Thought we'd look at the runners and riders and work out a general power ranking from the main contenders to those who will be fighting for survival this year.
First off it's worth noting that the hurling championships this year have been restructured to get rid of the BYE weeks, which sometimes saw teams with a gap of 6 weeks between games if they qualified for the semi-finals automatically and thebye week fell on the last round.
The whole think will hopefully have more of a balanced feel to it with everyone playing each round.
https://www.dublingaa.ie/news/new-dublin-adult-hurling-championships-structure-confirmed
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In SHC 1 the previous year’s finalists shall be seeded one to each group.
After the round robin competition, the top four placed teams in each group will qualify for quarter finals with 1st in group A playing 4th in group B, 2nd in group A playing 3rd in group B and vice versa.
Relegation will be decided as follows: Team finishing 5th in each group will playoff against the team finishing 6th in the opposite group with the two losing teams relegated.
The winner of SHC 1 shall represent Dublin in the Leinster Senior Hurling Club Championship.
So for the Power rankings, we'll look at current AHL position and then also take into account how teams did last year.
For me the two main contenders are fairly obvious, in fact, it'd be a major surprise to see anyone other then these two win the competition out, but then Vincents came very close to causing an upset in the knockout stages, pushing NaFinna really close before they went on to win the SHC and go on to win Leinster and the All Ireland.
Worth mentioning in that amazing run, Crokes were in a very winnable position in the final,l only for Na Fianna to complete an amazing comeback to clinch the game with the help of this goal from Ciaran Stacy:
anyways with all of that in mind, here's my power rankings for 2025 - an di don't know who is gone away for the summer or who is playing for the clubs in the AHL as we basically have no local media anymore so only get the reports from eh Dublin County Board who are living off snippets of information given by the clubs, which is a real unsatisfactory situation really when you see the coverage other counties get for league games.
As reigning county, provincial and all-Ireland champions, they can only be ranked in the top spot.
Under new management which will make things slightly more complicated.
Several key players will return to their lineup, you'd imagine, after a patchy enough league, I'd say the league was all about trying things out with the lads missing with the county panel, so I wouldn't read too much into their 4th place currently.
Sean Currie is playing really well for the Dubs after a brilliant season with his club last year. Donal Burke wasn't fully fit for the Dubs, but with another couple of weeks behind him, he could be close enough to start in round 1.
Ciaran Stacy was pivotal in the run last year so hopefully he is around again. he linked up so much of their play last year and used his pace to create goal chances but also to track back and turn over ball, getting tackles in and making it hard for teams to clear their lines.
AJ and Colin Currie didn't get much of a run with the Dubs, but both had very good campaigns last year in the All-Ireland win. Seems to be flying at minor in the league as well, so more talent coming through.
Hopefully, McHigh isn't out for too long,g as he was also pivotal in their run last year.
Will really feel they blew the final last year and there's some perit in that, really, reverting to a 1 man FF line when you were playing really well was asking for trouble and NAF capitalised on it brilliantly.
Will have Ronan Hayes in better form then he has been in for some time added to team that is top of the league with 2 games in hand with 7 wins 1 draw and only 1 loss all spring.
Should hopefully have the two Purcell's back from injury added to the other Dub 20s and Senior panelists in Conal O'Riain, David Lucey and Brendan Kenny.
With a mostly fully fit team sheet, they could have a FF line of Considine, Hayes and Purcell, something like that will take some beating, even by NaFianna.
Tricky to know who to rank next, between the next tier of clubs (Cuala, Lucan, Boden and Vincents). Lucan are second in the league, so I've put them next, but really, there's little or nothing between this group. Lucan beat Whitehall pretty well in the 1/4 final last year and then failed to raise a gallop at all v Crokes in the semi-final. They've had some very good results underage over the last few years, at some stage, they need to really drive on at senior.
Seems to struggle to produce enough top-quality forwards, but in Coffey, Dolwing, Harkness and Keher they have a group who shoud be able to cause most teams problems. I'm probably forgetting someone as well.
Again, nothing between Cuala and Boden/Vincents, but if Cuala have everyone available, I think they have potentially a very strong spine to the team and some good scoring forwards. Heard some of the older brigade are back so that should bolster their competitiveness.
I know they were in relegation last year but it feels like that was due to being in the group of death last spring with NAF, Crokes and Lucan. In Grourke, Jamie Conroy and Liam Murphy have some very good youngish players coming through.
A poor 7th position in AHL 1 currently it's hard to know what to make of Boden currently, will always be there about but seem well off the pace of the top teams the last while relying on McMorrow still and their tipp import Gleeson was their main threat last year from what i saw - not even sure if he is still with them?
Came second in the easier of the groups last year but conceded 30 scores to NAFianna in the knockout stage.
Have had very few really stand-out players on Dublin underage teams over the last while, which is slightly worrying that they're not about to turn the corner anytime soon.
Not sure who has replaced Pat Gilroy in charge of voncents but they've really missed Hegdo over the course of the league, where they're currently sitting in 10th spot, which if they take that form into SHC1 will make a mockery of this ranking.
Someone told me Rian McBride might be going back to Oz but not sure if he'll be around for the SHC1 - it would be a big loss if he's not available. Hopefully Darrach will be at least. Again, a very solid team but it feels like they're struggling to develop scoring forwards outside Hedgo.
Hoping Conor Nolan will have a good year and make himself an option for NOC.
I might be ranking them a bit highly but as with the previous group of teams, it's hard to separate they rest but Brigids have had a very good league (currently 5th) albeit their form has dipped the last few weeks but they should welcome COS and Dunphy into their ranks, both of who will have a big influence on things you'd imagine.
Look forward to seeing how they go.
- very hard to separate the rest given some are going well in AHL2, others struggling in AHL1 so hard to separate the formlines.
In 6th place in AHL1 is a pretty decent league, but would have been relegated last year only for the restructuring. Not sure if they'll have Danny back or not, hopefully they will. in Young Callum Graham, they have a scoring forward with a lot of potential if they can feed him enough quality ball.
Another team who should have been relegated last year, but are going well in the league, albeit at AHL2 level.
Started the league well but then their form seem to have hit the skids so they're down to 9th place in AHL1 now - on paper have some very good players, so not sure why the form has deserted them.
Struggling in AHL 1 with only 3 wins from 9 games, will welcome Paddy Doyle and Sean Gallagher back into the fold - or has Gallagher been playing the last few rounds?
I know Whitehall qualified for the play offs last year but seem to be really struggling this year at the foot of AHL2 table, albeit with 2 wins on the trot recently so maybe finding form just in time for championship.
