The 2008 National Hurling League, known for sponsorship reasons as the

Allianz Allianz ( , ) is a German multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. The company is one of the world's largest insurers and financial services groups. The ...

National Hurling League, was the 77th edition of the

National Hurling League The National Hurling League is an annual Inter county, inter-county hurling competition featuring teams from Ireland and England. Founded in 1925 by the Gaelic Athletic Association, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation within the l ...

(NHL), an annual

hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

competition for the

GAA county teams A county is a geographic region within Gaelic games, controlled by a county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and originally based on the 32 counties of Ireland as they were in 1884. While the administrative geography of Ireland has ...

Tipperary Tipperary is the name of: Places *County Tipperary, a county in Ireland **North Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Nenagh **South Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Clonmel *Tipperary (town), County Tipperary's na ...

won the league, beating

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

in the final. The tournament saw the first appearance of

Fingal Fingal ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is one of three successor counties to County Dublin, which was disestablished for administrative purposes in 1994. ...

and South Down as "county" teams in the NHL.

Format

The 2008 format of the National Hurling League was a new system consisting of four divisions. There are thirty-four teams competing: Divisions One and Two have twelve teams in each, and there are five teams in Divisions Three and Four.

Division One

Division One is made up of two groups of six teams. Each team plays all the others in their group once. The two group winners receive a semi-final spot; second and third in each group play in the quarter-finals. The winners of the final are the 2008 NHL champions.

Division Two

Division Two is made up of two groups of six teams. Each team plays all the others in their group once. The top two in each group enter the semi-finals.

Division Three

Five teams play in Division Three. Each team plays all the others once. The top two teams contest the Division Three final.

Division Four

Five teams play in Division Four. Each team plays all the others once. The top two teams contest the Division Four final.

Division 1A

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

came into the season as defending champions of the 2007 season.

Laois County Laois ( ; gle, Contae Laoise) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medie ...

entered Division 1 as the promoted team. On 20 April 2008,

won the title after a 3-18 to 3-16 win over

. It was their first league title since 2001 and their 19th National League title overall.

Wexford Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 N ...

, Antrim,

and

Offaly County Offaly (; ga, Contae Uíbh Fhailí) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Uí Failghe. It was formerly known as King's County, in hono ...

were the bottom-placed teams of their respective groups and were relegated to a newly-structured Division 2 for the 2009 league. Galway's

Ger Farragher Ger Farragher (born 10 June 1983) is an Irish sportsman. He played in the forward line on the Galway senior hurling team. He plays his club hurling with Castlegar. Farragher was born in Galway in 1983 and has had much success in the game of ...

was the Division 1 top scorer with 4-53. Tipperary's Brendan Cummins and Galway's

James Skehill James Skehill (born 22 February 1988) is an Irish hurler who plays as a goalkeeper for club side Cappataggle and previously at inter-county level with the Galway senior hurling team. Playing career University During his studies at the Limeri ...

were the top goalkeepers having kept 3 clean sheets.

Structure

A total of 12 teams contested the top division of the league, including 11 sides from the 2006 season and one promoted from the 2006 National League Division 2. On 29 April 2007, Laois earned promotion from the 2007 National League Division 2 after a one-year absence from the top flight. They were crowned Division 2 champions after beating

Wicklow Wicklow ( ; ga, Cill Mhantáin , meaning 'church of the toothless one'; non, Víkingaló) is the county town of County Wicklow in Ireland. It is located south of Dublin on the east coast of the island. According to the 2016 census, it has ...

. They replaced Down who were relegated to Division 2 at the end of the previous season. The 12 teams in Division 1 were divided into two groups of six team - 1A and 1B. Each team played all the others in its group once, earning 2 points for a win and 1 for a draw. The first-placed teams in 1A and 1B advanced to the league semi-finals. The second and third-placed teams in 1A and 1B advanced to the league quarter-finals.

Division 1A table

Group stage

Division 1B

Division 1B table

Group stage

Division 1 Knockout

Play-off Quarter-finals Semi-finals Final

Top scorers

;Overall ;Single game ;Clean sheets

Division 2

Division 2A

Division 2B

Results

Knock-out stage

Division 3

Knock-out stage

Division 4

Knock-out stage

2009 structure

*Division One (8 teams) to consist of the top four teams in each of 1A and 1B in 2008. *Division Two (8 teams) to consist of the fifth- and sixth-placed in each of 1A and 1B, and the top two teams in each of 2A and 2B, in 2008. *Division Three (12 teams) to consist of the 3rd-6th teams in each of 2A and 2B, and the top four in Division 3, in 2008. *Division Four (6 teams) to consist of fifth-placed team in Division 3, and all teams in Division 4

References

External links

2008 Fixtures
* * * * {{GAA 2008 National Hurling League seasons