Armagh Hurling and the New Hurling counties

Armagh hurling

This is going to be the county which overtakes down and derry i think, flying at the minute in there second ulster fina,l minor and now u21. Last night they ripped apart derry a team winners two years on the trot only two years ago, they were winning 2-8 to 2 points at half time, most neutrals ie down and derry hit the road at half time i stayed to see their resolve and again would have fitness concerns as they seemed very tired in their pucking of the ball early in the second half hitting a lot of wides but won convincing enough 2-13 to 0-10. This team is the way forward, not to mention they won the nicky rackard cup this year overtaking the fourth ranked team in the USHC (london), now im sure they have derry in their radars and i hope their radar includes my own county, this can only be good for ulster long may it continue.

We also had fermanagh winning the minor c all ireland last year and winning the u21 sheild then only being beaten by nine by armagh in the quarters, this is a sign of another county however i feel until fermanagh start to produce more clubs they will lie behind donegal, tyrone and probably monaghan.

I know in connaght sligo have come on a good bit and in leinster meath and wicklow are now making strides, what ever these counties are doing is working and it must be commended. You can go further than to mention Mayo the the team i believe started this trend of belief in the so called weaker counties, they along with pete finnerty and co have really changed the second tier of hurling, hopefully it wont be too long before they change the top tier.

Just congratulated Armagh elsewhere and was searching for the thread about Armagh minors.

Two Ulster finals and Rackard winners? Impressive.

Mind you when I played seriously Armagh Cú Chulainns were an excellent Antrim Division 2 side.

Great to see - Carlow flying the flag in Leinster, Mayo maybe - great to see. Would love to see nationwide expansion of the best field game in the world.

Apologies to carlow they have come on leaps and bounds, however the fact that i didnt mention them westmeath or kerry is i believe they are now part of the top dog system, kerry should be and i believe will be.

We've come a long way from 6 years ago when our manager had to tog out. We have a problem that our bench isn't as strong as it needs to be. We brought in an 18 year old against Antrim who has only played one match in senior for his club. There are only 7 senior clubs in Carlow which is unreal considering the leaps and bounds we have made. If we are to get to the next level something neds to be done about hurling in Carlow Town and in the North of Carlow, where football is promenint.

Carlow Town have the supply of around 5 football clubs but are struggling at senior level and also with numbers. Either a new club needs to be formed to get the crooked men out or these football clubs set up there own hurling club from U8s up.

Is there only 7 clubs hurling at adult level HG?

That is phenomenal if that is the case, someone from the hurling board should approach the 4 teams in the town and ask them to set up a joint club u8 - u12 and get the ball rolling, would take a few years but id say it would work.

In county Down they have senior hurling clubs and around 12 adult hurling clubs in total, something that has always held them back however bredagh a belfast down team are making strides through the antrim leagues winning promotion three years on the trot from the bottom div - div 5.

Yes only 7 senior clubs and 7 Intermediate clubs (5 of them are the senior clubs second team) and there is no Junior this year. When you compare it to football its amazing. 12 Senior football clubs and 12 Intermediate (3 of them are the senior clubs second team). Hurling is in the majority in the south of the county and football in the north. Although Palatine always had an Intermediate team but struggled for numbers but seem to be back on track. Tullow established their hurling team last year and won the Junior championship.

Yea i think down have around 12 teams in total inclusive of all senior, intermediate and junior, I wish down would take a look at carlow and learn from it.

What way is westmeath and kerry in terms of adult hurling clubs? Anyone on here know?

Interesting to see, id say cork would have around 50 adult clubs and Kilkenny not far behind, dublin have 6 divisions, antrim have 5 divisions (some of the clubs in antrim and dublin have seconds teams playing in lower leagues more so dublin that antrim) we need to look at how these clubs have come about and encourage new clubs.

I feel it is something holding fermanagh back at the minute, they have come on well in the last few years at underage but they have two adult clubs who play in the armagh leagues, they need to create new clubs, i know at underage there is a new club being knocks but they need more, i thought this was the role of the development paid employees of the gaa? I hope these counties stand up, in fermanagh they use to play in beleek and enniskillen i hope they will again. Same in tyrone its a disgrace the hurling fell by the wayside in a town the size of omagh.

Well done tonite armagh once again doing yourselves proud, bit more acccurracy in front of goal and who knows, also a mention to hippy donnelly scored a point from play from about 80 yards what a talent, without him there tonite that was armaghs game.

What way is westmeath and kerry in terms of adult hurling clubs? Anyone on here know?

We have 16 clubs off the top of my head, Fr. Daltons (From the South of the County)made a return to adult hurling this year which means we have an extra club at intermediate level. At senior level we have 9 teams due to Ringtown recieving an 'Antrim' and staying up despite an atrocious season, but they too reached the quarter finals this year!

The problem it is only the area north of Mullingar which is the hurling zone (apart from Castletown Geogheon). This means a small player pool but the Southern sides have made big improvements in the last couple of years, coupled with funding from Croke Park to promote hurling more in Athlone it could all get better.