Firstly, the venue is unbelievable. If they had put it in Casement Park, which is the home of Ulster hurling, well and good, but bringing it to Clones is a terrible snub to hurling in the province.

It's a fine ground and a good surface, but it's football territory. Most people around Clones wouldn't know what way to grip a hurley. Someone said to me that the sliotar will be flying through the football nets at the back of the goal.

I think it will look bad because I can't see a big crowd turning up and with the TV cameras there, the empty terraces will look terrible.

This system of re-admitting the beaten finalists in Leinster and Munster - I can't understand people coming back in and I've yet to meet one player who'll speak up for it. If you're not good enough on the day, that should be it.

I would also change the new league season because it's murdering club hurling in Antrim. I've always said that it will end up with an elitist band of players and that means the club, which is supposed to be the most important unit in the association, is now being treated as secondary.

Players are being caught in the middle. Their clubs want them, their counties want them and they're stuck in the middle. Their families want them as well and most hurlers tend to be young, married fellas.

You can trace these problems to why Antrim has done badly. It's not the only reason and I'm not for a moment detracting from Down's performance in the Ulster final, but players haven't been available.

I couldn't get players for the under-21s the other night (Antrim were beaten by Derry in a replayed final). The number that weren't available was scandalous. One senior club official said when it was all over: "Well, at last we can get down to the serious business".

That's the attitude that's developing to the county teams.

It's been said that standards are improved and gates are going up, but what's that going to do for us if the game gets into trouble at club level? Maybe it's too early to say yet. Maybe we're only cutting our teeth, but I can see problems.

It's not so much the loss of the semi-final place, because although we feel aggrieved, I think you have to be realistic.

Whereas Tipperary will take today for granted, Kilkenny will know that they have to be right to play Galway.

If it was a matter of dealing with the gap between Ulster and Munster or Leinster, I would agree, but instead of this two-year experiment, why not just start us in the first round and have an open draw?

Outside of the province there is no idea of the amount of work that is put into hurling in Ulster and a lot of the time, it's like banging your head off a brick wall. The trip to Croke Park used to mean so much to the people in Ulster.

My boss is hurling mad and follows the Down hurlers everywhere, but he's said that he's not going to Clones. The feeling is that not only are they rubbing our noses in it by playing the game on a Saturday, but sending us all to Clones. You might as well put up posts on Rathlin.

I feel for Down because it was such a big achievement to win this year's Ulster title. You've no idea the enthusiasm the trip to Croke Park generated and now they're not getting there because of an American football match in Croke Park.

We feel that you can draw a line between Dublin and Galway and that no one cares about what happens north of that line. It's near the end of the first year of the experiment, but it's a shambles in Ulster.