Let’s Remember the Club Players before Voting On New Hurling Championship Proposals

In the coming weeks Clubs and County Boards are set to vote on new proposals discussed at a recent Central Council of the G.A.A. in Croke Park, which if agreed upon at a specially convened Congress later this year.

The new proposals would see the Munster and Leinster Hurling Championship played off on a round robin basis with five counties competing in both competitions.

If the new look championships were to take place next year, the ten teams would be selected on how each team competed in this year’s championship which would mean that Clare, Cork, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford would take part in next year’s Munster Championship, with Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Offaly and Wexford taking part in the Leinster Championship.

Each county would have two home and two away games to play in the round robin series under the new proposals with the top two teams in each province after five rounds of games contesting the provincial finals.

The winner of the Provincial Finals would advance to the All-Ireland semi finals, with the runners up contesting an All-Ireland quarter final where they would be joined by a third placed team in the provincial round robin series, plus the winner of a Provincial Qualifier competition which from 2017 rankings would be Laois, Westmeath, Kerry, Antrim and Carlow. The winner one year would be joined by the third team in the Munster Group and the other year by the third placed team in the Leinster Group.

The bottom placed team in the Leinster group would play the provincial qualifiers the following year with the provincial qualifier taking their place in the Leinster Championship, but if Kerry were to win the provincial qualifiers they would play off with the bottom team in the Munster Group with the winner of that game taking their place in the Munster Championship the following year. (i.e. Kerry would have to win a play-off game to play in the Munster Championship, but a Leinster side or Antrim would automatically move up the following year).

The bottom team in the Provincial qualifiers would be relegated to the Christy Ring competition the following year.

If the proposals were to be agreed upon, it would see the National Hurling League Final moved from its customary First Sunday of May date to one at the end of April and three round of the Munster and Leinster Championship would take place in May with two further rounds played in early June.

This to many might sound good. You could well have Tipperary at home to Limerick on a given Sunday and Waterford at home to Cork the same day in the Muster Championship. It would be like Manna from Heaven to hurling supporters who tune into the Sunday Game each week or to Sky Sports equivalent. It would well happen that you could have Galway playing Kilkenny in the Leinster Championship the same day. This is three big games that RTE and Sky Sports would want to show. It would be like getting six numbers in one line in a multi roll over National Lottery draw for hurling supporters.

Just as the Provincial Hurling Championships would be coming to a close, the Super 8’s as they are being called in football would be about to kick in. Pubs that show Gaelic Games on their big screens on a Sunday afternoon would make a killing over a number of Sunday’s if the fixtures were to fall right.

But there could well be a down side to all these great games that we could well be about to see.

Make no mistake about it, these extra games are now all about creating extra games for the often referred to elite players. There is many in the G.A.A. that speak about player burn out but when new look competitions like what is purposed little or no mention of Player Burnout is made.

We all know that GAA is an abbreviation of Gaelic Athletic Association, but many each year consider GAA to stand for Grab All Association, and there is no doubt a certain amount of the new proposals are about getting as much revenue in from G.A.A. supporters.

Deals will be done which will look good to get people to attend the four group games. Prices to gain admission into games may well drop, but GAA Chiefs will know that instead of maybe one or two games for most sides in the Munster Championships, under the new proposals a county will have to play five games to be provincial champions and people will travel to games.

As broadcasting contracts come up for renewal G.A.A. Chiefs will try and get as much as they can from the different TV and Radio Stations to broadcast games.

But there could well be major downfalls to the whole new look competitions.

What will happen to the Club Championships?

The strength of the G.A.A. is in the Clubs. Without the Clubs the G.A.A. has nothing. It is in the Clubs and the Schools where most young boys are introduced formally to the G.A.A.

It is in the Clubs and Schools that young boys get to learn and prefect the skills of hurling and football, before the best players get the chance to show them off to tens of thousands of fans at venues like Semple Stadium and Croke Park.

It is from the clubs that the players with the best ability are sent to Development Squads where the best are groups to form underage inter county panels and eventually senior inter county panels.

If the clubs did not exist the question has to be asked where would management teams of inter county teams pick their players from.

Let’s take Waterford as an example if the new proposals are passed.

If Derek McGrath or whoever is over the Waterford Senior Hurling team next year were to put together a group of players who have a good league campaign and then a good Munster Championship, maybe reaching the final of both it could well happen that NO championship game would be played in the county until late August or early September.

Are we going to ask players to go out and play week in and week out to have a team in place to play in the Munster Club Championship?

And don’t forget, whether some people like it or not Waterford is very much a duel county and football has to be looked after as well.

While Waterford have never won a Munster Senior Club Football Championship, in recent years Clubs like Stradbally, Ballinacourty and The Nire have represented the county well and if we are honest we could well argue that the Senior Football winners in Waterford have done better than the hurling champions who we expect to be provincial champions each year.

While I don’t expect many if indeed any to agree with me, I feel when it comes to votes, we here in Waterford and indeed other counties have become very much ‘yes’ men. When a proposal is put on the table if it what is wanted by those sitting at the top table we agree to go along with what is on the table.

And I feel when it comes to voting on the new hurling proposals, Waterford will be voting yes. It’s a bit like if you are a member of a political party you will do what the leader says and you don’t ask questions. And if you do ask questions you are treated like the priest who may not entirely share the same views as the often outdated men that sit around the Vatican who will try and silence the priest that has a different view or get their top man on the ground close to him to silence him.

I first got involved in the administration side of the G.A.A. over two decades ago. While I am no longer involved as an administrator in any capacity, I have sat in a number of county board meetings as a delegate or sat in as an observer in recent years, but not of late, I have seen the same faces meeting after meeting at those that I have attended, represent their club.

It to me is always the same few people that like to get their views aired first and other always try and have the last work before the meeting moves on to the next item on the agenda. It is also the same few people that will sit in and not open their mouth. From what I have seen their roll at the meeting is to try and attract the attention of a friend and to go outside the front door for a fag. When a vote is called for, not wanting to upset people they often if not always vote along the lines of those sitting at the top table.

While the introduction of the new proposals might do the Inter County game some good, I for one will be hoping that it does not come at the expense of the club scene.

In most counties there appear to be a close down of the club scene from early to mid may until the counties senior hurling and football teams are gone out of the championship for another year.

In the mean time in the last number of years we have seen club players leave these shores in the summer months and head to America where they play hurling and football over there, because for one reason they are not getting meaningful games with their clubs. It could be argued that while no championship games are played, clubs get to play leagues and secondary competitions during the summer but these games are moved around often at short notice and there is some players who don’t know when their next game is on and might have got time off work to play a game only for it to be called off or switched to a later or earlier date. It is often that club members don’t even know when these games are on to go and support their club.

When clubs do vote and instruct their county boards how to vote at the special congress, I for one, even as a person that has never played hurling or football outside of at home or making up numbers in school for a game during the lunch breaks, that the club players will be remembered and that their playing season is not closed now for even longer periods than it is at present.