Baker calls for radical split of hurling's 'big three'
June 10, 2013
Offaly manager Ollie Baker
His proposal is sure to cause controversy given that it involves dividing the top counties up and fielding separate teams.
But that's the best way of giving others a fighting chance Baker claimed in the Irish Mail on Sunday.
"What I would like to see is hurling being more spread out. Being completely radical about it, divide Tipperary north and south and have two teams. Divide Cork city and county and have two teams. Divide Kilkenny north and south and have two teams. Now we're introducing three new teams.
"The big discussion they're having about the league in hurling is that you have too many teams for one division and too few then for the second division.
"It's radical but if you want to get away from that, that's what you'd do."
Baker is adamant that the game needs more teams to survive and prosper, pointing to the traditional imbalances of the existing county structure. The very notion of tinkering with that format though is taboo in the GAA with a proposal to split Dublin north and south for county purposes being shot down in a blaze of controversy over a decade ago.
But Baker believes Dublin has to be looked at too in addition to the three counties who have dominated the game since the GAA was founded.
"Not a notion would Tipp divide north and south or north, mid and south. But if you want to have a serious look at how to promote the game and spread the game out, that's one area you could work on.
"There are the same amount of senior clubs in Offaly as there is in north Tipp. They have the same amount of players, probably more, than we have. The amount of players then who don't even get a look-in at a county team and who would be every bit as good.
"You could certainly divide Dublin north and south. All of a sudden you're introducing a whole new team. If you wanted to be really radical, that's what you'd do. But I think it may take 100 years for an idea like that to happen." Tweet
