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From The Irish Independent
Tuesday, 8th July, 2008
HDC'S PROPOSAL A
l Leinster (+ Galway) and Munster play their championships as a round-robin. Every team would be guaranteed two 'home' games and each province would have more games with more at stake because there would be no replays and points would decide placings.
l The provincial finals would be retained. The champions would go straight to the All-Ireland semi-finals and the losers would go to All-Ireland quarter-finals where they'd meet the top two finishers in the second-tier competition.
l The latter is designed to give 'second-tier' teams a chance to compete in the Liam McCarthy, and, as an added incentive to agree to this system, they would be given a financial and coaching package to improve standards.
HDC's PROPOSAL B
l Galway and Antrim would go into a seven-team 'Leinster Championship.'
l The Munster and Leinster Championships would be knock-out competitions as usual but the losers of the first round in each province would go into a group that would also play-off and eventually produce a winner.
l The provincial champions would go to the All-Ireland semi-finals and the beaten quarter-finalists would go to All-Ireland quarter-finals. There they would meet the two eventual winners of the 'loser's groups.'
THERE'S ALWAYS C ALTERNATIVE PROPOSAL
This has still to be revealed but if they plumped for a full 'champions league' format the GAA would have to agree to sacrifice the provincial championships for the sake of producing an ultra-competitive elite competition with massive promotional potential.
l Crossing provinces and seeding, if necessary, two groups of the country's top 12 hurling teams would produce an ultra-competitive All-Ireland competition.
l The first stages could be home/away round-robin. Imagine a first round that featured Kilkenny v Cork in Nowlan Park, Tipperary v Wexford in Wexford Park and Galway v Clare in Salthill, with no replays and every point to count.
l It could still feed through to knock-out stages, from All-Ireland quarter-finals. Additional excitement could be added with the addition of a 'draw' after each knockout stage.
l To do this Munster and Leinster would have to give up their prestigious provincial championships, or at least the use of them as All-Ireland feeders.
l And weaker counties would have to accept that they are not part of the hurling elite and have no part to play in it until they can prove otherwise.
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