Galway hurling plan should be adopted by every county

Diarmuid O’Flynn

IN Galway yesterday there was a bit of a do at the luxury Clayton Hotel in Ballybrit, the launch of the report and recommendations by the Galway Hurling Review Committee. In keeping with the fact the review was almost exclusively confined to hurling matters in Galway it was mostly a local affair. There was one national proposal, the committee calling for a revamp of the All-Ireland U21 championship along the lines of the Champions League, with chairman Joe McDonagh – a former GAA President – also reiterating a long-standing call in Galway for the same kind of open draw format to be applied at senior level.

Good luck with that one Joe. I’ve made the same call for years, to no avail, but the structure as it prevails now is close enough for me and it does retain the sacred Munster and Leinster SHCs.

But mostly the review focused on Galway and the mystery of a county with such a fantastic record at underage and at club level failing, year after year, to translate that success to the biggest stage of all.

In many reports of this nature you can have a lot of useless navel-gazing, a lot of people playing politics, more obsessed with appearance than substance, and a lot of obfuscation in the final summary. Not so in this case; in fact I would go so far as to say that every county board delegate in the country should write now to the secretary of the Galway Hurling Board, Pat Kearney, and ask for a copy – it’s that good.

It starts with the man at the head of the committee, Joe McDonagh, a guy who simply knows how to get things done. It continues with the names on the committee itself – Cyril Farrell, Ollie Canning, Mike d’Arcy, Seán Silke, Pat Monaghan, Conor Hayes, Seán Walsh, PC Loughnane, Pete Finnerty, Gerry Larkin, every one of them Galway to the marrow, every one of them achievers in their own right, not a one of them prepared to toe any party line or waste time, their own or anyone else’s. It ends now in the capable hands of the men who commissioned the report in the first place, chairman of the Hurling Board Joe Byrne, and the aforementioned secretary Pat Kearney.

The report is clear, concise, very pointed, and radical in its major proposal, a totally new county championship structure at senior and intermediate level. The template they laid out, if implemented, will ensure that in Galway at least, unlike the situation that pertains in most counties, club players will be guaranteed meaningful action right through the season. There are windows built in for the possibility of Galway reaching the Leinster final, the All-Ireland quarter-final, semi-final and final. There’s even a window there to allow all club players to plan a summer holiday. It’s joined-up thinking and  should be replicated across the GAA.

“People spoke of us being on a bus journey, all in it together,” said Joe, “I see it as a train journey, and we’re just laying the tracks. We have buses and cars all heading in more or less the same direction at the moment, but all taking their own routes – I’d like to see everyone on that train.”

That’s Joe, a word-artist painting a picture we can all see and appreciate.

There is so much in this report, not an issue shirked or fudged, 79 very positive recommendations on seven clearly defined topics: Threats and challenges facing clubs; Club championship structures and format; Coaching and games/player development; Inter-county participation; Inter-county managers’ Charter enhancements; Players’ Charter and Hurling Board Structures.

The Managers’ Charter contained a number of interesting recommendations, including a motion for the county board convention, that a six-day rule should be implemented for all inter-county games with the exception of Leinster final, All-Ireland quarter-final, semi-final and final, should Galway proceed that far. That means a player would be available to play for his club in any game, championship or league, up to six days before an inter-county game – should be adopted AND ENFORCED across the GAA.

Written in there also (shouldn’t have to be, but needs must), an acceptance by the manager that the players’ first allegiance is to his club.

There are other very pertinent recommendations, not least in the Players’ Charter, where there is a recognition that no player should have to chase the county board for either his gear or his expenses, that every player on being called into the panel should be immediately issued with the charter and given whatever he’s entitled to in a timely fashion.

There’s a recognition of the challenge facing counties like Galway with a major urban centre (Galway city) to grow hurling in that area, and there’s an admonition that the excellent Galway Urban Development Plan of 2009 has still not been acted on, and a recommendation that it should be acted on now, as a matter of urgency.

It’s a superb piece of work. The hope has to be that, like that plan of 2009, like a previous plan of 2003, this good work isn’t now just left to gather dust on yet another shelf somewhere. If it is followed through, then – and in Joe McDonagh’s words – it will lay down a pathway to success for Galway.

Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/leb5a9NRJfk/post.aspx

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