EVERY SPORT HAS its big teams. The teams that triumph with way more frequency than the opposition.
The teams that command both the adulation of their loyal fans and the weary respect/envy/hatred (delete as appropriate) of everyone else. When the roll of honour is called out, these teams sit at the top of the heap.
Some sports are monopolised by one such team i.e. the New York Yankees have almost 3 times as many titles as their nearest competitors. Other sports consist of the duopoly – in Spain’s La Liga it’s Real Madrid versus Barcelona.
And, as we all know too well, hurling has three kings – Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary.
Twelve championship seasons have passed since a county outside of the triumvirate of Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary has claimed the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
But just how dominant are the big three? I thought it would be interesting to compare the percentage of titles won by the top three teams in various sports as a rough and ready comparison:
- 76% Spanish La Liga
- 72% All-Ireland Hurling
- 54% All-Ireland Football
- 44% English Premiership
- 43% Baseball World Series
Top of the pile is the Primera Division of the Spanish La Liga. Real Madrid (31), Barcelona (20) and Atletico Madrid (9) have captured 60 of the 79 titles played for so far; that’s an impressive 76%.
Next comes hurling at 72% – the big three have won 88 All-Irelands of the 123 total.
That’s a good deal more than the 54% won by Kerry (36), Dublin (22) and Galway (9) in Gaelic Football. The top three in the English top division are Liverpool (18), Manchester United (18) and Arsenal (13) – that’s 49 titles out of 111 making 44%.
Finally Major League Baseball in the United States may be dominated by the Yankees (27) with St Louis Cardinals (10) and Oakland Athletics (9) trailing but together they make up only 43% of the 106 World Series.
What does all this tell us? Well despite being worlds apart in lots of ways, hurling and Spanish soccer are dominated by a few big teams. In theory professional sports should be a lot more competitive so the Spanish La Liga is a bit of anomaly.
After all in professional sports you can buy success. Hurling (and Gaelic football) can only achieve success through organic growth which takes a lot longer. Take a county like Laois with a hurling tradition but with very little success at the highest level. Realistically you need a 20-year plan to win the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
Start with the four- and five-year olds of today and painstakingly nurture the talent so that in 2031 Laois could be welcoming home All-Ireland winning heroes. Twenty-year plans require a lot of patience and dedication.
Does the GAA have what it takes? If not, I fear that another 20 years will pass and that 72% will have edged a bit higher.
Kevin writes at hurlingstats.com, where this post first appeared.