non repeat) - 14th relegated/ McDonagh Champ promoted - Multiple 'Kildares' stay up - Reduce NHL schedule, if necessary"]I think 14 teams might be a few too many though, 12 would be fairer IMO ElGranSenor (Wexford) - Posts: 1552 - 30/09/2026 12:37:41 2695670 Link
Replying To Viking66: "Basically the 2 counties with the most hurlers, Kilkenny and Galway, will likely be playing mostly in Group 1, while the other 2 Group 1 places will possibly vary a little year on year? Isn't that something like what we have already? Or from a development point of view something worse than we have already? At least under the current format the 5th and 6th placed teams get to play Kilkenny and Galway every year. Carlow drew with Kilkenny only recently. Under this new system most of the group 2 counties will hardly ever get to play Kilkenny or Galway." Yup, and again much the same point I made in my initial longer post outlining what I see as the issues with this thing. You'd expect both Kilkenny and Galway in Group 1 in any given year after making the semi-finals the previous year, either by virtue of finishing in the top two in Group 1 that previous year, or winning a quarter-final against a Group 2 team if they'd had a "bad" year and only came third or fourth. Even this year, with Kilkenny having a bad year and coming fourth, they'd still have been fancied in any quarter-final against any team below them (either ourselves, Kildare, or any of the Joe McDonagh Cup teams). Barring a surprise somewhere along the way, you'd expect the other two teams in Group 1 to come from Dublin, Offaly, and ourselves. And that the third of them would end up claiming one of the top two spots in Group 2. That means that the teams such as Kildare, Laois, Westmeath, Antrim, etc., that this new system would be supposed to help, are basically playing off in Group 2 for one spot for one of them to play a quarter-final. And if Kilkenny finish in top two every year, they'd never get the chance to play the Cats at all, unless they spring that surprise in the quarter-final. And even then, would only be a 50-50 chance of playing Kilkenny, as they could be in the other semi-final instead! The more I think about it, the more obvious it becomes that this system would actually put playing at the highest level more out of reach of all those counties than it is now. Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 4086 - 30/09/2026 14:04:17 2695683 Link
Group 1 looks like it'll have dead rubbers in round 3 unless they have some incentive baked in for winning the group. The McDonagh finalists both qualifying for Group 2 is like the provincial football finals and league finals offering no competitive incentive. The incentive of winning promotion has made McDonagh finals be dramatic. If the losing semi finalists played off to play the McDonagh runner up in a playoff for the final group 2 spot, it would at least offer an incentive for winning the McDonagh final. Football has learned to avoid dead rubbers. The detail of the Leinster tiered format avoiding dead rubbers isn't clear from current reports I've seen. legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 10082 - 30/09/2026 19:13:11 2695724 Link