The Joe McDonagh Cup is the GAA's most cut-throat competition

CONTENDERS: Cillian Kiely of Offaly in action against Conan Boran of Kildare during the Allianz Hurling League Division 2A final. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

The Joe McDonagh Cup throws in this weekend. You could easily argue that it now stands as the GAA’s most cut-throat competition, even above the loaded Division 2 football league.

Antrim topped last year’s round-robin and yet three of their five games were decided by a margin of three points or less. The battle for the second final spot below them saw three counties - Kerry, Carlow, and Offaly - finish level on six points.

As if matters weren’t already sufficiently evenly matched, joining the ranks for this latest edition are 2019 All-Ireland quarter-finalists Laois and recent Division 2A finalists Kildare.

One from the six of Down, Carlow, Kerry, Kildare, Laois, and Offaly could just as quickly wind up in relegation as they could the top two.

Kerry boss Stephen Molumphy picked up on this very point earlier in the week.

“100% after two games you could be looking at relegation or you could be looking at pushing for a Joe McDonagh final place. It’s cut-throat. It’s ruthless actually,” he said. “You’ve Antrim gone, and you replace them with Laois. Last year I was saying there’s a powerhouse coming [in Kildare]. There’s a quarter of a million people in Kildare. Hurling is on the rise there.

“Teams will take points off each other.” 

But remove the fiercely competitive nature of the Joe McDonagh Cup and what you are left with is further evidence of hurling’s mid-tier counties once again getting a fairly poor deal from Croker.

Come the conclusion of Round 3 on April 22, Offaly will have played seven games in 42 days. That’s seven weekends in succession without a break.

“It’s insane to be playing seven games in seven weeks,” Offaly manager Johnny Kelly told Midlands 103 Sport after last Sunday’s Division 2A final win over Kildare.

Laois represent Offaly’s first round opponents this weekend. They offer another example of how hurling’s squeezed middle barely register a second’s thought among decision-makers when structures and formats are being thrashed out or tweaked.

Relegated from Liam MacCarthy last summer and relegated from Division 1 this spring, unless Laois reach a Joe McDonagh final in the coming weeks, the county will not play a single competitive game against a top-tier county for the next 14 months.

How anyone expects Laois to progress during that window is baffling. Regression is the far likelier outcome.

For while competitive fixtures against teams at their own level is fine, it needs to be blended with exposure to the top-ranked sides.

The old Division 1B provided exactly that, a six-team league group that brought together three Liam McCarthy counties and three counties that bounce between it and Joe McDonagh. There was also a league quarter-final spot for one of the latter three.

But, of course, hurling’s elite didn’t like the cut-throat nature of Division 1A and so, ahead of the 2020 season, the format was scrapped for a 12-team Division 1 that offers up the likes of Laois, Offaly, and Westmeath as points difference fodder to the big boys.

We are reminded of comments from Down manager Ronan Sheehan last year.

“We’ve actually got less teams competing than we had 20 years ago so whatever we’re doing, it’s not working,” he said. A suggestion of Sheehan’s was that Croke Park prioritise Offaly, Laois, and Antrim in dragging them up to the top level and making sure they are capable of remaining there.

During a recent chat with Kildare U20 manager Eoin Stapleton, he was adamant that Croke Park must offer “far more support” to all Joe McDonagh counties, not just two or three.

Stapleton has heard several times the population factor, mentioned by Molumphy, that is being attributed to Kildare’s progress.

“There seems to be a presumption that, well, they have population so they will progress. Population means nothing,” said Stapleton.

“You would love a lot more support from the GAA. You would love a lot more spend on coaches coming into national and secondary schools. There isn't support for the hurling development counties.

“You can't have this lip service of oh it would be great if Kildare went up. That is rubbish. We are not here to go up and then come down. Neither are Offaly or Antrim or Westmeath. There are plenty of counties at great work. The league structure for 2024 does damage to development counties. Are we really trying to develop them?” 

Well, what say you Croke Park.