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One of my favourite competitions. There's is an unknown quantity about the All Ireland club especially at the provincial stage and you can't beat winter hurling matches (!). Some big casualties in the various club championships already. Back to back All Ireland champions Cuala for one. Thurles Sars, Sixmilebridge, Dicksboro and Kilcormac/Killoughey are others to be dethroned of their county titles. Ballygunner won a five in a row in Waterford and they will be playing Midleton in Munster regardless of how the Cork final goes this weekend. Perhaps the four strongest teams in the Limerick championship make the semi final line up: Doon V Patrickswell, Na Piarsaigh V Kilmallock. The Clare final is between former provincial champions Ballyea and Cratloe. Clonoulty Rossmore V Nenagh Eire Og is a novel Tipp final pairing. In Leinster, Shefflin's Ballyhale are the favourites for the Kilkenny crown and St Martin's meet newcomers Naomh Eanna in the Wexford final. Cuala's conquerors Kilmacud Crokes face Ballyboden in the Dublin decider. Coolderry are champions of Offaly and likewise Camross in Laois. I know the Galway championship hasn't reached the quarter finals proper yet. Anyone got updates from the remaining Leinster counties (doesn't matter what level), same as in Connacht and Ulster? London as well. PortInFaithful (Offaly) - Posts: 472 - 10/10/2018 15:49:25 2145960 Link 0 |
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Have to agree with you 100%, its a fantastic competition, some huge names gone already, could be a very interesting season with tonnes more great games to come hopefully.
Bon (Kildare) - Posts: 2322 - 10/10/2018 16:04:19 2145962 Link 1 |
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Munster club SHC draw: PortInFaithful (Offaly) - Posts: 472 - 10/10/2018 16:19:08 2145966 Link 0 |
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Yeah the Galway championship is chugging along slowly due to the amount of teams and the fact that they represent the whole province. The teams are very close with no runaway team though St Thomas's look great. Gort went from top of their group to 3rd due to losing by ONE POINT!!! Last years champs-Liam Mellows-are still alive and well. Great stuff ahead.
Trump2020 (Galway) - Posts: 2509 - 10/10/2018 16:24:23 2145967 Link 0 |
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That bit about Gort gives an example of how competitive the Galway senior hurling championship can be. 24 teams could win it out. Only 12 teams in Offaly SHC. Just a thought: Would it be a good idea to add the Galway club champions to the provincial series as it happens at inter county? The Galway county board would have to move quickly with their championship then (maybe a straight knock out between the 24). Put the Galway club champions in Munster to make it six teams. Then the Ulster reps in Leinster and you'll have eight there. Just a thought. Scrap the All Ireland semi finals. The knock out format is what makes the All Ireland club championships. PortInFaithful (Offaly) - Posts: 472 - 10/10/2018 17:22:01 2145976 Link 0 |
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Very interesting idea. Yeah I'd say it could work.
Trump2020 (Galway) - Posts: 2509 - 11/10/2018 08:56:42 2146028 Link 0 |
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Being honest, I think there should be no provincial championship. There should be a straight knock-out, there is no reason why Galway and Ulster get into semi-final easily. StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 1834 - 11/10/2018 09:25:05 2146032 Link 1 |
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Do that and it will be the death knell of Ulster Hurling.
bricktop (Down) - Posts: 2503 - 11/10/2018 12:24:26 2146064 Link 0 |
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I would think the opposite. Very difficult to implement in a dual county where both sports have equal prominence. It would require a major restructuring of our senior championships (may require change in the county club senior football championship as well). To make it work, you would need to reduce the number of clubs in the hurling championship to 18 or preferably 16. (Many would argue that would be a good thing because some teams with senior status should really be intermediate. But try get a motion passed to have 8 clubs downgraded and see how far it gets. Not far I would suggest!). It would not be good for Galway hurling (club or county) if it was straight knock out for the current 24. For one thing, the majority of clubs would be left with few meaningful games (half of them would only have one meaningful game in the year!!!) For another, it would reduce the chance of the best team in the county winning the championship each year. With football and hurling having exclusive alternative weekends for their fixtures, there's little room for manoeuvre unless a 16 team senior championship could be brought about.
PoolSturgeon (Galway) - Posts: 2017 - 11/10/2018 16:51:56 2146102 Link 1 |
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St Thomas's will win the AI this year, take it to the bank now| onlyhurling (Galway) - Posts: 800 - 11/10/2018 22:52:37 2146149 Link 1 |
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dont think anyone in leinster would not allow galway and antrim champs in. perfect10 (Wexford) - Posts: 3929 - 12/10/2018 12:53:06 2146213 Link 0 |
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Even though na piarsaigh looked a little tired in beating kilmallock I think they'll have enough to win it out in my opinion they were robbed and you could say they threw it away this yr dowling had a free to put them 4 up into injury time he missed then the ref calls a free from which cuala scored to level it then in replay nap lose Mike casey and cuala drove on and won it out. I see a Galway poster saying st Thomas's maybe but in fairness nap are good. someday (Limerick) - Posts: 1104 - 15/10/2018 23:18:18 2146717 Link 0 |
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Liam Mellows played Cuala in the semi final last year so I presume it will be Connacht vs Munster in this years semi final.
PoolSturgeon (Galway) - Posts: 2017 - 17/10/2018 20:53:52 2147022 Link 1 |
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I don't know about St Thomas's. If they were so good I think they'd have followed up with a second title before now. We will see first if they win the Galway championship. PoolSturgeon (Galway) - Posts: 2017 - 17/10/2018 21:04:59 2147025 Link 1 |
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Yes, it is Connacht v Munster Champions, this coming year.
Oldtourman (Limerick) - Posts: 4490 - 17/10/2018 21:54:56 2147032 Link 0 |
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Who are the favourites? Previous poster said Na Piarsiagh looked tired and it would be hard for them not to be in fairness. Be an unbelievable achievement to come back and win after the year Limerick lads have had. Automatically turned to Ballyhale then but i see they have already been beaten twice this year in the KK Championship. If St. Thomas get out of Galway they would be my pick but that's easier said than done. Dark horses might be the likes of St Martins from Wexford if they can keep Rory O Connor on the field or Ballygunner, been around a while, won Waterford easily and are decent value at 12/1. LarryOBrother (Wexford) - Posts: 412 - 18/10/2018 09:55:09 2147065 Link 0 |
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Even with some big names gone there are loads of big guns left: Ballyhale, Ballyea, Na Piarsaigh, Kilmallock, Ballygunner, Slaghtneil, eventual Galway champions just to name a few. Killarney.87 (Tipperary) - Posts: 2513 - 22/10/2018 18:56:53 2147756 Link 0 |
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kilmacud crokes I think will be good if they win Dublin of course...could go far preddan (Kildare) - Posts: 803 - 22/10/2018 19:47:08 2147764 Link 0 |
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not so much dark horses as dead donkeys LarryOBrother!
perfect10 (Wexford) - Posts: 3929 - 23/10/2018 09:28:10 2147834 Link 0 |
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Gorey were brilliant on Sunday and if they can produce similar gutsy, passionate performances mixed with the class of McDonald they have every chance of competing in Leinster. Only negative is that this is their first ever county win so they might lose a bit of that edge going forward. LarryOBrother (Wexford) - Posts: 412 - 23/10/2018 10:35:18 2147850 Link 0 |