Talking points: Will the GAA pay the penalty for squeezing hurling's spotlight?

May 08, 2023

TIGHT SQUEEZE: Jason Flynn of Galway is tackled by David Blanchfield of Kilkenny during the Leinster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 2 match between Kilkenny and Galway at UPMC Nowlan Park in Kilkenny. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

On such a special weekend, are the GAA promoting hurling as well as they can?

During the 2017 Leinster senior hurling final between Galway and Wexford, James Crombie of INPHO spotted a photo opportunity in the crowd. John Meyler was sitting in front of Anthony Cunningham in the lower tier of the Hogan Stand, with both men engrossed in the Galway-Wexford game. Meyler is a Wexford man, Cunningham is from Galway. That context provided a neat symmetry, but the photograph looked particularly relevant over the following two seasons.

Meyler always travelled to the Leinster final, but that pilgrimage ended in 2018 because he was managing Cork against Clare in the Munster final in Thurles. Brian Cody, who went to the Munster final every year, always making sure to be in early for the minor final, was also unable to make his annual trip across the provincial boundary in 2018 and 2019 - because he was in Croke Park on both days for the Leinster final, both of which were played after the Munster final.

The introduction of the round robin in 2018 changed how the GAA went about their business, especially around scheduling. But when that first master fixture list was drawn up in October 2017, the Munster-Leinster double-final day screamed out from the new schedule for all the wrong reasons.

Unlike football, there are only two provincial hurling finals in one year. Many genuine hurling supporters want to attend both deciders, but fixing both games on the same afternoon was the first sign of how hurling would have a serious battle on its hands for promotion going forward in late summer.

The round robin loaded the early summer with high-profile hurling matches but the game took a backseat from July on with the new Super 8s format. With the new football format really only ramping up from next week on, the hurling championship is already on a different promotional pathway; after Sunday, there are just seven hurling championship matches left, two of which are next weekend's preliminary quarter-finals.

The GAA have still got a lot right around scheduling, especially after that first season in 2018. The Clare-Waterford, Cork-Tipperary and Galway-Kilkenny games all took place on the same day, with Clare-Waterford and Galway-Kilkenny throwing in at more or less the same time. All genuine hurling supporters at each of those games were partly wishing they could have been at one, or two, of those other games as well.

Some key issues had to be addressed, and were. Leinster games were primarily switched to Saturdays, with Munster taking the Sunday slots, with a handful of exceptions. Extra weekends were added. Two teams in both provinces were no longer expected to play four games in 21 days.

Some other key creases in the system have also since been ironed out. In 2018 and 2019, the Joe McDonagh Cup final was played as the curtain-raiser to the Leinster final. However, interest in that game was completely diluted because it clashed with the Munster final.

At least now the Joe McDonagh final rightly has its stand-alone slot, and more than a week's break before the preliminary quarter-final. That gives more leeway to play the Munster and Leinster finals on the same day. But it still doesn't feel right when two of the biggest games left in the hurling championship are staged within a couple of hours of each other.

The GAA have moved the Munster final forward by 15 minutes to cater for potential extra-time, which is possible. Yet what if the game goes to penalties, which it nearly did last year?

If that does happen, given the timing involved, TV viewers will miss at least the first 5-10 minutes of the Leinster final. And that would mean going straight from the final penalty to the action in Croke Park, without any time for reflection on the Clare-Limerick match, and denying any opportunity to look ahead to the action in Leinster.

Of course that is only speculation as to what could happen but it can't be ruled out given how tight the Clare and Limerick matches have been over the last year.

The GAA will argue that the scheduling is necessary in the new split season. They will also point to the disappointing attendance for last year's Leinster final when a crowd of well under 25,000 turned up. Galway though, were disappointed with the 7pm throw-in at Croke Park, which prevented many families from travelling on a Bank Holiday weekend.

The last three Leinster finals took place on a Saturday, but it was only last year when pandemic restrictions were lifted that the impact of a Saturday fixture was felt. A 5pm throw-in would be a far better solution. On the other hand, why should Leinster have to keep moving to a Saturday to keep everyone else happy?

There has been speculation in recent years that Munster could alternate with Leinster and fill the Saturday evening slot, but that is unlikely to ever happen, especially when Munster is a sell-out most years. However, Munster may need to row in to ensure both provincial finals get the exposure they deserve.

The whole topic as to whether the GAA are promoting hurling as well as they can recently raised its head during the GAAGo debate. Yet that discussion will go to another level again if the Munster final goes to extra-time. And penalties.

Can Clare and Limerick possibly go where no teams have gone before?

In the four-year history of the round-robin championship (2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023), Clare and Limerick have been involved in five of the six best matches, with three of those contests against each other; in 2022 (twice) and earlier in this championship.

Three of the best games in the round robin taking place between the same two teams over just 12 and a half months underlines just how electric this rivalry has now become.

In the history of the hurling championship, the only rivalry that can compare to what Limerick and Clare have produced over such a short period of around 12 months, is Cork-Waterford in the 2000s.

The teams played nine matches between 2002-2007, with five of those games absolute epics. The rivalry peaked between 2006-’07, when the teams played out four brilliant matches in the space of exactly 12 months; the 2006 All-Ireland semi-final, the 2007 Munster semi-final, the 2007 drawn and replayed All-Ireland quarter-finals. All four games were classics.

After that 2007 replayed quarter-final though, the Cork and Waterford relationship went into a steady decline. The sides didn't meet again in championship until the 2010 Munster final, which Waterford won after a replay.

After Sunday though, could Clare and Limerick do something never done before by possibly meeting again in the championship, and for a fifth time in just 13-14 months? Given how hot this rivalry currently is between the counties, nothing is impossible.

Galway's eastern quest

Galway's isolated status in the west had always exercised GAA minds. For a period in the late 1950s, the Munster and Leinster champions played each other in All-Ireland semi-finals, allowing Galway direct access to the final in 1955 and 1958 when they were beaten by Wexford and Tipperary. Over the following 11 years, Galway were subsumed into the Munster championship but that move wasn't a success either as they only won one game during that time, a 1961 defeat of Clare.

It's 15 years now since Galway first took the decision to cross the provincial threshold again, this time going east instead of south. At the time, everybody accepted that Leinster needed Galway as much as Galway needed Leinster, to prop up an otherwise lopsided championship. Kilkenny had won the three previous provincial finals by an aggregate of 45 points.

Galway were bound to get Kilkenny's juices flowing but the greatest team of all time were never going to get too worked up about them either when Galway first landed into the province. For years, Kilkenny didn't rate Galway. The other Leinster hurling counties had less reason to whinge about Galway's presence too when they were routinely getting flogged by Kilkenny.

In any case, Galway's senior record at that time represented less of a threat so there was less hostility towards Galway and more intrigue at them crossing into the eastern province. In the early years, the novelty, fascination and curiosity diluted any real tension.

Galway only reached one Leinster final in their first three seasons, but it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened. Lifting the Bob O’Keeffe Cup in 2012 was more seismic again when Galway hammered Kilkenny in the final by ten points.

The dynamic was bound to change afterwards. Kilkenny beat Galway in 2014 (after a replay) and in the 2015 and 2016 Leinster finals, along with the 2015 All-Ireland final.

Galway were All-Ireland champions in 2018 when they turned over Kilkenny in the round robin, before beating them later that summer in the Leinster final after a replay. Galway also beat them in 2019, when that victory in Nowlan Park was the first time Kilkenny had lost a championship match at home in 70 years.

The sides have played four times since, with Kilkenny having won twice, Galway once, with them drawing in Nowlan Park in late April. Those two Kilkenny victories though, were in Leinster finals, in 2020 and 2022.

In nine Leinster final appearances, Galway have only won three titles. Galway lost five of those finals to Kilkenny – 2010, 2015, 2016, 2020 and 2022. On Sunday, Galway head east again for another tilt at sacking Leinster's citadel from the western front.