Defiance of hurling's minnows is waning again

The GAA’s national fixtures body had hoped it would allow those counties to concentrate on developing their largely dormant club hurling activities. The money saved would go to assisting their club scenes – the five spent €870,000 between them on their hurling panels in 2023.

It wasn’t without the backing of some of those counties that the CCCC tabled their plan. However, what followed was concerted lobbying from the inter-county set-ups that might have led us to believe us there was still hope for hurling among the game’s minnows.

Landing such a victory, they would have felt vindicated, invigorated. The problem was it was never going to last. 

“It’s a lot harder to get the senior hurling team together this year,” admits Longford chairman Albert Cooney. 

“The debate around staying in the league generated attention but it probably focused the mind for six weeks and drifted into the sky again.

“There has been nothing about it this year. It was a major point of controversy at the time. We have three new underage clubs but that would probably have happened anyway. One of those clubs was in existence before that. It was in the media and then died a death.

“We have young kids very keen to play hurling. The game needs to be promoted more. We have a club in the north, middle and south of the county playing U12s and U14s. You’re looking at five or six years before that might develop into playing coming through for the senior team.” 

Longford may just about be able to put a team together to join Fermanagh, Leitrim and Louth in the new seven-team Division 4 starting in January (Cavan are in Division 3). However, the wolf will remain at their door as it will at those of the others.

Students based in Dublin can easily make the commitment to club teams that can win a championship in a few weeks when they are at home in the late spring and early summer as opposed to travelling the three and four-hour return journeys twice a week for their counties before the clocks go forward.

Then there is the issue of football clubs releasing their dual players to the county hurlers. They would fall into the category of “acts of sabotage” as recently described by the GAA’s national hurling development chairman Terry Reilly.

There are some greenshoots, though. In Leitrim, it is hoped the two clubs, Carrick Hurling in Carrick-on-Shannon and Cluainin Iomáint in Manorhamilton, will be joined by a third when a new underage hurling hub in Ballinamore fully matures. This past year, an U20 team was produced for the first time in several years, although that has been in the making before the wagons were circled in late 2023.

“It’s well chronicled that the hurling fraternity weren’t happy with what was possibly coming down the tracks and they have put their shoulders to the wheel over the last 12 months,” reports Leitrim secretary Declan Bohan. “I’m not suggesting they were doing it to prove a point but to ensure ‘we’re here, we’re going to survive’.

“Most likely there would have been an U20 team anyway and it was great that we won the Andrew O’Neill Cup (U20 “C” championship). It didn’t happen because there was a big row last year but there has been a renewed spirit among the hurling fraternity. They took the initiative to raise funds. The outgoing manager Olcan Conway stepped down after four years in charge and there was a great interest in the appointment of a new manager and that’s positive.” 

For some of those counties who did provide U20 teams, the format of that All-Ireland “C” competition is a sticking point. The knockout nature is not considered to be in the interest of developing players. “It’s only a gesture of a competition as it stands,” said one county official. “You have to make it worthwhile for young fellas.” 

While Leitrim impressed, beating Fermanagh by 16 points in their quarter-final game, others didn’t. In the earlier round, Louth couldn’t field a team against Fermanagh. That was hardly surprising when in 2023 there was only two underage games in the county.

Hope lies in the imminent appointment of a new national head of hurling, a position the GAA leadership has promised will have “teeth”. The successful candidate is expected to have the authority to hold to account counties who are not pulling their weight hurling-wise.

GAA president Jarlath Burns has spoken about the toolkits that will be provided to those interested in establishing hurling clubs in football-dominated counties, which is part of the HDC remit headed up by Reilly.

Burns has warned the fruits of that initiative will not be seen for years to come but the concern is what might happen in the meantime. What will be done to consolidate those keeping the game alive and until such time as the number of clubs grow is the struggle to field adult county teams just merely window-dressing?