I believe this is a great competition for the not so strongest teams but after watching an evenly contested competition the 2 semi finals were run how can Derry and Armagh be allowed compete in this tournament with the likes of Donegal, Tyrone, and Monaghan. As I said it was a great competition until today where Tyrone were hammered by Armagh and Monaghan by Derry. This surely has to be looked at to keep lads interested / involved with hurling in these so called weaker counties. Question is how do you keep lads going when they know they have to beat a team 2 divisions above them to get a day out in Croke Park? If I and a lot of other people had their way divisions from 2a to 3b league finals should be played in Croke Park and give these lads something to aim at!

mrsme (USA) - Posts: 172 - 20/05/2017 22:48:40    1988677

It's the same in the Christy ring cup where Carlow and Antrim are way ahead of the other teams.

It's because of the relegation of teams from a higher level which can result in these mismatches.

Derry with a full team would be a very strong Christy ring side.

carlovia (None) - Posts: 1517 - 20/05/2017 23:33:22    1988687

seant2008 (Monaghan) - Posts: 55 - 21/05/2017 05:48:06    1988695

The real issue here is the structure of all these competitions......reality is that there should be a re structure from top to bottom particularly in the Ring were counties are suffering as the competitions is run at same time as Rackard and Meagher which involve county's whose county boards want the competition out of the way asap to avoid clashes with club football that is the reality

So for me the Ring should be run as the qualifier for the Leinster and Munster q finals......two finalists get a place each and along with this Crocker award £15k to winner for team holiday and £35k to the county for hurling development.......I would propose following teams are this new competition

Laois, Kerry, Carlow, Antrim, Westmeath, Meath.......two groups of three then semi final and final to follow......bottom two teams in group play off with loser dropping down to Rackard

In the new Rackard I would have

Down, Armagh, Derry, Kildare, Mayo, Wicklow.........again two groups of three then semi final etc......effectively same structure as Ring


Finally in new Meagher

Donegal, Tyrone, Monaghan, Fermanagh, Roscommon, Sligo, Louth, Leitrim, Cavan, Warwickshire ( I would merge them again with Lancashire ).......two groups of five with semis and final

All of those competitions would be worth winning as opposed to what is happening now with some gaming going on with counties to try get a day out in Croke Park at a lower level than they should be playing

PaudieSull1 (Down) - Posts: 738 - 21/05/2017 09:17:29    1988707

Derry should never have put themselves in the position to be relegated last year. I feel that the team they fielded yesterday with McKaigue and Rogers included would probably give Carlow and Antrim a good run in the Christy Ring.

A lot of these games can be on the day, from my own counties perspective anyway. Remember, Donegal beat Armagh by 9 points in the Nicky Rackard this year. We have always had very competitive games against them in recent years. We then went and got beat by the same Tyrone team we beat by 23 points in the league final! On our day we are capable of beating the likes of Armagh and Mayo.

Some great development going on at underage in Donegal at the moment. We have a very good minor team and I feel like we are only going to improve more in the coming years. Obviously, its only going to help if these lads get the chance to test themselves against the likes of Derry or Armagh in championship games.

HandballRef (Donegal) - Posts: 520 - 21/05/2017 10:35:40    1988728

When this years competitions are finished how many counties will not have had some hurling game in Croke Park in the last 6-7 years? As far as I know Monaghan have never played there, nor have Cavan or Lancashire but they haven't been competing. I think I am correct in saying every other county will have played there at some stage. Tyrone and Donegal have both won the Nicky Rackard in the past 5 years, Donegal beating Roscommon who will be back down at this level next year. Yes Derry are probably too strong for the Nicky Rackard this year but they didn't perform last year and paid the price. I really don't think that they intentionally got relegated just for a day out in Croke Park - its insulting to players to suggest they would have such little pride in themselves.
There are many problems with Paudies suggestions above, including the fact that London and Longford don't seem to have been included.

Soma (UK) - Posts: 2630 - 21/05/2017 11:02:14    1988741

Would agree that it's insulting to say a team would get relegated just to get a day out in Croke Park the following year. Any sportsman worth their salt wants to play at the highest level they can and if they don't they should quit altogether. Playing a game in Croke Park in front of an empty stadium is not the be all and end all.

PoolSturgeon (Galway) - Posts: 1903 - 21/05/2017 11:21:43    1988746

Derry just got on a slippery slope last year after losing the Ring final in 2015. They now have serious momentum & should beat Armagh in the Rackard final.

Incidentally, there's no relegation from the Rackard this year. Longford aren't fit for this level with just 3 clubs playing senior hurling.

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 21/05/2017 13:47:37    1988786

I don't really see what can be done.

The quality of teams is always changing so sometimes there'll be teams closer in standard to the Christy ring and there's a gap to the other Rackard teams.

Why are we all that worried about teams getting beaten easily.

It happens in every sport.

Tyrone and Monaghan got 3 games each in the competition. Both would've gone into those semifinals thinking they could win.

Armagh had lost to Donegal already in the competition whilst Derry only narrowly got over Louth in the first round.

If the standard of hurling is to improve in weak counties they have to be exposed to a beating every so often.

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4225 - 21/05/2017 14:52:41    1988801