It’s great to have live GAA back and be able to follow our counties progress with the National League.
There was a time at the start of the year that we thought we might not have the league at all and would have to wait for the championship.
Thankfully, however, we are into the league now but after starting with a bang it will die out on a whimper.
The reason for that is mainly because there are no finals in some of the divisions this year as everything had to be re-jigged because of Covid-19 restrictions.
Former Kilkenny hurler Brian Hogan says we shouldn’t read much into the league games this year because at the end of the day the main focus is on the championship.
“They were going to be glorified challenge matches and you don’t want to fall into running the risk of reading too much into the games and reading too much into the form,” said Brian.
“They’ll really bear no resemblance to the championship when it comes to it, I think as the league moves on you’ll see more of the teams kind of experimenting, looking at other players and giving the panel a run,” he told the Clash Act podcast.
Kilkenny
In Kilkenny’s Division which is 1B, you’ve got six in the group and six teams then in Roinn 1A.
The format this year means that quarter-finals and semi-finals will not be played in 2021, each team to play five ordinary rounds within their group.
There is no Roinn 1 League Final scheduled either, there will be either joint winners for 2021, or if the
teams that win Roinn 1A and Roinn 1B meet in the Championship, this will double as a league final.
A relegation play-off between the 6th placed team in Group A and Group B will take place with the loser relegated to Roinn 2A.
Also, as this is year two of a two-year cycle, the structure below will be used to allocate the teams for the 2022 & 2023 Allianz Hurling League Roinn 1.
Division 1 – Group A
1st Placed team 2021 Div 1A
4th Placed team 2021 Div 1A
5th Placed team 2021 Div 1A
2nd placed team 2021 Div 1B
3rd placed team 2021 Div 1B
Promoted Div 2A team
Division 1 – Group B
2nd placed team 2021 Div 1A
3rd placed team 2021 Div 1A
Winner of Div 1 Rel Play-Off
1st Placed team 2021 Div 1B
4th placed team 2021 Div 1B
5th placed team 2021 Div 1B
Carlow
Carlow is in Division 2A of the hurling league this year.
They’re in a group with Down, Meath, Kerry, Wicklow, and Offaly.
So each team will play five ordinary rounds.
The top placed team wins the division and promoted to Roinn 1, and replace the loser of the Roinn 1 Relegation Play-off
The team that finished in 6th place is relegated to Roinn 2B.
