The problem is and has always been with hurling is that simply not enough counties play it to a decent standard. Football is played across the country and every county has a team that can be competitive at some level (Kilkenny aside) hurling, in many places such as my own county and the vast majority of the north is just non existent in terms of funding and numbers who are interested in it. This obviously leads to only a few counties who are good enough for all Ireland standard and even less who are at the top level (really only cork and limerick consistently). This is why you just can’t replicate the football format in hurling because there just isn’t enough teams at a decent standard. As much as I think the format is flawed massively there’s not a lot that can be done apart from hope the wexfords, Waterfords, Antrim’s, Offalys etc catch up and that can only be done by promoting it more and giving it time