(Oldest Posts First) - Go To The Latest Post
|
To be fair, you also said 'in theory it sounds like a great model for the inter county championship.', which I was trying to address in my response, but fair enough, you did address the training issue as well, I didn't mean to ignore that. But its a pretty fundamental issue. And full confession, I've been on your side of the fence on this one previously. On this very forum, probably going back years, I've mooted an all Ulster team competing in the Liam McCarthy, as many other have. I thought it seemed like a good idea at the time, but the more I've thought about it, the less of a good idea it seems. For one, any time a thread was started on the subject, most of the posters from actual Ulster counties thought it was a bad idea, which says a lot. Many reasons were given, including that its more of a sticking plaster that avoids addressing the real issues faced by Ulster counties. And what was also said on those threads, if memory serves, is that people have an affinity for their own counties, that they wouldn't have for an amalgamated team. The more I thought about it, the more I agreed. Would I identify as much with an amalgamated Tipp/Waterford/Clare team, as I do with Tipp as is? Not really. I know thats not whats mooted here, but its best to try and imagine it as being applied to your own county, even if your county is a 1A team, before its hoisted on counties like Down, Derry, Armagh etc. All that is apart from how such a team would even co-exist with its constituent county teams, and how it could ever get to a stage of cohesiveness to compete with the Kilkenny, Galway, Limerick etc As for buy in, look at Meath. If the goal is to play at Liam McCarthy level, they don't need to be part of an amalgamated team. They need to win the Christy Ring next year, and then do well in the McDonagh cup the following year, which is very possible. Wouldn't Meath hurling supported prefer that? I know I would. And if I was a Meath hurling fan, I'd want all our best players committed to the Meath team to make that a reality. But all that said, I do actually get why people support the amalgamated team idea, and agree with the sentiment expressed by liam500 above, re players in most counties never having the chance to play at the top level, due to not being from the right county, no matter how good they are. I think this can be better addressed through reform of the tiered system, rather than amalgamated teams. Amalgamated teams are a good idea in theory, but in practice Marlon_JD (Tipperary) - Posts: 1823 - 21/10/2018 22:03:12 2147555 Link 0 |
|
Ye do realize these are amateur players and now your asking them to play for another team,thats there club which could be both codes,there county and now some mixed team,it could never work. cityman73 (Limerick) - Posts: 775 - 24/10/2018 19:27:47 2148190 Link 0 |
|
MayCommonTrimGo Offside_Rule (Antrim) - Posts: 4058 - 24/10/2018 22:22:41 2148203 Link 0 |
|
Yeah, I didn't even think about players playing dual codes at club level. It'd place crazy requirements on the players involved. They'd have to be training with 2 inter-county squads from January, presumable playing league and championship with both squads, and training with the amalgamated squad to the level to compete with the Galways and Kilkennys of the world. Thats on top of playing club, possibly in both codes. We have the secondary competitions in hurling already, they just need to get some attention, and be reformed so its maybe not so striated, and teams have a clearer route to the top tier as they improve. 5 tiers is too many. i.e. - Absorb Meaghar competition (it just consists of 4 teams now) into Nicky Rackard - move top 2 Rackard teams into Ring, so both comps have 10 teams (so 2 groups of 5, instead of the 2 groups of 4 they had this year) - have proper promotion/relegation, obviously, all the way to the top (and yes, incl. Munster) - maybe play Ring/Rackard finals as double headers with provincial finals? Better than playing in an almost empty Croke Park. I dunno, but there's alot that could be done with those competitions to improve things Marlon_JD (Tipperary) - Posts: 1823 - 25/10/2018 20:43:52 2148327 Link 2 |
|
You are 100% spot on with this post. 3 tiers is enough. 12, 12 and the remaining 11 or so teams. Put it in place and don't touch it after. The Provincial championships can be played alongside the group stage competition. The group stage should be national so that you wouldn't have the stupid relegation and promotion problems. Top 2 from each group into playoffs. Provincial champions not in the top 2 play a preliminary semifinal against a 2nd placed team. Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4210 - 25/10/2018 21:32:06 2148332 Link 3 |
|
"only 5/6 teams" that can win the all Ireland in hurling, that's pretty good. There's only one county can win the football, how's about amalgamating some teams in that?!
ballydalane (Kilkenny) - Posts: 1246 - 26/10/2018 05:04:03 2148344 Link 0 |
|
Very well said
PyatPree (Cork) - Posts: 376 - 26/10/2018 21:10:44 2148400 Link 0 |
|
Divisional sides are in Cork Football championship as well, Duhallow a divisional team are the County final this Sunday, as for going back to the topic i think combining counties sounds good but i dont think it will create buzz around in the counties thst it would happen, they might not see the same pride as they would supporting there own county, football should consider this route as well but cant see it happening
PyatPree (Cork) - Posts: 376 - 26/10/2018 21:16:51 2148401 Link 0 |
|
And there's actually 8 or 9.....5 in Munster plus KK , Wex, Galway ....and probably in the near future, Dublin.
PoolSturgeon (Galway) - Posts: 1902 - 27/10/2018 00:36:12 2148409 Link 0 |
|
Could even expand further amalgamating a couple of so called stronger teams and maybe moving forward give it a new name something like maybe railway cup. Should create great interest with massive numbers turning up madbull (Westmeath) - Posts: 195 - 29/10/2018 11:54:34 2148576 Link 0 |
|
Ha, well yes, fair point. While not exactly and apples to apples comparison (the status of the competition is also a factor), it does give an indication of what buy in for a 'supra-county' inter-county side may be. If people can't get behind a province, which is an actual geographical and historical unit, I'm not sure how they'd identify with a more random amalgam of counties. I always thought the Railway cup, or some inter-provincial competition may still have had legs, if it was mandated that squads must include a player from each county in the province (although I'm not sure if that would just some provinces at an advantage or disadvantage). The Fenway classic might have been a good format/platform for such an inter-pro competition for hurling, as people are going for the spectacle anyway, rather than the particular counties involved (in my experience anyway). But maybe that could take the bite out of that competition, it does seem to be working well as it is. Marlon_JD (Tipperary) - Posts: 1823 - 29/10/2018 21:16:19 2148648 Link 0 |
|
Amalgamated teams would work and could be done geographically in every province but Munster (hurling). Kerry been isolated. The answer to that with Cork being such large county once they name a panel of 35 Kerry be allowed to pick 7 or 8 players from there who are interested in playing inter county and against their own county. These players could return to Cork after three years if requested or desired to. Canuck (Waterford) - Posts: 2655 - 02/11/2018 21:32:00 2149328 Link 0 |
|
Offaly won an AI 20 years ago... :D Look at the state Offaly hurling is in now though. It should be a reason to merge with other counties not a reason to dust off the reeling in years highlights. Trading on past glories is no good, swallowing a bit of pride and merging with other counties would make sense. gormdubhgorm (Dublin) - Posts: 990 - 04/11/2018 20:54:35 2149547 Link 0 |
|
Just now have Cork all these very good players to effectively discard. This year they had to bring back on Seamus Harnedy against Limerick, when it was blatantly obvious he was injured and the other subs were hardly impressive.
Oldtourman (Limerick) - Posts: 4317 - 04/11/2018 23:21:33 2149572 Link 0 |