Wexford, Limerick revamp anger
The counties have lost out because of the reshuffling, which was voted in by Central Council on Saturday.
The National Hurling Development Work Group backed proposals to change this year’s four divisions to five groups of six will see Wexford and Limerick play in Division 1B.
Both counties have been consigned to the second tier despite Wexford maintaining their Division One status this year and Limerick gaining promotion to the top-flight in May as Division Two champions.
Division 1A will comprise Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Tipperary and Waterford while Division 1B, apart from Wexford and Limerick, features Offaly, Antrim, Clare and Laois.
The top two teams in each division will face each other in a final while the bottom two will contest a relegation play-off.
Limerick chairman Liam Lenihan condemned the decision, suggesting the restructuring neutralises all the work done by Donal O’Grady and his team when winning back their Division One status this year.
Lenihan said: “It’s a bad decision as far as Limerick hurling is concerned.
“We certainly wouldn’t have been in favour of being put in this situation.
“We won Division Two this year, earned promotion and now we’re playing for the same cup. We earned the right to be in Division One and it’s in Division One where we should be.”
Wexford captain Darren Stamp said there could be pluses and minuses to the new set up, but described the move as a disappointment.
“It’s a pity after beating Cork and then drawing with Tipp in the league this year but then you look at the championship and Kilkenny beat us by 10 points and Limerick beat us by five,” said Stamp. “We’re probably going to get more even, competitive games. Everybody wants to play the big games, playing against the likes of Kilkenny and Tipp, but we’ll have to start from scratch again.
“So it could be good for us in one way but negative in another. But what can we do about it now?
“You get the feeling at times the GAA are a law unto themselves up there in Croke Park.”
However Wexford chairman Ger Doyle admitted: “We would prefer to be in the top division after surviving relegation but looking further down the line if it helps everybody we’d be naive to say we’re against it.”
There is believed to be widespread displeasure among the main hurling counties with Central Council’s decision.
Tipperary delegate John Costigan was mandated to vote for the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) proposal, which featured the same divisions as the work group’s plan but with quarter-finals and semi-finals involving Division 1A and 1B teams.
“We wanted more games to be played,” explained Costigan. “We believe it’s in the best interests of hurling and the league to have more knock-out games.
“We also believe reducing the number of games and constricting the top division to just six teams doesn’t lend to the development of the game. The gap between the big teams and other teams widens.”
Carlow feel just as aggrieved to be playing Division 2A hurling next year after finishing a respectable fifth in the eight-teamDivision Two this year.
“Obviously we’re disappointed with the vote on Saturday,” said Carlow chairman Michael Meaney.
“We worked hard over the last 10 years to get to the upper half of Division 2 hurling. Even though we hadn’t a great league this season we had maintained our position around the middle.
“Call it what you like but what we’re going into next year is Division 3. I know it’s referred to as Division 2A but that’s just semantics.”
On Twitter on Saturday, players affected by the decision vented their disgruntlement.
Wexford’s young dual player Matthew O’Hanlon asked: “So staying up in Division 1 counted for nothing then?”
Carlow hurler Hugh Patrick O’Byrne wrote: “New NHL structure for 2012 is an absolute disgrace. Performances in recent years count for nothing. Typical.”
Meanwhile, the CCCC’s recommendation to revert to a 16-team Division One made up of two groups of eight was defeated.
It means semi-finals will apply to the top-tier next year with four of the eight teams reaching the knock-out stages.
Armagh and Clare delegates Jarlath Burns and Gerry Hickey were elected onto the new playing rules committee where they will be joined by GPA’s Dessie Farrell and Donal Óg Cusack.
