MEN'S HOCKEY: This is one of those weekends when you cast your mind back to last year and see what hockey almost achieved and wonder why the sport didn't get it quite right. For years now a new league structure has been sought in order to provide the top teams with the consistently best competition so that the national team can improve and qualify for World Cups and Olympic Games and generally raise the level in Ireland.
But consistently hockey has failed to deliver and what we are left with is the same old provincial-based structure.
Last season the IHA put out a proposal to change. That was good and came on the back of a number of positive proposals that the parent body had introduced. The restructuring proposal, though, was not and the clubs shot it down.
This weekend we look to Munster and ask again why there has been no change because this weekend Cork C of I face Cork Harlequins in a match that could determine who wins the league. It may only be November 10th but when 'Quinns meet C of I, it is a season-determining game.
This happens every year and is the most glaring reminder of why the game must change. The two teams are head and shoulders above the rest in Munster and most of the rest in Ireland yet they are corralled in a domestic league in which the only two games of any meaning are when they meet each other.
It is encouraging then to hear that a committee is actively engaged in drafting proposals for a restructured national league that will satisfy everyone.
The hockey Brains Trust will put the proposal to the Irish Hockey Association Board next month and then to the AGM in May.
Harlequins, and C of I above all, will be hoping that this time they get it right.
SATURDAY: Leinster Senior League: Division 1: Bray v Fingal 1.30pm Bray; Dublin University v Three Rock Rovers 1:45pm Santry; Monkstown v Railway Union 1.30pm Rathdown; Y.M.C.A. v Corinthian 2.00pm Claremont Road.
Division 2: Kilkenny v Skerries 1.00pm Kilkenny College; Navan v Avoca 2.30pm Sportslink; PSBPP v Naas 1.00pm DCU; Suttonians v Clontarf 12.00 noon Sutton Park School; Weston v U.C.D. 2.00pm The King's Hospital.
Munster Senior League: Divison One: Harlequins A v Church of Ireland A, Farmers Cross, 14.00; Church of Ireland B v UCC A, Garryduff 12.15; Catholic Institute v Harlequins B, Rosbrien, 12.15.
SUNDAY: Leinster Senior League: Division 1: Glenanne v Pembroke Wanderers, 2.00pm Glenanne Park. Leinster Senior Mills Cup: PSBPP v YMCA 2.00pm DCU; Avoca v TRR 2.15pm Newpark; Dublin University v Fingal 2:30pm Santry.
