Leinster Cats

Today Kilkenny signed off on the tenth championship campaign of Brian Cody's reign as manager with their sixth All-Ireland title since the start of the century, and their thirty first overall. The ten years under Cody have been remarkable for many reasons, including Kilkenny's first three-in-a row since before Jim Larkin's lockout, Kilkenny's first ever possession of the title of exclusive leader of hurling's roll of honour (a title Cork held since they passed Tipperary in the middle year of their most recent triplet of titles in the late 1970's), the accumulation of the joint highest score in a hurling final (3-30 today matched Cork's 6-21 in 1970, although Cork did have an extra 10 minutes to build their tally in the first 80 minute All-Ireland final), the most savage beating on All-Ireland final day since 1896 (today's 23 point excess fell short of Dublin's deficit when they managed only 0-4 in response to Tipperary's impressive 8-14), and finally the first occasion of one county taking six titles in a calendar decade (Cork picked up Liam McCarthy 5 times in the 1940's helped by future Taoiseach Jack Lynch and legend Christy Ring).

All incredible achievements which legitimatly lead to calls for this team to be recognised as the best of all time, and who, in fairness could argue with that.

I write this short note, however, in defence of the Leinster Hurling Championship, a championship whose death is called for on the basis that it is dominated by one county - Kilkenny having won all but one of the Leinster =Championships in Cody's 10 year spell in charge. It is true that Kilkenny rarely lose in Leinster, but then it should also be clear from the first paragraph above that Kilkenny rarely lose at all. Comparisons with the Munster Championship are unfair - no one ever called for its abolition when it was dominated by one team as it was by Cork when they won 10 of the 12 Munster titles between 1975 and 1986. Certainly the Munster Championship is more competitive, but then Kilkenny don't participate in that particular competition. If they did then their national domination would probably be repeated in the southern province. During Cody's 10 years Kilkenny have only been beaten in Championship on two occasions by Munster teams (both times were against Cork on All-Ireland final day - 1999 and 2004). Kilkenny have lost three other Championship matches in that time - to Galway in the All-Ireland semi-finals of 2001 and 2005, and to Wexford in the Leinster semi-final in 2004. Kilkenny have beaten Munster teams on 14 occasions over that time. Fourteen! Four times Kilkenny beat Cork, four times thay beat Clare, twice that beat Limerick, twice for Waterford, and twice for Tipperary. There is little validity then in the argument that the Leinster Championship is for the scrap heap unless the same argument is made for the All-Ireland championship - which of course it could not be.

Critics argue that the remaining teams in Leinster don't make for a competition that is as strong as Munster's version, but it should also be noted that of the 54 ties between Leinster and Munster teams in the past 10 championships the Leinster team has won on 19 occasions - 35% of the time. Definitely a minority, but hardly a startling domination by Munster.

Next year may well see the introduction of teams from outside Leinster into the Leinster Hurling Championship. So be it. For the purposes of hurling development it is interesting to see changes made over time - we have seen this for some time with the format of the qualifiers. Let it be seen as that however, not as a concession to those who rate Munster hurling above that of the eastern province. Leinster hurling is strong and dominated. Munster hurling is strong and balanced.

Next year brings novelty and experimentation in the format of the championship, but likely no change in the outcome. The winners will be from Leinster, and they'll be wearing black and amber.