Hurling format at a crossroads

KILLINAN END

Two one-sided All-Ireland quarter-finals emphatically won by teams from the southern province, as well as the upcoming all-Munster Minor final shine a light on familiar ground.

Perhaps the Leinster v Munster approach to hurling analysis has always been reductive and inappropriate. You wonder to what extent the friction has its origins in the Railway Cup, a highly prestigious competition in its day. It certainly added intrigue, given that until three decades ago only the provincial champions ever met in the championship.

Historically, we lacked a reliable means by which the relative strength and depth of the provinces could be measured. We could see, on a given day, how the winning teams would fare against the other provincial champions. It was less clear, however, how the fifth Munster team might compare with the fifth Leinster team. At least, so argued a small - occasionally bewildered and somewhat delusional - cohort inclined to construct self-serving and sweeping arguments to further gild Kilkenny's brilliant historical record.

Kilkenny, to give them their considerable due, were there from the start and won the very first Leinster championship. They produced one of hurling's first great teams, winning seven All-Ireland titles in ten years between 1904 and 1913. Hurling writer Pádraig Puirséal recalled his father claiming that those who did not see those teams “never saw hurlers”. Perhaps the most enduring figure of that era was Sim Walton of Tullaroan, one of four players who featured on all seven Kilkenny teams. Another, Dick "Droog" Walsh, is immortalised in a statue in his native Mooncoin. By captaining three All-Ireland-winning teams, he joined Christy Ring and Tubberadora's Mikey Maher in a very exclusive club. That record stood until the great Declan Hannon blew it apart in recent years.

Great teams came and went in Kilkenny. They soared high in the 1930s and again in the 1960s and '70s before monopolising the early part of the new century. They had fallow periods too. They pilfered a title from Tipperary in 1922 in circumstances that made Offaly–Limerick in 1994 look like a slow, considered affair. That was the county's only title between 1913 and 1932. Likewise, Terry Leahy's late point against Cork in 1947 gave the Black and Amber their only All-Ireland title between 1939 and 1957.

Yet it would be profoundly churlish not to acknowledge Kilkenny hurling as a chapter that glistens with particular splendour even within the gilded story of hurling itself. If every county had kept its house in order as those by the Nore have done, hurling would be in rude health.

The question of strength in depth for Leinster has presented itself in different guises over the years. In the early decades of the Association, Dublin teams benefited from influences beyond their own county and occasionally fielded teams of extraordinary quality. It was, however, the arrival of Wexford that really put Leinster hurling on the map as an entity, distinct from being merely Kilkenny's domain.

Wexford had an early presence in hurling, but it was from the early 1950s that they truly became a force. Indeed, it can be argued that the period from 1950 to 2000, or thereabouts, represented Wexford's golden era. Outside of that, they have competed only fitfully, and right now storm clouds gather once more in the south-east.

Much has been made of Leinster's competitiveness in the 1980s and 1990s. The great addition in this era was Offaly, who were in full bloom from 1980 to 2000. It would be remiss not to acknowledge that Laois also had a competitive team in those days. It remains highly debatable, however, whether the Leinster Championship ever surpassed Munster for any significant period, even during that time.

Later, Kilkenny’s pre-eminence in the 2000s was often used as camouflage or deflect from broader Leinster standards. Often during the qualifier years, Wexford and Offaly shipped significant beatings against teams such as Clare. The Banner themselves struggled to win games in Munster but were able to thrive and prosper outside it. Saffron & Blue featured in an All-Ireland final in 2002, and semi-finals in 2005 and 2006, without winning a match in Munster. That might hint at Waterford's potential under a similar system.

The imbalance in which we now find ourselves has had its foundations in place for a couple of decades, and perhaps for over a century. All it needed was for the team in Black & Amber to wander into the wilderness, as all counties have done at some point.

The limitations of the current championship format are inevitably tied to the general standard of the teams involved. In that context you wonder about the viability of the round-robin format. Yes, it works in Munster, but does it really work if, say, Waterford never manage to get out of it yet we see All-Ireland quarter-finals which are abjectly one-sided? What exactly is the system doing for Waterford? Have we reached round-robin fatigue? Should the championship serve a function beyond merely producing a winner?

Just a thought: was the back-door system, as practised from 2002 onwards, a more interesting and more varied way of running the championship?