By John Fogarty
Those Gaels suspicious about all things Dublin would have perceived something of a “save Dublin hurling” campaign in the media over the last few days.
Anthony Cunningham’s comments about Anthony Daly’s side being too good to go down appeared to set the ball rolling for others to take on.
From league champions to relegation, their league fortunes couldn’t be more contrasting but it would be pushing it a bit to suggest there was a call to change the structure of the competition for Dublin’s sake.
The criticisms of the league system were aired long before Dublin got into bother.
The lack of games, the lack of experimentation, the lack of gate receipts for teams with only two home fixtures.
However, one wonders whether there would have been such an outcry had Galway and not Dublin dropped out of Division 1A.
But just how long will Dublin remain in Division 1B?
Not too long, it would appear, regardless of whether they gain promotion next season.
As GAA director general Páraic Duffy intimated yesterday, there is likely to be changes in 2014.
Former Cork star hurler John Fenton is a member of the Hurling Development Committee which devised the current model.
He readily admits it was never the be-all and end-all, but a bridge to increasing competition and eventually augmenting the top group.
“That had always been the intention, always been the aim of the committee,” said the Midleton man.
“Things will help even more now that Liam O’Neill has become GAA president.
“He was instrumental in bringing this play forward and it was always his intention to see more teams competing in the top flight.
“What we want to do is get as many teams up there competing.
"There’s no point in having them there if they can’t sustain it over two or three years.
“We need teams to be comfortable in their own ability and competitive.”
Fenton feels Dublin were incredibly unlucky to have gone down after pushing Kilkenny hard in Nowlan Park and narrowly missing out on wins against Cork and Tipperary.
However, he feels it can act as a motivation for them going into the Leinster championship.
“In some ways it might drive them on in the championship. Dublin changed their plan this year where last year they had a serious cut off the league.
“They probably surprised themselves that they won it and then they didn’t fare as well as they would have wanted in the championship.
“They were unlucky this year. Only a puck of a ball separated them from winning on a few occasions. It could have easily been a semi-final they were looking forward to and not a relegation play-off.
“They’ll be disappointed to have been relegated but I think it’s going to make them even more of a serious threat in the championship.”
However, Fenton doesn’t go as far as expressing sympathy for Dublin. They knew what the stakes were, he insists.
While he is adamant the current, albeit temporary structure has proven to be a success.
“Both Galway and Dublin said they’d all love for Dublin to stay up but they are the competition rules and everyone knew what they were before it started.
“It would be great to see all the top counties in the top flight but this year we have seen a very competitive league and that’s the general acceptance. There have been no runaway fixtures.
“There’s no point like the last couple of years seeing teams going down a division after being beaten by 10 or 15 points each time.
“There have been fewer games this year but they have been of better quality. You only had to see Clare last weekend putting up a credible performance against Kilkenny for three-quarters of the game to realise the difference it’s making.
“They are Division 1B champions and they can be very heartened by their performance.
“So it’s about quality over quantity and it’s working.”
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/q1Ym_G3__ek/post.aspx
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