National Hurling League Divisions 1 & 2

Its great to see all the Dublin Gaeilgeoirs ensuring that TG4 continues to thrive! Biggest audience ever - and for the Dublin hurlers! Great stuff!

TG4 attract record numbers for Dublin win
IAN O'RIORDAN

Thu, May 05, 2011

DUBLIN NOT only bridged a 72-year gap in their hurling history by winning the Allianz Hurling League title last Sunday but they also made television history by drawing the largest ever audience to TG4.

The Irish language station has exclusive rights to all Sunday games in the Allianz Leagues, including finals – and last Sunday’s decider in Croke Park between Dublin and Kilkenny peaked at a record 430,000 viewers, just after 5.30pm, as Dublin pulled convincingly clear of their favoured opponents to land a first such league title since 1939.

This represents the highest audience rating ever for the channel, even surpassing the Division One football final between Dublin and Cork the previous Sunday. The official Nielsen television audience measure gave the peak at 430,000 viewers, while an average of 310,000 viewers watched the entire hurling match.

These are significant figures, especially given the game on Sunday also drew a high attendance of 42,030 – almost three times more than the 14,200 that attended last year’s hurling final in Thurles.

As with the previous week, TG4 was comfortably the most popular channel in the country on Sunday afternoon last, with one in three people viewing television in Ireland on Sunday afternoon watching TG4. This gave it a share four times higher than any other channel for that period and the television audience for the hurling match delivered an overall reach of 620,000 viewers for TG4.

The Puke wrote:Clare 2-17 Down 0-03 after 45 minutes

Down have been pure filth and are down to 13 men

Reviewing the closing stages from Killarney there just now and a most un-seemly incident involving a Clare forward merited some discussion.
Perhaps the lad is from the Burren...

I see Kev, sorry Patrique ran that little Clare upstart off the board with his complete destruction of him on this thread, some nice work there from the Glensman, Word is Puke has returned to his first love, ceili music so we won't have to endure his juvenile grasp of all things GAA any longer.

mossbags wrote:I see Kev, sorry Patrique ran that little Clare upstart off the board with his complete destruction of him on this thread, some nice work there from the Glensman, Word is Puke has returned to his first love, ceili music so we won't have to endure his juvenile grasp of all things GAA any longer.

Yes Moss - I think I prefer Moss than your alter ego Puke ....

Jayo Cluxton wrote:

mossbags wrote:I see Kev, sorry Patrique ran that little Clare upstart off the board with his complete destruction of him on this thread, some nice work there from the Glensman, Word is Puke has returned to his first love, ceili music so we won't have to endure his juvenile grasp of all things GAA any longer.

Yes Moss - I think I prefer Moss than your alter ego Puke ....

Computer says no.

Jayo Cluxton wrote:

mossbags wrote:I see Kev, sorry Patrique ran that little Clare upstart off the board with his complete destruction of him on this thread, some nice work there from the Glensman, Word is Puke has returned to his first love, ceili music so we won't have to endure his juvenile grasp of all things GAA any longer.

Yes Moss - I think I prefer Moss than your alter ego Puke ....

Ah here!

RMDrive wrote:Computer says no.

Computer from Ulster???

That Moss fella is probably moving about a bit. Avoiding authorities and the like no doubt ....

Boxtyeater wrote:

The Puke wrote:Clare 2-17 Down 0-03 after 45 minutes

Down have been pure filth and are down to 13 men

Reviewing the closing stages from Killarney there just now and a most un-seemly incident involving a Clare forward merited some discussion.
Perhaps the lad is from the Burren...

As I said here before dirt and the Clare footballers go hand in hand.....One of the main reasons there is so much apathy towards them in the county....

Thought puke and moss were 1..

Couldn't give a fook anyway whatever rocks your boat

THE Allianz Hurling League is set for yet another revamp, arising from growing dissatisfaction over the existing format.

Proposals for a revised structure are currently being prepared by the Hurling Development group and will be shortly circulated to counties for deliberation, prior to being discussed -- and decided on -- by Central Council at their August meeting.

A number of options are being considered, but it's understood that the favoured one will feature the restoration of a 12-county Division 1, which would be divided into two groups of six (Divisions 1A and 1B).

That system applied between 2005 and 2008, but there will be a significant difference this time in that the leading six counties will be in Division 1A, followed by the next six in Division 1B.

Under the system in place up to 2008, the 12 counties in Division 1 were not divided on the basis of strength. Instead, the weaker teams and stronger teams in the top 12 were divided between the two groups.

Based on the final placings in this year’s League, Division 1A would, in 2012, look like this:

Kilkenny, Dublin, Waterford, Tipperary, Galway, Cork and 1B: Wexford, Offaly, Limerick, Clare, Laois and Antrim. The changes provide Offaly with a real boost as they’re to drop to Division 2 next year, but Limerick would lose out as they won the sole promotion slot to Division 1.

Relegation/promotion will continue to apply, but would not be as damaging to counties because Division 1B will be of higher standard than the current Division 2. Groups of six reduce the number of divisional games from seven to five. That enables the GAA to start the NHL later when ground conditions are better.

Congress voted in April to reintroduce semi-finals in Division 1 from next year which means four of the six counties in Division 1A of the NHL would enter the knock-out phase.

- Martin Breheny

Irish Independent

The Puke wrote:THE Allianz Hurling League is set for yet another revamp, arising from growing dissatisfaction over the existing format.

Proposals for a revised structure are currently being prepared by the Hurling Development group and will be shortly circulated to counties for deliberation, prior to being discussed -- and decided on -- by Central Council at their August meeting.

A number of options are being considered, but it's understood that the favoured one will feature the restoration of a 12-county Division 1, which would be divided into two groups of six (Divisions 1A and 1B).

That system applied between 2005 and 2008, but there will be a significant difference this time in that the leading six counties will be in Division 1A, followed by the next six in Division 1B.

Under the system in place up to 2008, the 12 counties in Division 1 were not divided on the basis of strength. Instead, the weaker teams and stronger teams in the top 12 were divided between the two groups.

Based on the final placings in this year’s League, Division 1A would, in 2012, look like this:

Kilkenny, Dublin, Waterford, Tipperary, Galway, Cork and 1B: Wexford, Offaly, Limerick, Clare, Laois and Antrim. The changes provide Offaly with a real boost as they’re to drop to Division 2 next year, but Limerick would lose out as they won the sole promotion slot to Division 1.

Relegation/promotion will continue to apply, but would not be as damaging to counties because Division 1B will be of higher standard than the current Division 2. Groups of six reduce the number of divisional games from seven to five. That enables the GAA to start the NHL later when ground conditions are better.

Congress voted in April to reintroduce semi-finals in Division 1 from next year which means four of the six counties in Division 1A of the NHL would enter the knock-out phase.

- Martin Breheny

Irish Independent

I'm not so sure about this, 4 of the 6 going into the semi-finals means that if you win 2 games you are more or less in the semi-finals which could lead to low intensity, almost like challenge matches in the latter stages. It will probably mean that we won't see any good tough matches until those league semi-fnals in April. On the final day of the league this year we had some really good matches as every team had a chance of making the league final while others were fighting relegation. I can see what they are trying to do, they are trying to have Clare, Offaly, Antrim and Laois play against a higher standard of team. The division 1a looks like the old division 2 to me but just given a different name.

clash-of-da-ash wrote:

The Puke wrote:THE Allianz Hurling League is set for yet another revamp, arising from growing dissatisfaction over the existing format.

Proposals for a revised structure are currently being prepared by the Hurling Development group and will be shortly circulated to counties for deliberation, prior to being discussed -- and decided on -- by Central Council at their August meeting.

A number of options are being considered, but it's understood that the favoured one will feature the restoration of a 12-county Division 1, which would be divided into two groups of six (Divisions 1A and 1B).

That system applied between 2005 and 2008, but there will be a significant difference this time in that the leading six counties will be in Division 1A, followed by the next six in Division 1B.

Under the system in place up to 2008, the 12 counties in Division 1 were not divided on the basis of strength. Instead, the weaker teams and stronger teams in the top 12 were divided between the two groups.

Based on the final placings in this year’s League, Division 1A would, in 2012, look like this:

Kilkenny, Dublin, Waterford, Tipperary, Galway, Cork and 1B: Wexford, Offaly, Limerick, Clare, Laois and Antrim. The changes provide Offaly with a real boost as they’re to drop to Division 2 next year, but Limerick would lose out as they won the sole promotion slot to Division 1.

Relegation/promotion will continue to apply, but would not be as damaging to counties because Division 1B will be of higher standard than the current Division 2. Groups of six reduce the number of divisional games from seven to five. That enables the GAA to start the NHL later when ground conditions are better.

Congress voted in April to reintroduce semi-finals in Division 1 from next year which means four of the six counties in Division 1A of the NHL would enter the knock-out phase.

- Martin Breheny

Irish Independent

I'm not so sure about this, 4 of the 6 going into the semi-finals means that if you win 2 games you are more or less in the semi-finals which could lead to low intensity, almost like challenge matches in the latter stages. It will probably mean that we won't see any good tough matches until those league semi-fnals in April. On the final day of the league this year we had some really good matches as every team had a chance of making the league final while others were fighting relegation. I can see what they are trying to do, they are trying to have Clare, Offaly, Antrim and Laois play against a higher standard of team. The division 1a looks like the old division 2 to me but just given a different name.

I would presume that it would be the top 2 from 1A and the top 2 from 1B that would go to the semi finals or some derivative otherwise it is pointless calling in 1A &1B, maybe something like the top 2 in 1A going straight to teh semi's while third and fourth would play off against the top 2 of 1B for the other two spots, otherwise they might as well just rename 1B to Division 2

I would consider Carlow better than Laois. This is bad bad news.