The new proposal isn't too bad and is obviously better for Offaly. However I would go a step further and make it 14 teams with 7 in each group. Make Carlow and Westmeath D teams and they play eachother on 2 occasions -once at home and once away. This way all teams have 8 games 4 at home and 4 away. Yes there will be some hammerings but there are plenty of hammerings in other sports ie. rugby, soccer, Aussie Rules, NFL, so on think of the hammering Mayo gave 2012 All Ireland champions Donegal this year. They will happen -only in hurling score looks an awful lot worse when a team get a run on you. Take Carlow - they would play Westmeath twice, play 2 from Offaly, Wex, Laois & Antrim so they could hope to be more than competitive and then would have 4 very tough games against top teams. But still it'd be great for Carlow if Clare or Kilkenny had to travel to Dr Cullen Park for a game. Definitely Carlow/Westmeath would be better off in Top 14 than lower league.
Still feel time should be taken on any decision and not introduced till 2015.
Lone Shark wrote:There's something mildly unsettling about this proposal in the sense that the goalposts still shouldn't have been moved as they were mid stream. There was plenty of time to play the league in 2014 with Dub/KK/Tipp/CE/GY/WFD in 1A and OY/LS/WX/LK/CK/AM in 1B, and announce before February, what system everyone wants for 2015 and how to qualify for the various tiers.
There are still teams that are a little hard done by, in the sense that Carlow, Westmeath and London will now be playing Liam McCarthy cup against teams that have had more games in preparation. They were always going to be preparing with games against poorer opponents, but that was "earned" on the field of play, so to speak. I was at the 2A final when Laois deservedly beat Westmeath, so on that basis Laois deserve to play at a higher level. Now they've two extra games and a lot of extra funding as well.
It's also technically unfair on the "B" teams that would have played in 1A in 2014. Clare and Dublin would have had games against all four of the supposedly "top" counties, now they'll only play two of them - but that's probably not a huge drawback since there are more games.
It's a relief for Offaly and I suspect that we owe a debt of gratitude to Wexford for taking up the fight here and making sure that this wasn't railroaded through. It's a bit disappointing that we didn't dig our own heels in though.
As an aside, seven league games should mean plenty of double headers, as well as probably putting the kibosh on the idea that Shane Dooley might play both codes for Offaly in 2014. However you'd like to think that our county board is working on this already, though I wouldn't be so sure. As things stand, Limerick, Offaly and Wexford are all in div 3 of the NFL and could all be playing each other in the hurling league as well - Offaly and Wexford will definitely hurl each other and Limerick may or may not. One double header in OCP, another in Wex Park and another in the Gaelic Grounds would be the right way to go. No doubt Cork/Dublin, Laois/Galway and Clare/Tipp/Waterford/Antrim would be thinking along the same lines.