Blow final whistle on Munster format

WE haven’t even had the Munster final yet, and already the eulogies are pouring in for hurling in the province.

It began with the furore in Thurles between Cork and Clare, the hurling and the match forgotten now but the tunnel incident providing much juicy fodder for the hungry media cow to chew over for all the weeks since. It picked up considerably with the first Limerick/Tipperary semi-final, gathered momentum last Saturday week with the replay of that game, carried on into the second semi-final the next day with the high-scoring Waterford/Cork hurling exhibition, ended when the Limerick/Tipp saga finally finished at the Gaelic Grounds on Sunday, again after extra-time.

Having been witness to all those games I have to say that yes, the Munster senior hurling championship is very much alive and well, probably in better health than it’s ever been, though I would accept that this is a statement very much open to argument.

Which is why it pains me to say, in the better and long-term interests of hurling generally, I would end it.

In fact, I would end the whole structure of the hurling championships as we know them.

Before the final whistle at the end of extra-time on Sunday, neither Limerick nor Tipp could plan the next few weeks with any certainty. Win, and they were into the Munster final on Sunday week, July 8. Lose and it was off to the qualifiers with three games in rapid succession over the next three weekends. Come out of that group and they are into a quarter-final (which, hopefully for Tipp, is exactly what happens), and the saga continues.

In the meantime, however — and this is the question that’s being continually side-stepped in all these inter-county arrangements — what happens at club level?

Tipperary is a huge hurling county, one of the biggest in the association and there can hardly be a senior hurling championship game played in any of the divisions of the county over the next three weeks, and possibly for many weeks after that.

What are all those club hurlers doing in the meantime? Does anyone give a damn? We get all these high-profile games, you see, all this magnificent entertainment, and we think — yes, this Munster SHC is special. It is, but there are unpleasant side-effects, side-effects that impinge on hurling at a lower level.

The hurling championship is too unstructured and will still be too unstructured next year, when the ‘new’ new changes come in (in case ye haven’t noticed, the qualifier group structures changed this year, the four beaten semi-finalists – Cork and Tipperary included — ‘rewarded’ for their endeavours in winning the first round by being grouped together).

No county can plan its club fixtures with any kind of certainty, with the exception of Kilkenny, who — even if they have to deny it — can be pretty certain of reaching the Leinster final every year, which guarantees them an All-Ireland quarter-final appearance under the current structure, can be reasonably certain of winning Leinster, which will give them an All-Ireland semi-final place from next year under the new structure.

For every other hurling county in Munster and Leinster, uncertainty, with chaos ensuing if they’re beaten earlier than expected.

It’s grossly unfair on club players. Clubs are in training, but for what date? Players make holiday plans, only to find those plans disrupted. Sometimes their club will proceed without them, sometimes the players will break their holidays, at great expense to the club concerned, at huge disruption to the family life of the players.

Year after year, lip service is paid to this growing dilemma, but that’s all it is, lip service. For a decade now the GAA has been tinkering with the hurling championship, trying to balance the need for more high-profile games with the need to give teams more than one shot at the championship (all those months of expensive training gone to waste in 70 minutes).

Often talked about but always subservient to those needs are the needs of the club players. None of the inter-county arrangements so far designed by the various GAA task-forces has solved the problem — some have made it worse.

There is a solution, but the GAA just doesn’t have the guts to grasp it. Why? Because it would mean the end of the Munster championship. A straight-forward league championship structure, alternating home and away games, promotion and relegation, matches on alternate Sundays with the inter-county players freed to return to their clubs on the off Sunday. The top four playoff at the end, with top eight if you wanted to retain the All-Ireland quarter-finals, no draws except in the All-Ireland final itself — extra-time in the other knockout games, sudden-death additional extra-time if necessary. A variation of two groups of six if necessary, Munster+ and Leinster+ if you want to retain a semblance of those championships. But have a regular, structured season, one which every club can plan around with confidence, one in which every player at every level is treated with respect.

It would sadden me to do so, but in the interests of all of hurling, I would bite the bullet. The pony-and-trap was a lovely means of transport, but it too had its day. The GAA can keep tweaking, but until they introduce a rigid structure for every county from start to near-finish of the season (up to knockout stage, the final few weeks), the chaos will continue.

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