Call for overhaul gets mixed reaction

There are mixed reactions to the call of Cork manager John Allen for provincial hurling champions to be allowed progress straight to the All-Ireland semi-finals. Allen was speaking after his team retained their Munster title after a gripping final in Thurles against a battling Tipperary.

Instead of having until August to prepare for a semi-final, Cork now must focus on a quarter-final in four weeks.

Ironically the current system that provides for two qualifier groups and four All-Ireland quarter-finals between the top eight teams in the country was introduced partly in response to provincial winners' concerns about the lengthy gap between winning Leinster and Munster and the All-Ireland semi-finals.

But that was two years ago when Waterford and Wexford had scored rare successes by recent standards and lost semi-finals to Kilkenny and Cork, who came through the old qualifier system with plenty of match practice under their belts.

Mick Kinsella comes at this issue from a couple of interested angles. Wexford county secretary, a selector with senior manager Séamus Murphy and a member of the new Hurling Development Committee, he points out that the HDC will be considering this as part of its review of inter-county competitive structures but sees the automatic semi-final berth as being of particular value to stronger counties.

"It wouldn't suit the less fashionable counties but it would be a good idea for those that regularly win provincial titles. It's very difficult to come up with a structure for a competition for eight or nine teams and at this stage you'd have to question whether any more should be involved.

"But clearly this is something that we will be discussing when the current system is up for review."

Ger Loughnane, however, was a member of the HDC that introduced the current system for a two-year trial and the former Clare All-Ireland winning manager feels that they got it wrong. "We made a mistake when setting up the new system. The Ring and Rackard Cups (for the second and third-tier counties) were a good idea but the qualifier system has not been a success and needs an overhaul. Any system that penalises the provincial winners has to be looked at.

"It's quite possible for Cork as Munster champions to draw Galway in the quarter-finals while Clare - a team that Cork beat well in the Munster championship - end up getting Wexford. There's no comparison between Galway and Wexford, for instance."

Loughnane also believes that there aren't sufficient teams to support the new quarter-final format and that the need to find eight counties is distorting the qualifier groups.

"I'm very much in agreement with John Allen about this. My own view is that only one team should emerge from each of the qualifier groups and they would play the provincial finalists with the provincial champions going straight through to the All-Ireland semi-finals. There's no point in having four quarter-finals just for the sake of having four quarter-finals and when you don't have eight quarter-finalists. This year two of the games will involve Wexford and either Limerick or Offaly. I can't see them being competitive.

"Can you imagine the crowd that would go to next Sunday's Waterford-Galway match if it was effectively knockout? It would be much more competitive and would keep the provincial championships honest."

The question of whether the provincial championships are suffering a loss of status because of the qualifier mechanism, which allows teams back in after losing matches is another concern. Kinsella disputes this theory, pointing out that the recent Munster final contradicts such suggestions.

"I wouldn't think so. On Sunday they (Cork and Tipperary) fought tooth and nail for every single ball. Wexford will be the same this weekend and although Kilkenny seem to treat it in a casual way after they've won, they take great pride in winning it."

His belief is borne out by the 10 years of provincial hurling finals since second-chance structures were originally introduced. The majority have been well contested and virtually all exceptions to this trend have arisen because of Kilkenny's dominance in Leinster.

But Loughnane counters that provincial finals aren't the problem. It's the comparative comfort zone for teams who get beaten in the early stages of the championships.

"There's no danger of the provincial finals not being genuine," he says. "It's farther back, say in the Munster championship where teams can face two hard matches to get to a provincial final and an All-Ireland quarter-final - or they can lose in early May and prepare for the qualifiers, which more or less guarantees them the same reward."

The new Limerick hurling management have been dealt a blow in the build-up to this Saturday's crucial All-Ireland qualifier against Offaly, with confirmation that Ollie Moran has been ruled out of action for three weeks, at least.

Moran aggravated a knee injury in the big defeat by Clare at Ennis and it has been slow to respond to treatment. The team is expected to be announced today after training. There are also concerns about the fitness of utility player Brian Geary, but the management remain hopeful that he will pass a fitness test on Friday.