THE FOGARTY FORUM: NHL still plagued by flaws

Truth be told, Waterford must still be thanking their lucky stars they stayed up in Division 1A last year.

With Dublin already doomed to a relegation final, there was noincentive for Anthony Daly to put out a strong team for the final round of the league in Dungarvan.

Waterford beat them by four points but it was a weakened Dublin team they opposed to avoid the decider to be doomed to Division 1B. By surprising Galway in Salthill the week previous and in just one game from five outings, Michael Ryan’s side had virtually guaranteed their survival. What transpired in Fraher Field seven days later was merely a dead rubber.

In a top flight of just six counties where mediocrity is rewarded and mistakes harshly exposed, pitching two teams against one another in a relegation final is a little too much just as is offering up semi-final spots to the best three finishers.

However, they are but two of several flaws with the NHL, which begins this weekend.

Another is the shortage of games. A guarantee of six days out for five of the six teams in Division 1A is miserly.

The opportunities supporters get to see their players playing at home are slim. In one night this July, Bruce Springsteen will play longer in Nowlan Park than the All-Ireland-winning Kilkenny senior team in the entire league.

Much like football’s imperfect Division 1, there is the possibility of teams in Division 1A fighting it out on the last day for a spot in the knock-out stages as much as trying to avoid relegation. Rewards and punishments should never be so entwined.

Counties should be provided with a structure that encourages success but, unlike the championship, with a little wiggle room to excuse experimentation.

Galway were annihilated in Nowlan Park last year because Anthony Cunningham attempted to mix things up. In the long run in Leinster, it worked to his advantage but not without coming to two gruelling relegation battles with Dublin.

If you think this league’s make-up is bad, wait until next year when the fourth team in Division 1B is rewarded with a quarter-final spot.

It’s worth pointing out Wexford, with three defeats from five games having lost to Antrim, Clare and Limerick, finished in that position last season.

Yet were they to end up in the same position in 2014, they will be rewarded ahead of two superior Division 1A teams with a place in the knock-outs against the best team in the top flight.

A whole 10 rungs on the ladder will separate those two teams in that quarter-final and yet Central Council has deemed such a match-up fit enough for a knock-out stage of a national competition.

Supporters’ intelligence won’t be insulted. Anticipate landslide results if not experimental outfits from the Division 1A team, either of which will damage the league’s legitimacy.

But just who, bar Kilkenny of course, really cares about the league? The disregard shown to Limerick last year when they were demoted to the newly-formed Division 1B after winning promotion to the old Division 1 in 2011 was blatant.

On the flipside, Limerick were one of two counties who didn’t respond to a questionnaire asking counties’ opinions on the structure of the league.

Eventually, they and seven other hurling counties formed an alliance whereby a compromise was reached and a link made between Division 1A and 1B. Yet half of those counties at Central Council had actually voted in favour of the initial proposal in the first place.

Much like the sideline rule which took a lot of management teams and county boards by surprise, there is a serious disconnect between Central Council delegates and their boards just as there was an issue when Cavan, who didn’t play in the hurling league two years ago, had a say in the competition was going to look like last and this year.

We much prefer to listen to recommendations from genuine hurling supporters like Liam Dunne who, as much as he has vested interests as Wexford manager, can see the real problems with the league.

He would much prefer the top two in Division 1B play the third and fourth placed Division 1A counties in league quarter-finals, the winners facing the top two Division 1A sides in semi-finals.

It seems a much more equitable and logical suggestion than what Central Council have backed these last two years. But then what was wrong with the original eight-team Division 1 in the first place?