Hurling Championships

No one will read in other section - they may not read here either to be fair. But good start to Christy Ring, granted Roscommon are dire. Aim obviously to win it, but London probably favourites and Down, Derry and Wicklow dangerous. Also good win for minors in championship opener against Antrim. Well done to all.

TommyKeegan wrote:

No one will read in other section - they may not read here either to be fair. But good start to Christy Ring, granted Roscommon are dire. Aim obviously to win it, but London probably favourites and Down, Derry and Wicklow dangerous. Also good win for minors in championship opener against Antrim. Well done to all.

A win is a win is a win

Read & agree Tommy!!!!!!!

Very easy win. When and where is next game?

Mayo in Castlebar on Saturday.

Roscommon were as poor a side as I have seen in a long time at Christy Ring level. This year it has been weakened however with the likes of Carlow and Antrim having been replaced by Armagh and Roscommon.

Kildare and London were the only teams that operated at league 2A level and so must go in as favourites. Mayo won 2B and should be respected while Wicklow did beat Kildare in what was considered a mini shock last year. Down also got to the Div 2B final with Mayo.

Overall however, this has to be Kildare's best chance to win the competition since 2014 and you would have to be very disappointing if they don't go very close.

I went to Christy Ring final in 2014 and afterwards I thought, brilliant, we're in the Leinster championship next year.

Then I found out we had to play a relegation decider a week later!! Goes to show what GAA thinks of growing game in weaker counties.

If we win this year are we promoted to Leinster championship next year? Also are Mayo any good... All I know about them is Hurricane Higgins lines out for them in the spring. They won their league division this year didn't they?

They keep moving the goal posts. The winner should have gone up but they love to protect the big boys!!

This year it is supposed to be straight up / straight down (to the McDonagh cup). Expect Meath to be relegated and the winner of the CR to be the yo yo team next year. There is a bit of a gap between the CR teams and the McDonagh cup but Kildare are the best placed to close that gap.

Mayo won their league but there is a big gap again between 2A and 2B.

I would expect Kildare (at their best) to be too strong for everybody except London. The problem is Kildare have not been at their best this year. Joe Quaid is saying that all eyes were on the Christy Ring Cup this year so we'll have to wait and see. They were very poor in the league and ended winless with a very negative scoring average.

Two away games need two away wins to set up a favourable (handy) semi final.

I remember being utterly disgusted when I found out we weren't going up in 2014. That would have been a huge boost to hurling in Kildare but inter-county GAA these days is so geared towards maximising revenue blah blah blah.

Anyway, I love hurling and would be brilliant if we could eventually make it into Leinster championship. Winning Joe McDonagh would be a great achievement this year, hopefully more people row in behind them.

Incidentally, never been happier to see Kilkenny win a match than against Dublin last weekend. There's already enough shameless hype around Dubs in football, hurling would simply be too much. Offaly are actually my second team in GAA so even though Kildare lost league game in Jan, Offaly winning the hurling against Dubs was sweet I can tell you!!

That year HG they made Kildare play seven weeks on the trot and when they won it made it eight with a play-off against Westmeath if I recall correctly. As for this year, no direct promotion for CR winners, they'll have to play a play-off against last placed team in McDonagh Cup (Meath) for the right to replace them.

Just checked there, apparently the bottom team from the JMcD will drop automatically while 2nd bottom will play the CR winners in a playoff. I really do not understand why the GAA continue to use different criteria for different teams within the exact same tournament.

It reeks of being targeted and unfair.

By right Meath and Antrim are very lucky to be in the JMcD cup at all. As the competitions were laid out last year, Meath should have been relegated down to the CR cup as they finished last in the 2017 Leinster qualifier group (a position that carried with it automatic relegation) while Antrim lost the final of the CR cup to Carlow. Only the winner of the CR cup was due to be promoted.

As usual, those who shout loudest are rewarded the most.

It really is sickening how little the GAA care about hurling below the top 10 or 12 teams. They don't even bother trying at this stage. Is there any wonder why weaker football teams don't want to give up their senior status?

If you read Michael Duignan's book, when he talks about his experiences managing Meath it is absolutely shocking and alarming. He said there was a feeling in some quarters that the system was so rigged against weaker counties that he had people like Gerry McEntee saying to him Meath should give up hurling altogether and focus exclusively on football!

It's a shame as there is huge growth potential in hurling but as we know the GAA only pay lip service to weaker counties in both codes.

The Kildare senior hurlers will play London in Christy Ring cup final on June 23 in Croke Park well done

fone wrote:

The Kildare senior hurlers will play London in Christy Ring cup final on June 23 in Croke Park well done

Was getting to used to the lovely idea of not going to Croke Park this summer. Guess I'll have to relent now and pay a visit. Hurlers deserve our support. Will be at the minor QF next Sat as well.

Well done to the Hurlers.

Playing the same day as Kildare v Longford?

I actually wanted to go to this but same day as football FFS.

Will probably be made a double-header... Oh no wait – it's only Dubs who get all their games in Croke and preferential treatment from GAA. Sorry!

Football game will surely be moved to the Sunday??

HauntedGraffiti wrote:

I actually wanted to go to this but same day as football FFS.

Will probably be made a double-header... Oh no wait – it's only Dubs who get all their games in Croke and preferential treatment from GAA. Sorry!

three Hurling finals in Croke Park on 23 June

Just as an aside and maybe I'm the only one who didn't realise this but if Kildare do win the Christy Ring Cup they don't get automatically promoted to the Joe McDonagh. They have to play Antrim (who finished 5th in Joe McDonagh). Like seriously how do the GAA come up with this shit. Different rules for every competition.

I became aware of that at the week end as well WhiteBridge. It’s ridiculous - different rules for the Munster Championship, Leinster Championship and McDonagh as regards relegation.

It's absolutely ludicrous. I was literally celebrating Christy Ring victory in 2014 thinking we'd got promoted!

And they wonder why it's difficult to grow hurling in smaller counties. Meanwhile, Offaly whinging about demotion whilst being atrocious for past 15 years – and I say that as someone whose second county is Offaly.

You left out the word 'thirty' there in your last sentence Tommy

Sorry HG I meant.........was mixing you up with Tommy Keegan for some reason

Easy mistake to make – both cynical malcontents.

Offaly won Liam MacCarthy in 98, all downhill after.