There's a real element of the unknown to this year's Leinster and Munster Hurling Championships. Rather than the traditional straight knockout rounds, both provinces now have round robin formats.
The new system was first proposed last summer and then passed by Congress in late September.
In a column for RTÉ during the week, eight-time All-Ireland winner with Kilkenny, Richie Power, called the new championship structures "a knee-jerk reaction to the introduction of the Super 8s in football".
That is a statement with which Offaly manager Kevin Martin agrees.
"He could be right there," Martin said at the Leinster Hurling Championship launch
To be honest myself, I think it’s a bit mad. Possibly they should have had two rounds, a break of a week, then another two rounds because players are going to get injured.
My thing about it was if a player tore a hamstring in the first round, they are gone for the next three. It’s a tough one but it is what it is and we’re going to have to face into it.
Offaly and Wexford face a particularly tough schedule: four games in three weeks. The other three teams in Leinster do not have a run of four consecutive games.
"A knee-jerk reaction is the proper word for it. It’s going to generate more revenue, there’s no doubt about it.
"The games are going to be intense but if things don’t go right for teams as regards injuries it’ll be the team with the biggest, strongest panel that going to come out at the end of it.
"We are the minnows of our championship, it’s going to be hard on us if we do pick up a lot of injuries, fingers crossed."
Offaly get their Leinster Championship underway on May 12th against Galway in Tullamore. Martin thinks he may be short one or two personnel for that game - there are a number of injuries to sort out before his side are primed for action.
The possibility that a player could be up an injury which in previous years might have meant him missing out on a single game but could now lead to him missing an entire championship makes Martin think the structure could be tweaked.
"That’s why it’s cruel to have the four games one after the other. A lad gets a serious enough injury in the first game, he’s after training all year to play maybe one game and miss the rest so I think it’s going to be changed for next year."
Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile
