Ulster Hurling "Championship" back down to 4

From BBC NI website (Via @Global_GAA Twitter feed) -

This year's Ulster Senior Hurling Championship will feature only four counties as opposed to the eight involved in the 2011 competition.

The competition will open on 17 June with Armagh facing Derry with the winners going on to face Down in the semi-final on 1 July.

The semi-final winners will take on Antrim in the final a week later.

Tyrone, Fermanagh, Donegal and Monaghan played in last year's competition but are not involved 12 months on.

Monaghan are currently playing in the Nicky Rackard Cup despite the controversy that led to their withdrawal from the Hurling League Division 3A final against Fingal last month.

County manager Mattie Lennon resigned after the Monaghan GAA Board refused to rescheduled a number of club football intermediate fixtures.

The club football matches were arranged for four days in advance of the Hurling League decider.

Former Kildare boss Morgan Lawlor has taken charge of the Monaghan team for the Nicky Rackard Cup campaign which starts with a game against Donegal at Clones on Saturday [14:30 BST].

This year's Ulster Championship will be launched in Belfast on Wednesday evening.
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The development of hurling in Ulster has taken a hammer blow in my book with this, this begs the question, just what is the point of retainng the provincial system in Hurling? What is needed, is to focus on the current tiered system and develop that further and scrap the Ulster, Munster and Leinster Championships without exception!

I said before we dont neccessarily need to bin them but more so find a place for them. Maybe grade them?

It would do no harm to include ulster and connaught championships (without galway and antrim) in the intermediate all ireland with all teams involved also aloud to play in the tiered system. This way say derry win ulster they would go to a semi final potentially against tipp or kk intermediate teams, not a bad way to hurl in mid summer.

We can use these intermediate teams to help the likes of derry, wicklow, kildare etc to improve and i dont know why it isnt being done.

Tipp's intermediate sides are fairly poor. It is 10 years since they won Munster, the fact that they have the bones of 35 clubs playing senior championship ruined them

The Puke wrote:Tipp's intermediate sides are fairly poor. It is 10 years since they won Munster, the fact that they have the bones of 35 clubs playing senior championship ruined them

Id say they are puke but i think the likes of kerry down there would get a good game from them.

How many teams in munster play intermediate? i know in leinster its only two, so surely these teams and the addition of ulster and connaught would make this a bit more exciting?

Even if galway and antrim entered intermediate teams into the respective provinces in a straight knock out competition it could lead to an exciting enough summer for some.

North Side Gael wrote:

The Puke wrote:Tipp's intermediate sides are fairly poor. It is 10 years since they won Munster, the fact that they have the bones of 35 clubs playing senior championship ruined them

Id say they are puke but i think the likes of kerry down there would get a good game from them.

How many teams in munster play intermediate? i know in leinster its only two, so surely these teams and the addition of ulster and connaught would make this a bit more exciting?

Even if galway and antrim entered intermediate teams into the respective provinces in a straight knock out competition it could lead to an exciting enough summer for some.

the 5 hurling counties in Munster all field intermediate sides

Thats good like,if kerry came into the mix with their senior panel it would add imagination and a different dimension to kerry hurling, getting to play pre munster semi finals in a intermediate game is probably better coverage than kerry would get in a christy ring final.

Look at it this way - connaught play intermediate championship including intermediate galway, ulster do same with antrim, leinster with who ever wants to enter ie wicklow, straight knock out so it doesnt interfere with christy ring cup. This wouldnt be many extra games and it would capture imagination of youth. Semi finals like the old laim mc carthy with the four provinces represented.

Big setback for Antrim hurling yesterday

The Puke wrote:Big setback for Antrim hurling yesterday

Massive set back, with rumours of turmoil in the changing room etc not suprising, a certain selector and former manager returns to county set up and clearly brings his failure baggage with him, although i wont namme him he is typical of being a poor coach with little or no respect for players outside senior club hurling in Antrim.

Hard to see why Antrim should be placed directly into an Ulster 'final' given this kind of result.

Parouisa wrote:Hard to see why Antrim should be placed directly into an Ulster 'final' given this kind of result.

Antrim hurling is finished!

bald eagle wrote:

Parouisa wrote:Hard to see why Antrim should be placed directly into an Ulster 'final' given this kind of result.

Antrim hurling is finished!

Lets be honest here to both yourself and "P", Antrim hurling is anything but finished and will only get stronger in coming years with the younger teams getting better and a reasonably young senior panel. As for the automatic ulster final place, it makes more sense for antrim to enter a second string into the competition and play open draw from round one.

Lads while it was a bad defeat, we also know, the year we made it to the quarter finals (2010) we also were knocked out in the first round, that same year we chinned Dublin in the last round of the qualifiers. It will be interesting if Down win the christy ring cup though will they choose to enter the laim mc carthy while playing div3 or 2b hurling?

In my eyes BE Derry having their strongest panel in the last 7/8 years not able to make the christy ring semis at least is a major blow. Armagh seem to have sat still this last couple of years would be nice if they start to make strides again.

The minors is more interesting, Antrim won the minor leinster league which was all leinster teams minus dublin/wex/kk but then Down beat Antrim in the ulster hurling league final will be interesting to see can down win a minor ulster title, it would be about time Ulster hurling counties stepped up to the mark at this level, Derry up until recently produce excellent ulster schools teams then come derry minor county team they have been awful, even worse at u21 where they have failed to feild despite being the last winners outside Antrim only four years ago. However with a few derry underage teams now playing in the north antrim league we will hopefully see an improvement again in a few years.

Good win for the hurlers against Armagh yesterday to book a place against Down in the Semi-final.

The senior camogs won Ulster after beating Antrim in the final to raise some cheer to the Oak Leafers after the disaster of the footballers.

It looks like we are becoming a camán county, much to the hatred of some!

Yeah great win for Armagh, do you know when the semi is and is it in casement or derry or newry? I would love to see the USHC final played in Armagh, Derry and Down for a few years to try and raise its profile in these counties.