u/Colm_Flaherty

From his acting and his expressions and dialogue it's gotten to the point where if I see him on the screen I get annoyed at his character, anyone else have the same opinion?

Are slowly heading towards the times of where the Provincials lose significance in the grand scheme of a season for teams and just viewed as an extension of the league?

Reading all the discourse around the idea floated from the Cork County board about a restructure of the All-Ireland hurling championship with a potential way for lower ranked teams to progress on both sides whilst possibly being poor in your province.

After the new format came into place this season with teams from Divisions 1 and 2 it gave teams 2 chances in their season if they lost.

Granted Armagh won their 1st Ulster since 2008, Roscommon won the Connacht again since 2019 and Westmeath their 2nd in their history their was teams that they beat in their way went further in the All-Ireland in Tyrone, Monaghan, Galway and Dublin.

Unless you're starved of provincial success it seems that your province is starting to become an afterthought with the new system.

Similar to how the LGFA format where you can lose more than once and remain in the championship. Camoige use 2 group stages in place of provincial championships.

If the Provincial Championships in hurling were to follow suit that would be Gaelic, Hurling, Camoige and LGFA all with a format with 2nd chances for teams that haven't performed prior.

How are we going to manage with 4 of them with 1 possibly being unavailable for someone games.

Am I the only one that thinks rather than a cover-up of the night, the teens where are all hiding their own thing rather than the culprit's name.

So far we've got:

Barney hiding the hammer

Nugget selling weed

It was Ricky's bike lock

Lily unlocked him

Avani and Denzel got together

Then Amy >! admitted that she hit him yet to see if true !<

That just leaves Will if he's still going to be included in the story that is.

Maybe it's just me and with how 1 of my county's teams done well with me being back in Croke Park in a few years with lads my age making their breakthrough but.....

I want Championship 2027 to start ASAP!

First off hats off to our neighbours proved every doubter wrong and made me and others eat our words.

A great season with many surprises with Armagh getting over the Ulster hump, Roscommon coming on the rise, Westmeath slowly coming to the table with their Leinster title and with others from their School winning team to come, Wicklow making history in Tailteann alike Mayo today.

I'll get into my All-Star team so I don't be another Jarlath Burns.

1. Jack Livingston (Mayo)

2. Enda Hession (Mayo)

3. Donnacha McHugh (Mayo)

4. Theo Clancy (Dublin)

5. Ronan Wallace (Westmeath)

6. Dara McDonnell (Louth)

7. Charlie McMorrow (Dublin)

8. Marc O'Se (Kerry)

9. Jack Carney (Mayo)

10. Stephen O'Hanlon (Monaghan)

11. Ryan O'Donoghue (Mayo) POTY

12. Niall Scully (Dublin)

13. Darragh Beirne (Mayo)

14. David Clifford (Kerry)

15. Kobe McDonald (Mayo)

Unlucky to miss out: Sam Callinan (Mayo), Matthew Whittaker (Westmeath), Con Kilpatrick, Darren McCurry (Tyrone), Colm Basquel, Con O'Callaghan (Dublin), Steven Sherlock (Cork)

After the Year is now over this is how I'd rank the teams:

1. Limerick (let's be honest in a league of their own.)

A gap

2. Galway (a quality team who's got the foundations to win an All-Ireland or 2 in the next 10 - 15 years.)

3. Cork (A class team but are always missing a piece of the puzzle.)

4. Clare (A good team with some good years, but lack consistency sometimes.)

Between these 3 I'd say Galway would be 5/6 points better than Cork and Clare.

Then I'd have another gap

5. Dublin (A promising team but consistency is a big issue.)

6. Tipperary (A good team but after they have good year(s) they can tend to drop off.)

7. Waterford (A team with lots of promise but always struggle to have 70 minute performances.)

8. Kilkenny (A team past it's best left with some quality but just about staying competitive.)

9. Offaly (A young team on the rise with potential to win an All-Ireland or 2.)

Another gap

Kildare, Laois, Carlow, etc.

Thoughts.

So throughout the year I've been tracking the performances of players that I thought stood out and here's the final one, let me know what ye think of it.

1. Nickie Quaid (Limerick) POTY

2. Ronan Glennon (Galway)

3. Cillian Trayers (Galway)

4. Barry Nash (Limerick)

5. Diarmuid Byrnes (Limerick)

6. Will O'Donoghue (Limerick)

7. Kyle Hayes (Limerick)

8. Tony Kelly (Clare)

9. Tom Monaghan (Galway)

10. Gearoid Hegarty (Limerick)

11. Aidan O'Connor (Limerick)

12. Cathal O'Neill (Limerick)

13. Jason Rabbitte (Galway)

14. Brian Hayes (Cork)

15. Peter Casey (Limerick)

Unlucky to miss out: Darach Fahy, Daithi Burke, Darren Morrisey (Galway), Mark Coleman (Cork), Daragh Neary, Cathal Mannion (Galway)

After all of the talk during the week of how it's being perceived as a bit of dam squib so far I'd beg to differ.

Munster may have been a let down with Limerick and Cork powering to the final and Clare building to 3rd place.

Waterford however put in a great fight in every game lost by 2 goals to Clare, came back from 10 points against Tipperary to get a draw when they arguably should've won, put it up to Cork until 5 minutes to go and put it up to Limerick for 60 minutes in their final game.

Over in Leinster we had the current holders Kilkenny dumped out in the groups by the new kids on the block of Offaly along with Dublin having good run in the groups overcoming Galway in Salthill and also getting a historic win against Kilkenny in the Neller since 2013.

Speaking of 2013 the Leinster final contained both teams that were their however this time the side that had many wobbles in the group in Galway managed to get over the line against Dublin by 13 points.

The Munster final was let down with poor conditions and accuracy but had some highlights particularly from Nickie Quaid between the sticks.

The Quarter-Finals were let down from what they could've been with Clare and Cork winning their games in double digit territory but the headlines were of David Reidy and his knock.

The Semi-Finals didn't disappoint with Galway and Cork going at it where Cork had a 1 point lead at half time for Galway to power on to victory in the 2nd half.

The game that followed the next day was a closer game with Clare having a good start being 5 points ahead at the break to ultimately lose by 2 in the end.

Tell me before the Championship if you expected all the above because I certainly didn't.

With the Championship almost over who's in the running for it in your opinion.

For me there's: Dan Bourke, Adam Screeney, Conal O'Riain, Séan Rynne, William Buckley, Rory Burke, Aaron Niland and the current front runner IMO Jason Rabbitte.

I figured out where it all went for us and particularly Padraig Joyce.

The decline had begun when he met Pep Guardiola. Ever since then Man City have lost out on the Premier League title to Arsenal of all teams and now Pep has left his role at Man City.

Padraig Joyce has lost the Connacht title and as exited at the Quarter-Finals again, could the signs be ominous for him?

Got a ticket for the Galway vs Cork game and it's in 734.

First time in that area of Croke Park and I'm wondering what's the view like for it towards the Davin end.

I had an idea yesterday of how to make the best of the Provincials and the All-Ireland with it happening all the way across summer.

National Hurling League starts in the middle of January and concludes on the weekend of St Patrick's Day.

Having 3 weeks and a rest week and another rest week for the League Finals.

The Leinster Championship then happens in the 2nd week in April as it would have 7 teams with the Munster Championship starting on the last weekend in April.

Their Provincial Finals then take place on the last weekend in May. With a rest week between the final round robin game and Provincial Final.

The Provincials winners go straight to the All-Ireland Semi-Finals to keep the value of winning it.

From the June to July then we've got the All-Ireland Qualifiers. 10 teams play 5 times to try and get top 4 in the standings to progress.

Provincial runners up have 3 home games and 1 game in a neutral venue, 3rd place Provincialists get 2 home games and 2 neutral venues.

The top 4 go through to the Quarter-Finals that take place on the 3rd weekend in July. With the Semi-Finals 2 weeks after as will the Final having it take place on the 3rd weekend in August.

You then have the Club Championships happen from September to January.

Same format as usual tackles made and metres carried counted in 5s via Superbru Fantasy and Dominant tackles via RugbyPass.

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Criteria for selection: https://www.reddit.com/r/irishrugby/s/dgdFMZwHVv

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1. Jerry Cahir (Loosehead Prop) - He helped win a scrum on a Bulls put in, put in 5 tackles and carried 5m. A decent game from him.

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2. Max Deegan (Back Row) - He put in 5 tackles, stole a line-out, got 2 turnovers, carried 40m, broke the line 3 times and got the better of 2 defenders. A good game from him.

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3. Sam Prendergast (Fly-Half) - He put in 5 tackles (1 being dominant), carried 35m, broke the line, had nice link-up play, got a try and an excellent kicking game with being good from the tee and getting a 50:22 which got MOTM.

How quickly do they go on general sale after the Quarter-Finals?

So 1st off here a list of players that I think should be on stand down duty due to extensive game time during the season and others who are injured.

Calm down with the posts or you'll soon be drafted as a selector by Andy Farrell himself!

Same format as usual; tackles made and metres carried counted in 5s and defenders beaten in 2s via Superbru Fantasy and dominant tackles via RugbyPass.

Criteria for selection: https://www.reddit.com/r/irishrugby/s/0LHQXvTKor

Leinster

1. Alex Usanov (Tightgead Prop) - He put in 5 tackles and carried 15m. An OK cameo from him.

2. Sam Prendergast (Fly-Half) - He carried 15m and got past 2 defenders with having a good day from the tee. An OK game from him.

3. Jimmy O'Brien (Outside Back) - He put in 5 tackles and carried 35m. A solid game from him.

Following up from my post about the Gaelic Football version of this, here's my current All-Star hurling team with nominations below it:

1. Nickie Quaid (Limerick)

2. Niall O'Leary (Cork)

3. Ben Conneely (Offaly)

4. Ronan Glennon (Galway)

5. Diarmuid Byrnes (Limerick) POTY

6. Robert Downey (Cork)

7. Mark Coleman (Cork)

8. Brian Hayes (Dublin)

9. Tom Monaghan (Galway)

10. Gearoid Hegarty (Limerick)

11. Dónal Burke (Dublin)

12. Aidan O'Connor (Limerick)

13. Eoghan Cahill (Offaly)

14. Conor Whelan (Galway)

15. William Buckley (Cork) YPOTY

Goalkeeper nominations: Liam Hoare (Offaly), Billy Nolan (Waterford)

Defender nominations: Séan Finn, Barry Nash (Limerick), Liam Rushe, Conor Burke (Dublin), Diarmuid Ryan (Clare)

Midfielder nominations: Cathal King (Offaly), Darragh Fitzgibbon (Cork), Conor Donoghue (Dublin)

Forward nominations: Rory Burke, Jason Rabbitte, Aaron Niland (Galway), Cathal O'Neill, Shane O'Brien (Limerick), Fergal Whitley, Conal O'Riain (Dublin), Shane Barrett, Brian Hayes (Cork), Dan Bourke (Offaly)

COTY: Johnny Kelly

Same format as usual; tackles made and metres carried counted in 5s and defenders beaten by 2 via Superbru Fantasy and dominant tackles included via RugbyPass.

Criteria for selection: https://www.reddit.com/r/irishrugby/s/i68HE3n6uN

Apologies for no post for European finals, the post slipped my mind during a busy week.

Connacht

1. Billy Bohan (Loosehead Prop) - He was key in getting parity in the scrums for Connacht and also put in 10 tackles. A solid game from him.

2. Dylan Tierney-Martin (Hooker) - He held his own in the scrum and had nice arrows, put in 10 tackles, carried 15m and broke the line and got an assist. A decent game from him.

3. Darragh Murray (2nd Row) - He helped secure Connacht's own line-outs and put in 15 tackles with 1 being dominant in a decent defensive game.

4. Cian Prendergast (Back Row) - He put in 15 tackles (1 being dominant), carried 20m and got a nice try. A decent game from him.

5. Shamus Hurley-Langton (Back Row) - He put in 15 tackles, carried 5m and broke the line. A solid game from him.

6. Paul Boyle (Back Row) - He put in 15 tackles (1 being dominant), carried 35m and got the better of 2 defenders. A decent game from him.

7. Matthew Devine (Scrum-Half) - He carried 25m, broke the line and got past 2 defenders with decent kicks and nice ruck speed. A decent cameo from him.

8. Ben Murphy (Scrum-Half) - He carried 35m and got past 2 defenders with decent kicks and ruck speed. A solid game from him.

Munster

1. Alex Kendellan (Back Row) - He put in 5 tackles (1 being dominant), got a turnover and carried 15m. A solid cameo from him given the circumstances.

Also a mention to Alex Nankivell who put up insane stats for a team that lost by over 30pts.

Leinster

1. Alex Usanov (Loosehead Prop) - He retained the scrum for Leinster and got parity in scrums.

2. Gus McCarthy (Hooker) - He got a turnover, carried 10m and got a nice try. A decent cameo from him.

3. Diarmuid Mangan (Back Row) - He got a turnover, carried 20m and broke the line. A good cameo from him.

4. Scott Penny (Back Row) - He put in 5 tackles, got a turnover, carried 15m, broke the line and got a try. A good game from him.

5. Sam Prendergast (Fly-Half) - He put in 5 tackles, got a turnover, carried 80m, broke the line and got 3 assists and an intercept try as well with good link-up play and kicks. An excellent game from him.

6. Jimmy O'Brien (Utility Back) - He got a turnover, carried 55m, broke the line 3 times, got past 2 defenders and got 2 assists and a nice try. A good game from him.