USHC Is such a fix but whats the Answer?

The USHC is totally fixed so that the traditional teams will play in the semis, Down, Derry and London. The fact that Antrim are Auto Matic to the final is bad enough without it being fixed to suit another 3 counties! I hope If armagh make it to the down match (theyve a tricky one v monaghan first) that they topple a big gun it looks like the only potential upset.

I really think they need to look at new ideas for the entire championship, play the provincials as what ever way they want during March and April.

I think make ulster round robin have three groups open draw with previous years semi and finalists seeded, best group winner goes to final and the other two play semi to decide other finalist.

Then in May the top 12 teams in Ireland i wont speculate as it normally offends go into the Hurling Champions league four groups of three with semi finalists emerging and the winners of Munster and Leinster seeded. The next 8 after this go into their own competetion with two groups of four with semis to be played, then the next seven after this two groups one of four one of three and the seven after that creating the next two divisions.

I will maybe speculate in another post if required.

This will bring teams on and with the right marketing can really be sold to the world.

NSG - great suggestions as usual.

The main unfairness that exists at the moment is that Antrim are allowed in both the Leinster and Ulster C'ships. I think that is plain crazy on it's own but to have a situation where the other 8 playoff to play the Saffrons in the Ulster Final is just bizarre! Who is that supposed to benefit?

And this is not a kick at Antrim at all - it is good they are in Leinster and I hope they benefit but for me it's one or the other ...

Totally agree JC. The fact is Antrim should have even been removed and down even replace them under this years format and put westmeath in the place of down as they want to be there and obviously antrim dont!

I dont see the benefit in having antrim in Leinster but if there was juvenile their also i would look at it differently.

But Croker need to wake up and smell the coffee here the chances of hurling taking of in the like of Longford or Cavan under the current format is isnt going to happen, but if you show a bit of glitz and glamour and proper structure for your county to get there it might, unlike carlow last year who in my opinion should have replaced Laois as rightful winners of the second tier no disrespect to Laois.

Yeah it seems that they set up these lower tier competitions - which is great - but the reawrds fro success don't follow.

I actually dislike this idea of excluding teams from the chance of All Ireland glory in any code - as was done with Div 4 teams recently - it's not an All Ireland then is it!

Also feel very sorry for W'meath - they have been trying hard and beat Dublin a couple of seasons ago. It sends out all the wrong signals to hurling people in the county. It shouldn't be forgotten that Offaly were a non-entity in senior inter-county hurling terms as recently as 1980 - and look at what happened when they 'broke through'!

I would love to see hurling take off in the so-called 'weaker counties'.

Why Antrim are in both Ulster and Leinster completely confuses me. It also seems ridicoulusly unfair that Antrim are in the Ulster Championship final before the Ulster Championship has even started. If the Championships are going to work out that way shouldn't Kilkenny automatically be in the Leinster final then? As they are supposedly better than the rest of the Leinster teams? It seems unfortunate that the winners of 2 provincial championships are more or less already decided, having said that lets hope Galway and Antrim can open things up a bit more in the Leinster championship.

Realistically it is time for a different format, but I don't know whether I could bare seeing the Munster championship go. It seems absurd, but perhaps make the Provincial championships completely different competitions from the All-Ireland? Separate Munster, Leinster and Ulster championships could be held at a different time of year allowing a tiered AI format in. The only problem here would be timing, as well as the fact it might take away the who romantic glory of the championship that we all love so much. Can't see it being a success.

As an Ulster hurling fan, i can see that there is massive room for improvement, but i can also see that there has been massive improvement by "weaker" counties like Armagh & Donegal in recent years and they are not far off Derry or Down.

Antrim are by far the best county in Ulster, and i think it's a disgrace that they can qualify for the Ulster final before a ball was thrown in as well.

It's very easy to bash the Ulster Hurling Championship, but just 2 years ago there were only 3 Ulster county teams playing in it (Do not county New York or London) and now all the Ulster county Hurling teams get their shot at it. This was something that i was calling for for years, and i for one was happy that the Ulster council had the balls to finally do something. Small steps start marathons and all that.

Yes, we could have an open draw group set up, but what if Antrim draw Cavan, London & Monaghan in their group? Do you think that will improve hurling in Cavan & Monaghan? Yes Hurling in Ulster need a big overhaul, but i don't buy into placing lambs to the slaughter.

What's needed is something drastic, and a lot of time promoting and developing youth Hurling in Ulsters lower tiers, a shake up at senior level now would be worthless.