WHEN FORMER ALL-IRELAND winning captain David Burke made his seasonal return last weekend, he became the 36th different player to feature for Galway this year.
A little later Colm Molloy, from the Kilnadeema/Leitrim, club came on and tipped the figure to 37. Joshua Ryan was an unused sub and if manager Micheal Donoghue is brave enough to throw him some game time against Limerick this Saturday, they’ll be nudging close to 40.
Either way, it’s a hell of a lot of tweaking and tinkering in just four games. Yet it is not out of sync with hurling’s culture of spring experimentation.
Limerick have only played three games yet are already up to 31 different players used, the same as Kilkenny and Tipperary. Cork are on 32.
The only Division 1A county with less than 30 players used so far is holders Clare, on 29. The average figure across the top flight comes in at 32 players.
In football, though, where there have been five rounds already played, the average figure comes in lower, at 27.
All-Ireland holders Armagh have only played 26 different players, the same as Mayo while Donegal, Derry and Tyrone are on 27 with only two rounds to go.
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This isn’t a new phenomenon as hurling counties have consistently hit larger numbers for players used in the league in recent seasons.
Limerick, for example, went through 39 players in just six league games last year, one more than Tipp while Kilkenny and eventual champions Clare finished up on 35.
Derry won the 2024 football league, stretching their campaign to eight games, yet only looked at 27 different players. And two of those only appeared briefly as subs in a single game.
What it all points to is a hurling fraternity that places much less emphasis on picking up spring silverware than their football counterparts. For hurling managers, it’s less about picking up league points than identifying potential new players for the Championship. And unashamedly so.
“Everyone will ask you what you want to get out of the league and obviously what you are looking for is new players and looking for new players to play well and drive on,” said Cork manager Pat Ryan after watching Diarmuid Healy impress against Kilkenny last weekend.
The GAA would probably prefer to hear managers like Ryan, Donoghue and John Kiely talking about how badly they want to win the league. Sponsors Allianz certainly would.
But even a tweak in format for this season, creating a clearly identifiable top flight of seven teams and guaranteeing higher profile and tougher games, with a genuine relegation threat, doesn’t appear to have shifted mindsets about the relevance of the competition. The need to experiment still trumps the need for victory.
The hyper-competitive provincial championships, which kick in straight after the league, loom large in the hurling calendar.
It’s still a surprise that football’s representation figures are considerably lower this season, of all seasons. First, there’s the fact that, as in hurling, there were no pre-season competitions to test out players.
That should have meant more experimentation than normal in the league but it has not happened.
Only Kerry (31) from Division 1 have used more than 30 players this term. Dublin are sitting on 30 players used after five matches though manager Dessie Farrell has said a number of times that with so many retirements and departures, he’s placing as much emphasis on looking at new players as trying to win games.
That doesn’t explain the relative conservatism around the rest of the division. Four of Donegal’s 27 players have appeared for a matter of minutes as a sub in just one game, meaning Jim McGuinness has taken his team to joint top of Division 1 with a slimline group, seven of whom have started every game.
The other reason we might have expected a spike in football participants this season is the attritional nature of the new rules. Middle third players are apparently covering more acreage than before while forwards are being pushed harder in terms of the intensity and number of their dashes. Tyrone goalkeeper Niall Morgan says he’s hitting 10kms-plus per game.
If referees persist with applying the 20-second rule for kick-outs, and solo-and-go restarts become the norm, those demands will only grow. The league was barely underway when Farrell and McGuinness argued that an increase in the number of substitutes permitted would be required, to offset potential injuries and fatigue. Yet still we’re not seeing any sign of a wider spreading of the load among panellists.
Perhaps the real reason that football counties experiment less is that the competitions simply mean more to them. The Tailteann Cup element is enough to command the fullest attention of Division 2 and 3 teams throughout spring. For most Division 4 teams, the league is more important than the Championship.
It is only when you reach Division 1 that whispers of teams being happy to skip a potential league final materialise. But even then they are only whispers and if Donegal really don’t fancy contesting a league decider a week before meeting Derry in Ulster, they should probably stop trying so hard to win games.
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Winning vs finding new players: Football and hurling managers are leagues apart
WHEN FORMER ALL-IRELAND winning captain David Burke made his seasonal return last weekend, he became the 36th different player to feature for Galway this year.
A little later Colm Molloy, from the Kilnadeema/Leitrim, club came on and tipped the figure to 37. Joshua Ryan was an unused sub and if manager Micheal Donoghue is brave enough to throw him some game time against Limerick this Saturday, they’ll be nudging close to 40.
Either way, it’s a hell of a lot of tweaking and tinkering in just four games. Yet it is not out of sync with hurling’s culture of spring experimentation.
Limerick have only played three games yet are already up to 31 different players used, the same as Kilkenny and Tipperary. Cork are on 32.
The only Division 1A county with less than 30 players used so far is holders Clare, on 29. The average figure across the top flight comes in at 32 players.
In football, though, where there have been five rounds already played, the average figure comes in lower, at 27.
All-Ireland holders Armagh have only played 26 different players, the same as Mayo while Donegal, Derry and Tyrone are on 27 with only two rounds to go.
This isn’t a new phenomenon as hurling counties have consistently hit larger numbers for players used in the league in recent seasons.
Limerick, for example, went through 39 players in just six league games last year, one more than Tipp while Kilkenny and eventual champions Clare finished up on 35.
Derry won the 2024 football league, stretching their campaign to eight games, yet only looked at 27 different players. And two of those only appeared briefly as subs in a single game.
What it all points to is a hurling fraternity that places much less emphasis on picking up spring silverware than their football counterparts. For hurling managers, it’s less about picking up league points than identifying potential new players for the Championship. And unashamedly so.
“Everyone will ask you what you want to get out of the league and obviously what you are looking for is new players and looking for new players to play well and drive on,” said Cork manager Pat Ryan after watching Diarmuid Healy impress against Kilkenny last weekend.
The GAA would probably prefer to hear managers like Ryan, Donoghue and John Kiely talking about how badly they want to win the league. Sponsors Allianz certainly would.
But even a tweak in format for this season, creating a clearly identifiable top flight of seven teams and guaranteeing higher profile and tougher games, with a genuine relegation threat, doesn’t appear to have shifted mindsets about the relevance of the competition. The need to experiment still trumps the need for victory.
The hyper-competitive provincial championships, which kick in straight after the league, loom large in the hurling calendar.
It’s still a surprise that football’s representation figures are considerably lower this season, of all seasons. First, there’s the fact that, as in hurling, there were no pre-season competitions to test out players.
That should have meant more experimentation than normal in the league but it has not happened.
Only Kerry (31) from Division 1 have used more than 30 players this term. Dublin are sitting on 30 players used after five matches though manager Dessie Farrell has said a number of times that with so many retirements and departures, he’s placing as much emphasis on looking at new players as trying to win games.
That doesn’t explain the relative conservatism around the rest of the division. Four of Donegal’s 27 players have appeared for a matter of minutes as a sub in just one game, meaning Jim McGuinness has taken his team to joint top of Division 1 with a slimline group, seven of whom have started every game.
The other reason we might have expected a spike in football participants this season is the attritional nature of the new rules. Middle third players are apparently covering more acreage than before while forwards are being pushed harder in terms of the intensity and number of their dashes. Tyrone goalkeeper Niall Morgan says he’s hitting 10kms-plus per game.
If referees persist with applying the 20-second rule for kick-outs, and solo-and-go restarts become the norm, those demands will only grow. The league was barely underway when Farrell and McGuinness argued that an increase in the number of substitutes permitted would be required, to offset potential injuries and fatigue. Yet still we’re not seeing any sign of a wider spreading of the load among panellists.
Perhaps the real reason that football counties experiment less is that the competitions simply mean more to them. The Tailteann Cup element is enough to command the fullest attention of Division 2 and 3 teams throughout spring. For most Division 4 teams, the league is more important than the Championship.
It is only when you reach Division 1 that whispers of teams being happy to skip a potential league final materialise. But even then they are only whispers and if Donegal really don’t fancy contesting a league decider a week before meeting Derry in Ulster, they should probably stop trying so hard to win games.
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