Could a Ten Team Division One National Hurling League Work

In previewing Waterford’s National Hurling League Quarter Final game with Galway I said that I felt that one team from Division One ‘B’ was going to make the semi-final stages of this year’s competition.

Results from recent years suggested that the four teams from Division ‘A’ in the quarter finals suggested that at least one Division One ‘B’ team would reach the last four.

The last two winners of the competition, Waterford in 2015 and Clare twelve months later won the competition after winning Division One ‘B’ so Wexford should have felt confident going into their game with Kilkenny, and of course they also had the famous ‘Davy Bounce’ going for them.

The last two winners Waterford and Clare were also the side that were relegated from Division One ‘A’ twelve months earlier, so Galway must have gone into their game against Waterford, a side that showed no fewer than nine changes to the side that had beaten Clare a week earlier.

I will be honest here and admit, the side that I saw advancing to the semi-finals from Division One ‘B’ was Limerick, a side that I think are to be looked out for in the coming years, as they were playing a Cork side who have played very hot and cold in recent years.

I might have talked Waterford down a little on Saturday when previewing their game, but despite all the changes I was somewhat confident that Waterford would have advanced to the semi-finals as I believe that Waterford do have strength in reserve, and if anything went wrong on Sunday with Waterford it was sending in the established players as the game was drawing to a close, as the players that had come in in their place were doing well and those coming in might have had needed time to get going.

After the game I asked a question on my thomaskeane1973 Facebook and Twitter pages.

It was a simple question, should we have one Division One Hurling League with eight or ten teams  instead of the current twelve team Division One league split between Division’s One ‘A’ and Division One ‘B’.

My reason for asking was simple. On a given day during the league nothing separated the six teams that played in Division One ‘A’ as could be seen going into the last round of games as only Tipperary knew what they would be playing for this past weekend, and as we saw in Division One ‘B’ of the top three sides there is little between them and the six sides in Division One ‘A’.

To have nine teams in a one group would have its pros and cons. To have an odd number would allow teams to have one bye during nine rounds of games, something they might welcome, but it could also make it difficult to have even numbers competing in the other divisions, so have included Offaly in a possible ten team group. After all, they earned the right to be there having reached the last eight of this year’s competition, something Dublin and Clare did not achieve despite playing in a group higher.

Some might suggest having one big group might cause other problems. Questions might be asked, what about the damage it will do the Club Championships to have such a big group. The question might be asked where the extra time be found for the playing of the games.

If we think about it, little or no extra time might be needed.

The final could still be played the first Sunday in May. With the extra four games in the league, there would be no need for quarter finals as sides would be well catered for games wise.

Time is available to give the week after semi-finals and finals a free week, and another free week could also be given between round nine and the semi-finals. A free weekend would also be given at the end of February or early March for the playing of the Fitzgibbon Cup.

Along the way there would be plenty of local derby games for each county so surely a ten team division would generate interest amongst supporters.

So how could a ten team Division One work out in 2018.

·         Each team would play each other once.

·         The top four teams would play the semi-finals

·         The team that finish tenth would be relegated and replaced by the Division Two winner.

·         The breaks between rounds nine and the semi-finals and between the semi-finals and final could be dropped to allow for a two week later start in the hope of better ground.

Round One	W/E 4 February	Limerick	V	Kilkenny
		Tipperary	V	Clare
		Dublin	V	Galway
		Cork	V	Offaly
		Waterford	V	Wexford
Round Two	W/E 11 February	Clare	V	Limerick
		Galway	V	Kilkenny
		Offaly	V	Tipperary
		Wexford	V	Dublin
		Waterford	V	Cork
Round 3	W/E 18 February	Limerick	V	Galway
		Clare	V	Offaly
		Kilkenny	V	Wexford
		Tipperary	V	Waterford
		Dublin	V	Cork
Round 4	W/E 4 March	Offaly	V	Limerick
		Wexford	V	Galway
		Waterford	V	Clare
		Cork	V	Kilkenny
		Dublin	V	Tipperary
Round 5	W/E 11 March	Limerick	V	Wexford
		Offaly	V	Waterford
		Galway	V	Cork
		Clare	V	Dublin
		Kilkenny	V	Tipperary
Round 6	W/E 18 March	Waterford	V	Limerick
		Cork	V	Wexford
		Dublin	V	Offaly
		Tipperary	V	Galway
		Kilkenny	V	Clare
Round 7	W/E 25 March	Limerick	V	Cork
		Waterford	V	Dublin
		Wexford	V	Tipperary
		Offaly	V	Kilkenny
		Galway	V	Clare
Round 8	W/E 1 April	Dublin	V	Limerick
		Tipperary	V	Cork
		Kilkenny	V	Waterford
		Clare	V	Wexford
		Galway	V	Offaly
Round 9	W/E 8 April	Limerick	V	Tipperary
		Dublin	V	Kilkenny
		Cork	V	Clare
		Waterford	V	Galway
		Wexford	V	Offaly
Semi-Finals	W/E 22 April	Top Team	V	Fourth Team
		Second Team	V	Third Team
Final	6 May	Semi Final Winner	V	Semi Final Winner

People say if a thing is not broken, then don’t try and fix it. The current league format is not broken, but maybe could be improved on. I must also say that I cannot see County Board’s nor Croke Park officials going for a one group of ten in the National hurling league.

Waterford Could Have It All To Do in Galway

Something is telling me all week that one of the teams that competed in Division One ‘A’ of this year’s National Hurling League will bow out of the competition this weekend.

To see one of the sides bow out would be nothing new, as it has happened a number of times in recent years. After all, the last two winners come May are the side are the side that have come top in Division One ‘B’, so Davy Fitzgerald’s Wexford side are bound to go into this weekend’s round of games in a very confident mood. But something that might not be in their favour is that they must play Kilkenny, albeit a Kilkenny side that have somewhat being misfiring so far this is.

Another side that will feel confident of pulling off a win this weekend must be Galway. The last two winners of the league in addition to being the side that won Division One ‘B’ is that they were the side that were relegated from Division One ‘A’ the previous season, so the tribesmen will be hoping that they can repeat what Waterford and Clare have done in the last two years.

It is possibly fair to say that the only Division One ‘A’ side that are sure to win this weekend are Tipperary who play an Offlay side who only avoided a relegation play off in Division One ‘B’ by virtue of having a better score difference than Kerry and Laois. Cork the other Division One ‘A’ side will also know that they will not have things so easy either as they are facing a Limerick side who could well be someone of a force in the coming years, thanks to some great work done in winning Munster Championship and Munster Colleges Championships in recent years.

League meetings between Waterford and Galway have tended to go one way or the other in recent years with often little between the sides.

Galway will see having won the toss to have home advantage as a plus to them. But Waterford I am sure will travel to the City of the Tribes with confidence as they have not lost on their travels this year in the league so far, beating Kilkenny, Dublin and Clare last weekend in a winner takes all game.

Waterford won the league in 2015 and were only denied back to back titles for the first time last year when they lost out to Clare after a replay in Thurles. With the past few years Derek McGrath has tended not to indulge in what some would call shadow boxing when they came to within sight of silverware, but some are wondering about this game.

Waterford has made a raft of changes for this weekend’s game over Galway from the side that beat Clare last weekend.

It’s fair to say that everyone expected some changes this weekend. Barry Coughlan was one player that needed replacing this weekend after he picked up a serious injury in added time last weekend, one that is expected to keep him out of the game for a few weeks if not months.

And while it was known that there was other niggling injuries within the panel for this game, few expected so many changes to be made.

I am sure when some heard the Waterford team to start on Friday evening, some out have asked was the team issued from some remote spot of Eastern Europe where the sender had forgotten about the time difference, and if it was an early April Fool’s Day Joke.

There was no Stephen O’Keeffe, Barry Coughlan, Stephen Daniels, Austin Gleeson, Shane Bennett, Michael Walsh, Pauric Mahony, Brian O’Halloran and Patrick Curran from the side that did well got get a rare result in Ennis last weekend.

But we must give Derek McGrath and his selectors credit. Since he came into the Waterford job we have hardly seen a dummy team issued and the fifteen that were named on a Friday evening were the fifteen that took to the field on the Saturday evening or Sunday, but the positions were not often the same, so few should have any concerns about an April Fool’s Day Joke with the team named on Friday evening.

We are told a lot about Waterford’s strength in reserve, something that Waterford have often struggled with in recent years. Waterford have often had twelve, thirteen or fourteen players that would walk onto most inter county panels but often struggled when it came to replacements when the need arose.

With so many changes made to the team, be they be forced or otherwise on Sunday afternoon we will see what Waterford really have in reserve.

Galway are a side that you never know what to expect from. When they are good, they can be very good, but when they are a side that I will leave it up to you to fill in how you could describe them.

Following the naming of the Waterford team last night, the home side will go into the game as the favourites.  They will be giving the game their best shot and will know that a good league campaign could well prove to be a good thing at their back going into the Leinster Championship in a few weeks’ time.

The Tribesmen have injury doubts with the Saint Thomas’ duo of Conor Cooney and David Burke and it remains to be seen what part if any that this duo will play.

Cooney was a late withdrawal from last weekend’s win over Limerick and during the week team manager Micheál Donoghue admitted that it would be touch and go as to whether the attacker would be recover in time for this weekend’s clash while Burke picked up a thumb injury in the win over Limerick and reports coming from Galway suggest that he is being closely monitored.

There could be some good news however for Galway going into this game as Daithí Burke and Conor Whelan are reported to be in contention having missed the win over Limerick. Thomas Monaghan, Niall Burke and Shane Moloney came on in that win over Limerick last year and in doing so impressed and will hope to have done enough to win a place in the team from the off this time around or at worse to get some more game time, this time on home soil.

With due respect to the likes of Offaly, Laois and Kerry this game will represent a big step up in standard Galway have played against this year.

Two years ago it did Waterford no harm playing opposition like this as they went on to win the league and Galway will feel that they can do likewise this year.

Some are suggesting that a smaller than usual Waterford support is going to travel to Galway for this game, as many try and budget things having travelled to Ennis last weekend.

Galway on the other hand could well have a large support inside the ground as their Senior Footballers are playing Kildare in the final round of games in the football league before this game.

Galway may well prove to be favourites on the day, and there will be many expecting them to advance to the penultimate round of games in two weeks’ time, but first they will have to overcome the challenge of Waterford, even an understrength Waterford side, but one that those selected to play will be showing that they are good enough to stake a place in the team on a more regular basis.