Hurling's have nots - how small ball code can catch up

In the height of summer, hurling rivals football for popularity.

The big games attract similar audiences: the All-Ireland hurling final between Limerick and Kilkenny drew 1.12 million viewers on RTÉ, compared to 1.25 for the Dublin-Kerry Gaelic football decider.

The hurling semi-finals attracted crowds of 59,739 and 48,360 to Croke Park and the football last four saw 82,000 (Dublin v Monaghan and the Tailteann Cup final) and 43,192 (Derry v Kerry) visit GAA HQ.

Limerick's first Munster championship defeat in four seasons, at the hands of Clare, not being live on free-to-air TV became a topic of national debate.

But that interest in the elite level of the sport does not translate to nationwide participation, in which hurling lags behind football.

Only 11 teams play in the Leinster and Munster senior hurling championships, compared to 33 in the football provincials. Just 13 counties have won the All-Ireland hurling title - compared to 19 in football - and Laois, London and Kerry's successes came well over a century ago.

Such is the relative weakness in the small-ball code in Connacht and Ulster that their provincial championships no longer take place and Galway and Antrim (sporadically) have competed in Leinster since 2009. The second-tier Joe McDonagh finalists also enter the Liam MacCarthy competition but that is expected to change for 2024.

Sport Ireland figures suggest around 1% of the population play hurling, compared to 2% for Gaelic football. Various theories have been advanced for the disparity in numbers, from tradition to the ease of learning the game and the need for extra equipment.

A multiple All-Ireland SHC-winning selector and U21 manager with his native Kilkenny, former national hurling development manager Martin