Replying To tirawleybaron:  "The reality of Hurling is that too much time and money is wasted at senior level

It should have 2 competitions - McCarthy and McDonagh. Everyone else should save their budgets and put it into growing club participation in their counties. Only by increasing participation will counties rise to the top levels.

Every weaker hurling county should be copying the Dublin model in their urban areas - you want to play football? You do hurling too.

Rural ireland is goosed - so developing hurling in urban areas is the only viable future.

Forget paying for coaches and nutrition and mileage to 25+ year old men so they can play in the mickey mouse cup in front of their wifes/girlfriends.

Pay for some top quality coaches to go into schools in urban areas and teach kids the game there instead."

Replying To Pikeman96:  "You're actually not too far off a couple of things that were already proposed but which were roundly shot down.

First, the proposal that counties with five or fewer hurling clubs would be removed from the National League, with that time given to club action in those counties instead. After all, if you're taking probably 25 or more men from as few as two or four clubs to form a county panel, the clubs don't have enough players left to play matches between themselves during that time. The county standard players would still get to hurl; the other club players would have matches too; and the hope was that new hurling teams would be formed if competitions could be run at that time of year, when club football wasn't making too many demands.

Second, the "Liam Griffin Motion" that went to Congress twice, seeking to make every club provide at least Go Games hurling for every player up to the age of 10, with just a few types of exceptions allowed (i.e. if there was a genuine demographics issue, or if there was already a separate hurling club serving that area).

I've said it before a few times in this context - it's like how you can take a horse to water, but can't make him drink. Croke Park or the stronger counties or anyone else could try move every mountain going and throw every resource possible at the counties where hurling is currently just a minority sport, but unless there's a genuine will within those counties to actually develop hurling, then it's just never going to happen."

Replying To HupLuimneach:  "It makes a lot of sense for those counties who have a handful of hurling teams to at least for a time to remove themselves from intercounty competitions and concentrate on building up more clubs underage and numbers participatng. Also have to question if that county really cares about hurling at all ultimately the interest might not be there.

I know there are some Carlow teams play in Kilkenny and Naas underage in Kilkenny and Dublin for the Joe McDonagh counties one way to up the standards is if they could be adopted by one of the main counties playing U12 U14 , availing of top coaching even particpate at intermediate so could have Kildare with Dublin, Laois with Tipperary, Carlow with Kilkenny and Galway and Westmeath how does that sound?"