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Wexford Club Hurling Championships 2023

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Shame to see our no 1 game slowly fade away with the current championship structure.
Hurling ,football and soccer will be on the same par,what a sporting county we are, a jack of all sports and a master of none!!

fathermurphy (Wexford) - Posts: 317 - 14/11/2023 20:48:55    2513064

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Replying To Viking66:  "How do you mean falling behind? MLR beat Oulart 10 years ago. Offaly clubs have more club AI titles than ours do. Our clubs were always behind the pack. The Alley are the only Wexford club to ever win a Senior AI club title."
I agree Viking. Everyone making excuses other than just calling it for what it could also be - we just don't have enough good players in any one team to be considered contenders.

zinny (Wexford) - Posts: 1900 - 14/11/2023 22:04:15    2513071

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Replying To fathermurphy:  "Shame to see our no 1 game slowly fade away with the current championship structure.
Hurling ,football and soccer will be on the same par,what a sporting county we are, a jack of all sports and a master of none!!"
We haven't won an AI in hurling at any grade in 27 years. And there was a 28 year gap to the one before. Current championship structure has nothing to do with that.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13884 - 15/11/2023 10:08:44    2513089

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Replying To Viking66:  "Marshalstown and St Fintans went further in hurling also. So 21 clubs did better in Hurling than football. So more clubs did better at football than they did at hurling."
With respect, I suggest you're over-analysing something that's never going to happen anyway.

Really just meant might we have been better off if things had evolved differently over the years, such that we had distinct hurling areas and distinct football ones, instead of everywhere being dual?

That's how things are in many other counties. Cork is the glaringly obvious one. Galway another. And Clare is maybe the best example with regard to ourselves, as we'd surely like to think that if we got things right here, we wouldn't be too far off Clare's standard in both hurling and football.

Things are different here, though. Can be seen as both a strength and a weakness.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2622 - 15/11/2023 10:29:11    2513096

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Further to yesterday's post about how things operate in Offaly - I see a news story on here today about a new structure for their football championship.

What jumped out at me though was reference to "the 13-week window" for their club championships. They didn't have to start any later than us, and they didn't have to finish any earlier, but we're working off needing 16 weeks.

Overally, they have smaller groups, fewer group games, and (most notably) different structures for football and hurling. If we did the same, we could have a rest week, provision for weekend replays in the knock-out stages rather than midweek replays or penalty shootouts, and probably a week off for our football champions between the county finals and the first round of Leinster. Wonder would there be any appetite for that?

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2622 - 15/11/2023 10:35:33    2513097

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Replying To fathermurphy:  "Shame to see our no 1 game slowly fade away with the current championship structure.
Hurling ,football and soccer will be on the same par,what a sporting county we are, a jack of all sports and a master of none!!"
What was the excuse before the change in championship structures?

hurlorhurley (Wexford) - Posts: 1660 - 15/11/2023 10:39:24    2513098

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Replying To Viking66:  "Which clubs should concentrate on which code do you think Pikeman? Should it be 24 concentrating on each? Should it be decided by whether a teams 1st team finished higher in hurling or football?
Using that as a yardstick the only New Ross District clubs that went further in hurling than football this year were Taghmon and Geraldine O'Hanrahans.
Rapps/Starlight and Monageer are the only clubs got to the exact same stage in both hurling and football I think. Other Clubs that did better in Hurling were St Martins, Harriers, Oylegate, Ballygarret, Gorey, Askamore, Davidstown, Crossabeg, Oulart, Rathnure, Clonard, St Anne's, Craanford, the Alley, cloughbawn, Blackwater, Shamrocks,

Clubs that went further in Football- All the Ross District clubs bar 2, Barntown, Sars, Vols, Joe's, Mary's Maudlintown, Kilanerin, Castletown, Shels, Bunclody, St Mary's Rosslare, Kilmore, Duffry, Ballyhogue, OLI, St Patricks

I've probably missed a few as I'm not an encyclopedia, not sure how St Fintans went, but the above makes us more of a football county as only 19 of our clubs did better at hurling than they did at football;-)"
Ferns were the other club I forgot!!!! If we had had our clubs split into hurling only and football only from years ago based on the above from this year, and lumping Rapps and Monageer in with the hurling only clubs to even up the numbers roughly, o'Hanlon, Donohue, Hearne, Banville, Devitt, Dwyer, Cian Byrne, Cian Byrne gk, Clarke, Conor Foley would be, I think, the players on the Senior Hurling panel who would've ended up playing for the footballers, and Stokes, Larkin, Conor Kelly, Cooke Leonard, Jim Rossiter, Cathal Walsh, Cushe and Tobin would have been the players from the football panel that would have been going the other way. If you lump Rapps in with the football only clubs instead of the hurlers you would also be losing Ryan, Kevin Foley and Pepper.
I know this is all a hypothetical exercise, but I think our county hurling team would be weakened by those losses more than our county football team. There would have had to be massive improvement in club players playing hurling only for the clubs above to offset the loss of O'Hanlon, Donohue, Devitt, Hearne and Dwyer especially.
And the picture is worse again if you look at our u20 hurling team, who would've been without Mahon, Carley, Conor Foley, Michael Dundon, Eoin Whelan, Farrell, Cian Byrne, Cillian Byrne from the 1st team that played against Kilkenny in the Leinster SF.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13884 - 15/11/2023 10:46:27    2513100

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Replying To Viking66:  "Which clubs should concentrate on which code do you think Pikeman? Should it be 24 concentrating on each? Should it be decided by whether a teams 1st team finished higher in hurling or football?
Using that as a yardstick the only New Ross District clubs that went further in hurling than football this year were Taghmon and Geraldine O'Hanrahans.
Rapps/Starlight and Monageer are the only clubs got to the exact same stage in both hurling and football I think. Other Clubs that did better in Hurling were St Martins, Harriers, Oylegate, Ballygarret, Gorey, Askamore, Davidstown, Crossabeg, Oulart, Rathnure, Clonard, St Anne's, Craanford, the Alley, cloughbawn, Blackwater, Shamrocks,

Clubs that went further in Football- All the Ross District clubs bar 2, Barntown, Sars, Vols, Joe's, Mary's Maudlintown, Kilanerin, Castletown, Shels, Bunclody, St Mary's Rosslare, Kilmore, Duffry, Ballyhogue, OLI, St Patricks

I've probably missed a few as I'm not an encyclopedia, not sure how St Fintans went, but the above makes us more of a football county as only 19 of our clubs did better at hurling than they did at football;-)"
Ferns were the other club I forgot!!!! If we had had our clubs split into hurling only and football only from years ago based on the above from this year, and lumping Rapps and Monageer in with the hurling only clubs to even up the numbers roughly, o'Hanlon, Donohue, Hearne, Banville, Devitt, Dwyer, Cian Byrne, Cian Byrne gk, Clarke, Conor Foley would be, I think, the players on the Senior Hurling panel who would've ended up playing for the footballers, and Stokes, Larkin, Conor Kelly, Cooke Leonard, Jim Rossiter, Cathal Walsh, Cushe and Tobin would have been the players from the football panel that would have been going the other way. If you lump Rapps in with the football only clubs instead of the hurlers you would also be losing Ryan, Kevin Foley and Pepper.
I know this is all a hypothetical exercise, but I think our county hurling team would be weakened by those losses more than our county football team. There would have had to be massive improvement in club players playing hurling only for the clubs above to offset the loss of O'Hanlon, Donohue, Devitt, Hearne and Dwyer especially.
And the picture is worse again if you look at our u20 hurling team, who would've been without Mahon, Carley, Conor Foley, Michael Dundon, Eoin Whelan, Farrell, Cian Byrne, Cillian Byrne from the 1st team that played against Kilkenny in the Leinster SF.

So would it really be such a benefit to Wexford Hurling if we split our clubs into hurling only and football only? Hard to say.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13884 - 15/11/2023 10:47:24    2513101

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Replying To Pikeman96:  "With respect, I suggest you're over-analysing something that's never going to happen anyway.

Really just meant might we have been better off if things had evolved differently over the years, such that we had distinct hurling areas and distinct football ones, instead of everywhere being dual?

That's how things are in many other counties. Cork is the glaringly obvious one. Galway another. And Clare is maybe the best example with regard to ourselves, as we'd surely like to think that if we got things right here, we wouldn't be too far off Clare's standard in both hurling and football.

Things are different here, though. Can be seen as both a strength and a weakness."
It was just a hypothetical exercise to shoe that our hurling team wouldn't neccessarily have been any better.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13884 - 15/11/2023 10:48:22    2513102

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Replying To Pikeman96:  "Further to yesterday's post about how things operate in Offaly - I see a news story on here today about a new structure for their football championship.

What jumped out at me though was reference to "the 13-week window" for their club championships. They didn't have to start any later than us, and they didn't have to finish any earlier, but we're working off needing 16 weeks.

Overally, they have smaller groups, fewer group games, and (most notably) different structures for football and hurling. If we did the same, we could have a rest week, provision for weekend replays in the knock-out stages rather than midweek replays or penalty shootouts, and probably a week off for our football champions between the county finals and the first round of Leinster. Wonder would there be any appetite for that?"
Sorry to keep banging the same drum but 4 groups of 4, Senior, Intermediate and Junior, do away with Intermediate A, would solve all that.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13884 - 15/11/2023 10:49:38    2513104

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Replying To Viking66:  "It was just a hypothetical exercise to shoe that our hurling team wouldn't neccessarily have been any better."
All right, will bring the hypothetical thing a little further....

You're dividing the clubs into hurling/football based on which they did better in this year. But unclear how exactly you're deciding which they did better in. For example, if a club's first hurling team finished fifth in senior and therefore went out at the group stage, but their first football team reached an Intermediate 'A' semi-final or final, which would you have marked down as doing better?

Also, the way I'm thinking, the hurling/football thing would have been decided by historical preferences in the clubs. Realistically, there'd be probably a large majority of hurling clubs, a few football ones, and a few still banging the dual drum.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2622 - 15/11/2023 11:20:08    2513119

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Replying To Pikeman96:  "All right, will bring the hypothetical thing a little further....

You're dividing the clubs into hurling/football based on which they did better in this year. But unclear how exactly you're deciding which they did better in. For example, if a club's first hurling team finished fifth in senior and therefore went out at the group stage, but their first football team reached an Intermediate 'A' semi-final or final, which would you have marked down as doing better?

Also, the way I'm thinking, the hurling/football thing would have been decided by historical preferences in the clubs. Realistically, there'd be probably a large majority of hurling clubs, a few football ones, and a few still banging the dual drum."
No it was done on how far they went in the higher grade. So Rapps/Starlights finished level as they exited Senior at the QF stage in both football and hurling. Clongeen did better at football, as they kicked ball at Intermediate and won the Junior Hurling, Shels won the Senior football, but exited the hurling at the quarterfinal stage, and so on.
If it came to choice most clubs would probably choose hurling if they had to choose one or the other, though the vote would be close in many clubs.
Which brings us to Option B of the 2 options, which ironically a Cushinstown man proposed at the recent meeting in Ballinaboola. Play hurling in the summer and football in the winter!

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13884 - 15/11/2023 11:34:05    2513126

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Replying To Pikeman96:  "Further to yesterday's post about how things operate in Offaly - I see a news story on here today about a new structure for their football championship.

What jumped out at me though was reference to "the 13-week window" for their club championships. They didn't have to start any later than us, and they didn't have to finish any earlier, but we're working off needing 16 weeks.

Overally, they have smaller groups, fewer group games, and (most notably) different structures for football and hurling. If we did the same, we could have a rest week, provision for weekend replays in the knock-out stages rather than midweek replays or penalty shootouts, and probably a week off for our football champions between the county finals and the first round of Leinster. Wonder would there be any appetite for that?"
You know there wouldn't!

I mean had we even voted for football to go first this year we would have bought ourselves a few more weeks to run out championships this year, handed of that happening? Zero, it was put to the floor in 2022 and roundly defeated followed by clubs who vehemently oppose any idea of football going first turning around and whinging that there's no breaks in the championship structure!

Like I commented earlier and evidenced on here by posters is their only concern is what works for them, what hinders their rivals and who cares about the overall picture.

One point of note I agree with, I think we do have to look at the real possibility of different structures for both championships football and hurling, no reason why they have to mirror one another, although a bit controversial in other counties I actually feel divisional teams in football could work well in Wexford.

tearintom (Wexford) - Posts: 1427 - 15/11/2023 11:38:28    2513128

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I see the u21 hurling semi finals are fixed for this weekend and next weekend!! Buffers alley v Glynn Barntown this weekend and Harriers v Rathnure next weekend!!! Any thoughts on this?? Any team doing anything as regards practice games or anything,prob not with the weather and football?? Should be 2 good games

theboys (Wexford) - Posts: 236 - 15/11/2023 11:43:38    2513132

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Replying To tearintom:  "You know there wouldn't!

I mean had we even voted for football to go first this year we would have bought ourselves a few more weeks to run out championships this year, handed of that happening? Zero, it was put to the floor in 2022 and roundly defeated followed by clubs who vehemently oppose any idea of football going first turning around and whinging that there's no breaks in the championship structure!

Like I commented earlier and evidenced on here by posters is their only concern is what works for them, what hinders their rivals and who cares about the overall picture.

One point of note I agree with, I think we do have to look at the real possibility of different structures for both championships football and hurling, no reason why they have to mirror one another, although a bit controversial in other counties I actually feel divisional teams in football could work well in Wexford."
I think divisional teams couldn't work in Wexford, to many dual players, looking at where they operate in Ireland, Kerry 1st very little hurling outside of Tralee/Listowel direction. Cork- very little football in east cork and hurling the poorer relation in West Cork.

TerribleFootwork (Wexford) - Posts: 1760 - 15/11/2023 11:46:59    2513133

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Replying To tearintom:  "You know there wouldn't!

I mean had we even voted for football to go first this year we would have bought ourselves a few more weeks to run out championships this year, handed of that happening? Zero, it was put to the floor in 2022 and roundly defeated followed by clubs who vehemently oppose any idea of football going first turning around and whinging that there's no breaks in the championship structure!

Like I commented earlier and evidenced on here by posters is their only concern is what works for them, what hinders their rivals and who cares about the overall picture.

One point of note I agree with, I think we do have to look at the real possibility of different structures for both championships football and hurling, no reason why they have to mirror one another, although a bit controversial in other counties I actually feel divisional teams in football could work well in Wexford."
I'm not sure there's a need for divisional teams in football any more than hurling though. And if they are introduced then it will need more weekends to run off the club championships, unless the Junior grades that feed the division teams are run off during the intercounty season. They probably would have to be run off during the intercounty league, to give time for the division teams to train and gel together before the start of the club championships. And at what grade would you start them? Intermediate or Senior? I do agree alternating football and hurling 1st is not only fairer, but more practical too insofar as it would give us 2 more weekends.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13884 - 15/11/2023 11:50:57    2513136

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Replying To theboys:  "I see the u21 hurling semi finals are fixed for this weekend and next weekend!! Buffers alley v Glynn Barntown this weekend and Harriers v Rathnure next weekend!!! Any thoughts on this?? Any team doing anything as regards practice games or anything,prob not with the weather and football?? Should be 2 good games"
Shooting in the dark on this one but I'll go with a Alley/Harriers final.

TerribleFootwork (Wexford) - Posts: 1760 - 15/11/2023 11:51:05    2513137

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Replying To theboys:  "I see the u21 hurling semi finals are fixed for this weekend and next weekend!! Buffers alley v Glynn Barntown this weekend and Harriers v Rathnure next weekend!!! Any thoughts on this?? Any team doing anything as regards practice games or anything,prob not with the weather and football?? Should be 2 good games"
Great to see 2 Intermediate hurling clubs in them! Would be good for the county team down the line to have more competitive clubs coming through to play at the top level. Hopefully all the lads on those 4 teams stay hurling.

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13884 - 15/11/2023 11:54:29    2513138

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Replying To Viking66:  "I'm not sure there's a need for divisional teams in football any more than hurling though. And if they are introduced then it will need more weekends to run off the club championships, unless the Junior grades that feed the division teams are run off during the intercounty season. They probably would have to be run off during the intercounty league, to give time for the division teams to train and gel together before the start of the club championships. And at what grade would you start them? Intermediate or Senior? I do agree alternating football and hurling 1st is not only fairer, but more practical too insofar as it would give us 2 more weekends."
Yeah, the massive problem with divisional teams would be if you had Intermediate & Intermediate A clubs feeding into them, then when exactly would you play those championships in order to have teams qualified for Leinster?

Can't play them during the inter-county season because at least some clubs in those grades would have inter-county players.

You could confine the divisional teams to picking from Junior clubs downwards....but if the idea is to expose lads to a higher standard of play, then consider a promising player who's with a club that's consistently 9th, 10th or 11th best in Intermediate 'A'. He'd actually be better off if the club was relegated!

There are also some other practical difficulties with divisional teams - i.e. who funds them, who manages them, and even what jerseys they play in. All things that would have to be worked out before they actually could compete.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2622 - 15/11/2023 14:34:07    2513183

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Replying To Pikeman96:  "Gorey five years ago was probably a real case of a team being in bonus territory by just being in the Leinster Championship at all.

They'd just won their first-ever senior hurling title and obviously celebrated hard for some of the time between the county final and their Leinster tie.

Ballyhale, on the other hand, were a team made up of players with several Kilkenny titles, a couple of Leinsters, an All-Ireland from 2015, and some players with earlier All-Irelands. That 2018 campaign and the match v Gorey was the start of a journey that saw them win four Leinsters and three All-Irelands since then. Okay, they beat Gorey by 16 points, but they also beat Ballyboden by 16 points in the Leinster Final that year, and went on to beat St. Thomas' of Galway by 17 points in the All-Ireland Final. Their only close match was the All-Ireland semi-final, where they ended up beating Ballygunner by five.

Overall, It's generally held that Ballyhale 2018 to 2023 are one of the finest club teams ever, and that they were really at the height of their powers in 2018 & '19.

Is that an "excuse" for Gorey losing to them like that, or a reason?"
The silence from Grassroots in response is deafening, wonder what there excuse is to pardon the pun?

TerribleFootwork (Wexford) - Posts: 1760 - 15/11/2023 15:26:16    2513193

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