The Allianz Hurling League is back. Did you miss it? We'll take your shrugging silence as a yes.
The league has always been the bridesmaid but has felt more like the auntie’s friend at the afters since the most recent format change in 2020, and introduction of the split-season two years later. Only relegating one team from 12 meant little danger for contenders who chose to train heavily or experiment regardless of results, and seven games in nine weeks (followed by a three-week break to championship) seemed of questionable benefit to the sides that made the final. Especially after Waterford and Cork got to the 2022 decider then underwhelmed in Munster.
Last year’s league finalists – Limerick and Kilkenny – did also make the All-Ireland final, the first time that happened since 2014, but the Treaty took longer to get into their stride in Munster, losing to Clare and drawing with Tipperary after just about getting over Waterford. The third of their now four titles in a row, in 2022, came after a league campaign that yielded only one win, over Offaly.
So, the jury is still out on whether league success is a help or a hindrance so close to the intense provincial round-robins but one thing we do know is that the stakes are a little higher this spring.
The current Division 1 format of two equal divisions of six teams will change next year – to two divisions of seven, ranked on merit, and two teams promoted/relegated between them. Logic would suggest you call these Divisions 1 and 2 but the 1A and 1B tags have been retained, presumably in the hope that counties won’t even notice they are no longer in the top tier. The old 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B will merge into Divisions 2, 3 and 4.
In 2025, Division 1A will comprise the top three from Group A and B this year, plus the fourth-placed team with the best record, the loser going to 1B.
If the new system had come in this year, the line-up would be:
1A: Cork, Clare, Kilkenny, Galway, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford.
1B: Antrim, Dublin, Kildare, Laois, Offaly, Wexford, Westmeath.
It’s not unfair to suggest that a team with All-Ireland ambitions would rather be testing themselves against those in 1A; only Dublin reached a quarter-final from the second group last year and it hasn’t provided a finalist since Offaly in 2000.
Galway (2017) and Limerick (2018) both won Liam MacCarthy from a lower division but that was under the previous bizarre system of quarter-finals that allowed them to play 1A opposition in the knockout stages. This year will be the last of semi-finals, with divisional deciders only from 2025.
Looking at this year’s line up, one of Cork, Clare, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford would join relegation favourites Offaly in dropping down from Group A, with the fourth-placed team pitting their record against Group B’s Dublin, Galway, Limerick or Tipperary, presuming they aren’t beaten by Antrim or Westmeath. So two from those first five will likely be in 1B next season.
Everybody will at least be trying to finish in the top three then, which should make things a bit more interesting, though perhaps not to the extent of anyone actually prioritising lifting the trophy – now Waterford boss Davy Fitzgerald was aghast to be considered "mad to win the league" with Wexford in 2019.
The Model men’s Keith Rossiter is the only new manager, after a raft of changes last year, so there might be slightly less experimentation generally but the caveats of midweek Fitzgibbon Cup games and training loads still apply and offer opportunities to fresh faces.
Whether the fare will be better value for the now €20 tickets remains to be seen but the signs are encouraging that the league could have its seat back at the top table. Or at least be in the room.
ANTRIM
2023 League: Fifth in Division 1B
2023 Championship: Fifth in Leinster Hurling Championship
Opening fixture: Limerick (Away, Thurles)
Manager: Darren Gleeson (Fifth season in charge)
Captain: Conor McCann
Prospects: Last season was a relatively successful one for the Saffrons. They went from surviving the league relegation play-off in 2022 to avoiding it with their solitary win over Laois. Championship form was even more impressive as three points were secured in Leinster following the draw against Dublin and doing the double over the O'Moore men. But they have lost former talisman Neil McManus to retirement and six players (Ryan Elliott, Seaan Elliott, Joe Maskey, Keelan Molloy, Domhnall Nugent and Eoin O’Neill) are taking the year out.
Prediction: Sixth in 1B
CLARE
2023 League: Fourth in 1A
2023 Championship: Munster runners-up, All-Ireland semi-finalists
Opening fixture: Cork (Home)
Manager: Brian Lohan (Fifth season in charge)
Captain: Tony Kelly
Prospects: Clare have emerged as Limerick’s closest challengers (in Munster at least) over the last two seasons but have done so while not seeming overly concerned about the league. They were fifth in 1A with three points from five games in 2022, and slightly improved that to five points and fourth last spring. Shane O’Donnell has been candid that skipping it altogether has allowed him to stay committed for the summer and Lohan’s main interest apart from fitness is likely to be whether anyone puts their hand up for a place in his championship XV. Fourth in 1A might not be enough to stay up and Tony Kelly could get a run-out if they reach the knockout stages, but there are bigger fish to fry.
Prediction: Fourth in 1A
CORK
2023 League: First in 1A, Lost to Kilkenny in semi-final
2023 Championship: Fourth in Munster
Opening fixture: Clare (Away)
Manager: Pat Ryan (Second season in charge)
Captain: Sean O'Donoghue
Prospects: Ryan’s first championship campaign was an underwhelming one on paper but it shouldn’t be forgotten that Cork finished only one point short of a draw at the Gaelic Grounds that would have put them into the Munster final ahead of Limerick and knocked Tipperary out. The league offers a chance to blood more of the latest crop of under-20 champions (third in four years) and given their other away fixtures are Offaly and Wexford it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them back in the knockout stages. Veteran forwards Conor Lehane (31), Seamus Harnedy (33) and Patrick Horgan (35) are all back on board but Alan Cadogan has retired. Declan Dalton is out for most of the league with a broken foot but Tim O’Mahony and Alan Connolly should make an appearance. Ending that 19-year trophy drought would be welcome, even if it's third on the list.
Prediction: Second in 1A
DUBLIN
2023 League: Fourth in 1B
2023 Championship: Third in Leinster
Opening fixture: Tipperary (Home)
Manager: Micheál Donoghue (Second season in charge)
Captain: Paddy Smyth
Prospects: A comfortable mid-table finish this time last year as 2017 All-Ireland-winning boss Donoghue got to grips with his new side. They overcame the early blip of that draw with Antrim in Leinster to qualify third but were thrashed by Clare in the quarter-finals. The Galway man might want to build a bit of winning momentum now but they will need to get out of the blocks quickly with home against Tipp and Limerick in the first three weeks and he might settle for securing a 1A spot next year. Dónal Burke has recovered from a bad hamstring injury and there are hopes Chris Crummey will rejoin the panel as Cian Boland, Andrew Dunphy, Aidan Mellett and Chris O’Leary take a year out.
Prediction: Fourth in 1B
GALWAY
2023 League: Third in 1A
2023 Championship: Leinster finalists, All-Ireland semi-finalists
Opening fixture: Westmeath (Home)
Manager: Henry Shefflin (Third season in charge)
Captain: Conor Whelan
Prospects: It feels like a defining year for Galway after a second successive All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Limerick but one in which they were blown away in the second half and appeared to have regressed. Shefflin’s disappointment was plain to see afterwards and it wouldn’t have been a huge surprise if he had walked away but you don’t get to be hurling’s most decorated player without an appetite for a challenge. And they would have won Leinster but for Cillian Buckley’s last-gasp winner. It is time for some of the younger guard to stake a claim on the 2017 survivors’ starting spots and the league offers opportunities with the triumphant St Thomas’ contingent presumably taking a break.
Prediction: Third in 1B
KILKENNY
2023 League: Second in 1B, Runners-up
2023 Championship: Leinster champions, All-Ireland runners-up
Opening fixture: Wexford (Home)
Manager: Derek Lyng (Second season in charge)
Captain: Paddy Deegan
Prospects: A season of transition would have been forgiven after 24 years of Brian Cody but Derek Lyng hit the ground running and led the Cats straight back to the All-Ireland final. The end result was a much heavier nine-point defeat to Limerick than in 2022 (two) but expectations will still be high that they can end what is now a nine-year wait for Liam.
Following the retirements of Richie Hogan and Padraig Walsh, six of that class of 2015 remain, including the great TJ Reid, recently turned 36. They have a relatively young team otherwise: Eoin Cody, David Blanchfield and Mikey Butler are still just 23, Adrian Mullen and Mikey Carey 24. Billy Drennan was the find of last year’s league and should be prominent again having missed most of championship through injury. Reid will be used sparingly in the league, where the path to the knock-out stages looks trickier this year given trips to Cork, Clare and Waterford.
Prediction: First in 1A
LIMERICK
2023 League: Second in 1A, Champions
2023 Championship: Winners (Fourth title in a row)
Opening fixture: Antrim (Home)
Manager: John Kiely (Eighth season in charge)
Captain: Declan Hannon
Prospects: Eh, decent. No matter how little they care to discuss it, Limerick are hot favourites to go one step further than Cody’s great Kilkenny side of 2006-09 and become the first five-in-a-row All-Ireland hurling champions. Not that it’s a foregone conclusion. Two brilliant second halves in July at Croke Park secured Liam MacCarthy again last summer but their fifth consecutive Munster title was too close for comfort after defeat to Clare and a draw with Tipperary. The starting XV has also barely changed since 2020, or 2018 for that matter, but after Nickie Quaid (34) and Graeme Mulcahy (33), only Declan Hannon (31) is older than 30.
They won every game in the league last year after the opening single-point defeat to Cork but might revert to the mid-competition training schedule of 2022 after their slow start to championship and weather-enforced meagre January action.
Prediction: Second in 1B
OFFALY
2023 League: Second in 2A, Promoted as champions
2023 Championship: Joe McDonagh Cup runners-up
Opening fixture: Waterford (Home)
Manager: Johnny Kelly (Second season in charge)
Captain: Jason Sampson
Prospects: Offaly have been inching closer to a return to top-table hurling since the low point of relegation to the third championship tier for 2020 and were edged out by Carlow by a single point last May in a dramatic Joe McDonagh decider, which proved all-time leading scorer Shane Dooley’s final game. They did manage to bounce straight back to Division 1 after relegation in 2022 but are in the tougher of the two groups and gaining any points would be an achievement unless they can catch one of one of the more established teams on the hop.
But building for another assault on the Joe Mc will be the focus in any case. Johnny Kelly could give a run to some of the players that were runners-up to Cork in last year’s U20 final and remain eligible this year, such as Dan Bourke, Cathal King, Donal Shirley, Adam Screeney and Charlie Mitchell, who featured in the Walsh Cup. Sam Bourke, Joe Hoctor, Charlie Mitchell and Luke Watkins are now seniors only with Mitchell having established himself as a starter last year.
Prediction: Sixth in 1A
TIPPERARY
2023 League: First in 1B, Lost to Limerick in semi-final
2023 Championship: Third in Munster, All-Ireland quarter-finalists
Opening fixture: Dublin (Away)
Manager: Liam Cahill (Second season in charge)
Captain: Ronan Maher
Prospects: Tipperary and Liam Cahill have a point to prove after a desperately disappointing finish to 2023. They lost by six points to an already eliminated Waterford in Munster with a final place on offer, and would have gone out altogether if Cork had secured the draw against Limerick. After racking up a record score against Offaly - as now retired great Seamus Callanan scored his 40th championship goal - they were flattered to get within two of Galway in the quarters.
Tipp were the only side with a 100% record in the league group stage last year but the question is whether Cahill will ease off the early-year intensity after Tipp appeared to emulate his Waterford team of 2022 in running out of gas during the summer.
The full-back role seems to still be under consideration, with Ronan Maher, appointed for a second stint as captain this week, tried there in recent challenge games as well as last year’s incumbent Michael Breen. Niall O’Meara has also retired.
Prediction: First in 1B
WATERFORD
2023 League: Third in 1B
2023 Championship: Fifth in Munster
Opening fixture: Offaly (Away)
Manager: Davy Fitzgerald (Second season in charge)
Captains: Jamie Barron and Stephen Bennett
Prospects: A crunch year ahead for the Déise, who failed to get the customary 'Davy bounce’ in Fitzgerald’s first season back in the saddle last year. In Munster, a narrow loss to Limerick raised expectations but heavy defeats to Cork and Clare followed before that face-saving victory over Tipperary at Semple Stadium. The loss of Austin Gleeson, Shane McNulty and Conor Gleeson, who are all taking a year out, is a blow and Iarlaith Daly’s participation remains uncertain due to college commitments.
However, Calum Lyons and Neil Montgomery are back from travelling, as are Kieran and Shane Bennett. Ballygunner’s All-Ireland pre-Christmas semi-final exit should be a benefit for the league campaign, given their seven players involved, as will returning to play in the developed Walsh Park.
Some victories would be morale-boosting before they welcome the Rebels for round one of Munster and staying in the top tier seems more important than for some of their rivals. Three home games, against Clare, Wexford and Kilkenny, might help in that respect.
Prediction: Third in 1A
WESTMEATH
2023 League: Sixth in 1A, beat Laois in relegation play-off
2023 Championship: Sixth in Leinster (relegated)
Opening fixture: Galway (Away)
Manager: Joe Fortune (Third season in charge)
Captain: Tommy Doyle
Prospects: The Lake County produced the shock of the championship last year in that incredible 19-point turnaround Leinster victory over Wexford but still ended up relegated after a dramatic day when they where thumped by Antrim and the Model Men upset already final-bound Kilkenny. The focus this year will therefore be on battling Down, Kerry, Laois, Meath and Offaly in the Joe McDonagh and some tough top-tier league action might help to that effect.
Fourth would be a feat to match last summer’s win but they might settle for gaining revenge over the Saffrons in the penultimate round. Fortune is currently without a dozen of last year’s squad through injury, absence and retirement; Darragh Egerton and Niall Mitchell were the only holdovers in the Walsh Cup defeat to Dublin.
Prediction: Fifth in 1B
WEXFORD
2023 League: Fifth in 1A
2023 Championship: Fourth in Leinster
Opening fixture: Kilkenny (Away)
Manager: Keith Rossiter (First season in charge)
Captain: Lee Chin
Prospects: A season of renewal for the Yellowbellies after a disappointing 2023 campaign and the departure of Darragh Egan. Championship relegation was avoided with that last-gasp defeat of Kilkenny but there were few other positives as they failed to qualify from Leinster for the first time since the introduction of the round-robin. Keith Rossiter, former Wexford defender and coach to Davy Fitzgerald, has taken the reigns and has already had the positives of a Walsh Cup win and star man Lee Chin finishing the pre-season final against Galway despite picking up a knock.
In the absence of more established players, Cian Byrne, Corey Byrne-Dunbar, James Byrne and Richie Lawlor could be set for a run while Rossiter will choose between Aaron Duggan, Mark Fanning and James Lawlor in goal after each got a game in pre-season. They had the edge on Kilkenny in January but the trip to UPMC Nowlan Park is a tougher test.
Prediction: Fifth in 1A
