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Ulster Senior Hurling Championship

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Is it time to bring back the Ulster Senior Hurling Championship? Perhaps run it as a stand alone tournament in late summer. Ulster hurling is improving! Antrim flying in the JMcD, Down promoted in league and championship, Derry always solid and very unfortunate to loose to Down in the CRC this year in Ballycran. Donegal are Rackard champs and will be in the CRC next year. Armagh are going well and Tyrone had a good season too. Add Monaghan and Fermanagh to the equation as well. In previous years London have participated and can be tricky customer especially in Ruslip, perhaps have them as quests too. Have it seeded where maybe Antrim don't participate until the semi or final perhaps, just a thought! With Casement looking like it maybe happening again it would be nice to have the Ulster Hurling Finals back in west Belfast!! Back in the 90's and 00' there would be 10,000 -12,000 at the Ulster Finals! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCo6s25vevU doubletree (Dublin) - Posts: 164 - 01/12/2020 19:25:25 2317435 Link
Replying To doubletree: "Is it time to bring back the Ulster Senior Hurling Championship? Perhaps run it as a stand alone tournament in late summer. Ulster hurling is improving! Antrim flying in the JMcD, Down promoted in league and championship, Derry always solid and very unfortunate to loose to Down in the CRC this year in Ballycran. Donegal are Rackard champs and will be in the CRC next year. Armagh are going well and Tyrone had a good season too. Add Monaghan and Fermanagh to the equation as well. In previous years London have participated and can be tricky customer especially in Ruslip, perhaps have them as quests too. Have it seeded where maybe Antrim don't participate until the semi or final perhaps, just a thought! With Casement looking like it maybe happening again it would be nice to have the Ulster Hurling Finals back in west Belfast!! Back in the 90's and 00' there would be 10,000 -12,000 at the Ulster Finals! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCo6s25vevU" Here's a thought. Revive the All-Ireland intermediate championship and let the weaker counties play their senior teams in it johnocarroll17 (Limerick) - Posts: 408 - 01/12/2020 21:02:40 2317463 Link
Replying To doubletree: "Is it time to bring back the Ulster Senior Hurling Championship? Perhaps run it as a stand alone tournament in late summer. Ulster hurling is improving! Antrim flying in the JMcD, Down promoted in league and championship, Derry always solid and very unfortunate to loose to Down in the CRC this year in Ballycran. Donegal are Rackard champs and will be in the CRC next year. Armagh are going well and Tyrone had a good season too. Add Monaghan and Fermanagh to the equation as well. In previous years London have participated and can be tricky customer especially in Ruslip, perhaps have them as quests too. Have it seeded where maybe Antrim don't participate until the semi or final perhaps, just a thought! With Casement looking like it maybe happening again it would be nice to have the Ulster Hurling Finals back in west Belfast!! Back in the 90's and 00' there would be 10,000 -12,000 at the Ulster Finals! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCo6s25vevU" Would like to see this competition come back. As far as I know, it is scheduled to return next year. Probably give Antrim a bye to the semi final , with three quarter finals consisting of the next four highest ranked teams plus the finalists of the Ulster hurling shield. Just a note on Donegal, there is no promotion to Christy Ring for next year. Initially there was supposed to be but this decision was reversed very late on for a reason that I still don't fully understand. Considering there are two teams promoted from Christy Ring to Joe McDonagh for next year, seems harsh that a team doesn't get the reward of promotion for winning the Nicky Rackard Cup. HandballRef (Donegal) - Posts: 520 - 01/12/2020 21:06:22 2317467 Link
Replying To doubletree: "Is it time to bring back the Ulster Senior Hurling Championship? Perhaps run it as a stand alone tournament in late summer. Ulster hurling is improving! Antrim flying in the JMcD, Down promoted in league and championship, Derry always solid and very unfortunate to loose to Down in the CRC this year in Ballycran. Donegal are Rackard champs and will be in the CRC next year. Armagh are going well and Tyrone had a good season too. Add Monaghan and Fermanagh to the equation as well. In previous years London have participated and can be tricky customer especially in Ruslip, perhaps have them as quests too. Have it seeded where maybe Antrim don't participate until the semi or final perhaps, just a thought! With Casement looking like it maybe happening again it would be nice to have the Ulster Hurling Finals back in west Belfast!! Back in the 90's and 00' there would be 10,000 -12,000 at the Ulster Finals! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCo6s25vevU" No. The gap between the teams hasn't closed since 2017. The current structure is better for development. Rolo2010 (Donegal) - Posts: 738 - 01/12/2020 21:20:00 2317474 Link
I say it wouldn't be a bad idea. It can't be any less competitive than the Leinster football championship! saulgael (Down) - Posts: 553 - 01/12/2020 21:41:13 2317483 Link
Replying To doubletree: "Is it time to bring back the Ulster Senior Hurling Championship? Perhaps run it as a stand alone tournament in late summer. Ulster hurling is improving! Antrim flying in the JMcD, Down promoted in league and championship, Derry always solid and very unfortunate to loose to Down in the CRC this year in Ballycran. Donegal are Rackard champs and will be in the CRC next year. Armagh are going well and Tyrone had a good season too. Add Monaghan and Fermanagh to the equation as well. In previous years London have participated and can be tricky customer especially in Ruslip, perhaps have them as quests too. Have it seeded where maybe Antrim don't participate until the semi or final perhaps, just a thought! With Casement looking like it maybe happening again it would be nice to have the Ulster Hurling Finals back in west Belfast!! Back in the 90's and 00' there would be 10,000 -12,000 at the Ulster Finals! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCo6s25vevU" there was never ever 10000-12000 at ulster finals, where did you get that from????? most maybe was 2000 or 3000 ever. please state facts not made up stuff, and Donegal were not promoted either. Although i agree with you on main point, The Ulster Championship should be brought back definitley, it means more games for the real small counties like fermanagh, cavan etc. preddan (Kildare) - Posts: 735 - 01/12/2020 22:48:11 2317506 Link
Replying To preddan: "there was never ever 10000-12000 at ulster finals, where did you get that from????? most maybe was 2000 or 3000 ever. please state facts not made up stuff, and Donegal were not promoted either. Although i agree with you on main point, The Ulster Championship should be brought back definitley, it means more games for the real small counties like fermanagh, cavan etc." Fermanagh and Cavan will be getting a minimum of 10 games from next year or 2022. Rolo2010 (Donegal) - Posts: 738 - 02/12/2020 03:13:49 2317542 Link
Replying To Rolo2010: "Fermanagh and Cavan will be getting a minimum of 10 games from next year or 2022." good, because they have little or no club activity they need loads of games preddan (Kildare) - Posts: 735 - 02/12/2020 11:33:09 2317617 Link
Replying To preddan: "there was never ever 10000-12000 at ulster finals, where did you get that from????? most maybe was 2000 or 3000 ever. please state facts not made up stuff, and Donegal were not promoted either. Although i agree with you on main point, The Ulster Championship should be brought back definitley, it means more games for the real small counties like fermanagh, cavan etc." Why post challenging the numbers when you clearly don't know ......there was over 10,000 at the 1992 final when Down beat Antrim , that was the official attendance....during the 90s there were serious crowds at Ulster hurling finals when Down, Antrim and then Derry all won titles within a ten year period. ArmaghCat (Armagh) - Posts: 86 - 02/12/2020 12:00:31 2317625 Link
Why was it done away with ? Because Antrim were dominating? Gleebo (Mayo) - Posts: 2208 - 02/12/2020 12:21:57 2317631 Link
The plan was to have the Ulster Final in January 2021, but obviously Covid stopped that, problem with that, is that it is replacing the McGurk Cup, I can't see it, but would love it.... We don't have an Ulster senior, minor or U-21 Hurling competitions - at the moment we have a playoff for Leinster at U-21 level... As regards the attendance, the highs were the early '90's with 12-13,000 in Casement ,when generally most wanted to get out of the north ( always played at 12th July weekend), it all changed when the Ulster Championship was diluted and then became irrelevant... The last Ulster Senior Final was played in front of a very poor crowd in Owenbeg 4 yrs ago..... on a very cold and extremely blustery Easter Sunday .... at the time Newry seemed the better alternative, that was the final death knell- Newry would have got a better crowd for a match between Armagh and Antrim, Owenbeg is some journey!!!! But the Nicky Rackard and Christ Ring are good alternatives but need promotion in more ways than one cuchulainn35 (Armagh) - Posts: 1673 - 02/12/2020 13:09:10 2317647 Link
Replying To johnocarroll17: "Here's a thought. Revive the All-Ireland intermediate championship and let the weaker counties play their senior teams in it" I agree with this. The likes of Kerry, who are a good team but will always struggle in Munster Senior would do very well against all the Munster intermediate county teams. Same for Offaly, Carlow, Meath and Westmeath. They could play against the Kilkenny, Galway and Wexford intermediate county teams. Throw Antrim, Down and Derry in there too. Intermediate All Ireland could be very competitive. Past hurler (None) - Posts: 723 - 02/12/2020 13:30:07 2317656 Link
Replying To ArmaghCat: "Why post challenging the numbers when you clearly don't know ......there was over 10,000 at the 1992 final when Down beat Antrim , that was the official attendance....during the 90s there were serious crowds at Ulster hurling finals when Down, Antrim and then Derry all won titles within a ten year period." It must have been only one year or two years, all through the late nineties the attendances were poor right through the 2000s. Why such a large crowd in 1992 was it a double header? Im not having a go or anything but in general attendances are poor, you cant deny that. and i still think there should be a championship brought back definitely! preddan (Kildare) - Posts: 735 - 02/12/2020 14:54:47 2317689 Link
Replying To Gleebo: "Why was it done away with ? Because Antrim were dominating?" The likes of Down were playing weakened teams in it to rest players for the National competitions. Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4215 - 02/12/2020 15:18:50 2317703 Link
Chrissy mckaigue from Derry on an interview said there is more of an attendance at Derry club hurling league matches Than at christy ring cup semi finals he played in. The reality is the lower tiers of hurling has not done much for hurling regards bringing the counties up to a higher standard what tends to happen is whichever county wins there respective competition and get promoted they usually go do straight back down the following year. And that's if the gaa allow them go up in the first place... donegal won this year but must remain in the same competition next year. Besides this year kildare won 2 christy ring cups in previous years and were never promoted. That is the gaa not giving a toss about non traditional hurling counties progression. How do they ever expect for these counties to promote the games when there been treated like **! Irishcelt (Wicklow)** - Posts: 149 - 02/12/2020 15:19:07 2317704 Link
There was serious crowds at Casement during the 90's. The stand would be full with more people on the terraces at each end of the stand. The grass bank on the opposite side would also be packed with people as well as some folks behinds the goals. 10,000 easy at some of those games. Brilliant occasion on a beautiful hot summer day! portavogielad (Down) - Posts: 446 - 02/12/2020 17:46:42 2317739 Link
Replying To preddan: "It must have been only one year or two years, all through the late nineties the attendances were poor right through the 2000s. Why such a large crowd in 1992 was it a double header? Im not having a go or anything but in general attendances are poor, you cant deny that. and i still think there should be a championship brought back definitely!" no there was no double headers !! Unless you call the minor final Sometimes 3 hurling matches such as Down defeating Herts in a special Junior All-Ireland But there was great crowds, why Antrim reached the All-Ireland Final in 1989, should have beaten Kilkenny in '92, a very late adrian Ronan goal!! Down won in '92 - first time in half a century and lost by only 7/8 to Cork in the semi-final, Down won again in 95 and beat Kilkenny in the league in Nowlan Park and relegated them, Both Antrim and Down were in Div 1 with both reaching NHL q-finals, competing and beating Wexford, Tipp, Cork etc Hurling was on a high, just needed a title! Question which of the provincialclub deciders has the biggest crowds - Ulster, we have the support at club level. Thee was a massive crowd of 8-9.000 at the Ulster Final in 2019 cuchulainn35 (Armagh) - Posts: 1673 - 02/12/2020 21:47:05 2317828 Link
Replying To Past hurler: "I agree with this. The likes of Kerry, who are a good team but will always struggle in Munster Senior would do very well against all the Munster intermediate county teams. Same for Offaly, Carlow, Meath and Westmeath. They could play against the Kilkenny, Galway and Wexford intermediate county teams. Throw Antrim, Down and Derry in there too. Intermediate All Ireland could be very competitive." Absolutely. There would be some great games in there. Limerick won the All-Ireland intermediate in 1998 and in that year's semi final the Down senior team took Limerick to a replay and only lost after a cracker. I am surprised the strong counties are apathetic towards the intermediate championship as it would be a fantastic opportunity for fringe and development players. johnocarroll17 (Limerick) - Posts: 408 - 03/12/2020 00:05:08 2317852 Link
johnocarroll17 How did the intermediate championship work? Could only intermediate club players play on the intermediate county team? I apologize for my ignorance not understanding how this works! Cheers portavogielad (Down) - Posts: 446 - 03/12/2020 19:07:54 2317997 Link
Replying To portavogielad: "johnocarroll17 How did the intermediate championship work? Could only intermediate club players play on the intermediate county team? I apologize for my ignorance not understanding how this works! Cheers" In the stronger counties only intermediate and junior club players were eligible. The weaker counties could play their first choice teams. johnocarroll17 (Limerick) - Posts: 408 - 03/12/2020 23:53:05 2318046 Link