Division Two decider 'more meaningful' than main event

THE MAN whose committee drew up the structures for this year’s National Hurling League has defended the arrangements for Division Two, saying that the divisional final will be “more meaningful” than its Division One equivalent.

It appears an odd view for Kilkenny secretary Ned Quinn, chair of the recently wound-up National Hurling Development committee, to take given his own county’s involvement against Tipperary in the main event at Thurles on Sunday, but he is correct in that the implications of defeat in the curtain-raiser for either Offaly or Wexford are more serious.

Already both of the managers in the Division Two decider have aired their unhappiness at the structure, which dictates that only the winners will be promoted, leaving the losers to toil in the lower section for another season.

Offaly’s Joe Dooley has said that it’s unfair that both finalists don’t go up, as is the case in the National Football League.

“The Division Two final is far more meaningful than the Division One final,” says Quinn. “There is a problem with the leagues. There’s more interest in the early rounds and, come the final, people lose that interest but Sunday is an important day for both counties.”

Dooley’s Wexford counterpart Colm Bonnar argued that the standard of competition in the lower division isn’t good enough and that teams like Offaly and Wexford suffer from contesting it.

“We won four of our games by an average of 20 points. That’s no good for Wexford and teams we beat, even though they’d be using Wexford and Offaly as the measuring stick of where they’re going and they’d like to see some stronger teams in there,” he said.

The most vehement comments on the matter came from Clare manager Michael McNamara, who appeared to suggest on his team’s relegation that he wouldn’t field his first team in the next season’s NHL.

“You have the ludicrous situation in this season’s league where Offaly and Wexford are playing meaningless matches in Division Two, and we don’t want to be in that situation next year,” he said last month.

Quinn, however, argues that the rationalised divisional structure, reducing the top flight from two sections of six teams each to one eight-county division, made the league more competitive and provided a better standard in Division Two.

“It gave some teams a chance to measure themselves against counties from a stronger background and it was very competitive.

“It wasn’t a runaway league. I perfectly understand where Wexford and Offaly are coming from but that’s the way it panned out for them last year.

“It had nothing to do with the counties involved because nobody knew who was going to go down and remember Offaly had already been relegated under the old system but were given a reprieve.

“The GAA is going around and around on this issue. I remember back in the 1980s a lot of counties were in Division Two at various stages and it wasn’t unusual for a team from Division Two to reach the final back then.”

Closer to home, Quinn remembers only too well the sensational developments at the end of the 1993 NHL when Kilkenny, then between All-Ireland triumphs, lost their place in Division One after losing at home to the then Ulster champions.

“I remember,” he says, “when we were relegated by Down and the shock it caused, but it might have been the wake-up call we needed.”

In defence of his point of view Quinn points to the improving performances of Westmeath and Carlow – counties who have won the most recent Christy Ring Cups for the secondary championship counties. Both took points off Antrim in this year’s league, but unlike the northerners, neither will be able to compete in this summer’s senior championship.

“There’s an argument for looking at the MacCarthy Cup again given the performances of Westmeath and Carlow, but those counties benefit from the league because they’re in a better position to evaluate themselves against Antrim, Wexford and Offaly. If they start to run those types of counties close consistently they’re obviously improving.”

As the last chair of the HDC for the time being, Quinn is in two minds about the decision of new GAA president Christy Cooney to park the committee on the basis that the game no longer needs special attention.

“It’s difficult to know where hurling stands, whether it’s strong enough to take its place in the general games development structures of the association along with football.

“There are, after all, only between 12 and 15 counties serious about hurling and 31 serious about football. Having said that, I agree that there’s far too many committees.”