BY JOHN MARTIN
editor@gaeliclife.com
Croke Park's Games Development Committee meets tomorrow to discuss the 'way forward for hurling'. Chairperson Liam O'Neill has asked for 'fresh thinking from whatever source we can get it' to inform his committee's future plans, so being the philanthropists we are, hurling columnist John Martin pens an open letter to Liam...
Liam a chara,
You've asked for ideas that will benefit hurling, and fair play to you for doing so. I hope your mailbox has been full to bursting over the past few months with suggestions, plans, proposals and formats to progress the game throughout the country.
However, if any of those plans, proposals and suggestions are in relation to the senior championship, do us all a favour – and bin them.
The now-defunct Hurling Development Committee has over the years spent thousands of man-hours coming up with ingenious formats for the Liam MacCarthy Cup, that did little or nothing to develop hurling.
'Hurling Development Committee' was a complete misnomer. The HDC didn't get a chance to develop hurling, their entire time was wasted by having to sit round tables in Croke Park, tinkering with the format of the MacCarthy Cup.
Even then, they were unable to produce a format that would develop the game as they were held to ransom by the sanctity of the Munster championship. Any format that didn't get Munster approval, had no chance of getting passed at Congress.
It always bewildered me why a committee tasked with 'development', spent so much of their time focussing on the senior hurlers of the top 12 teams in the country, when totally ignoring juvenile structures throughout the country.
I've always had difficulty with the notion that senior players 'need to be playing against the top teams to improve'. It's not that I disagree with the logic that playing against better teams will bring players on, but I would have to question just how much they are 'brought on' when, at 21 or 22 years of age they make their way on to a senior county panel and play at most 140-odd minutes of championship hurling in the course of 12 months.
Are we really suggesting that if a player doesn't have the skills of the game by the time he is 20 years old, that he is going to learn them by playing two MacCarthy Cup games a year?
Certainly he may find out exactly what level is required, but instilling the necessary skills has to be done long before that, and when he returns to a club league that is played many revs below MacCarthy Cup standard, how is he going to get up to that level in the following 11-an-a-half months?
Hopefully the Games Development Committee will focus on where development can actually take place – at underage. Forget about the senior competitions – any format that might actually benefit hurling (i.e. scrapping the provincial system) won't get past the Munster counties anyway. The financial argument, never mind the romantic one, will see to that.
The same arguments can't be made for the minor championship however, so my first proposal for tomorrow's meeting is a remodelling of the minor championship format.
The All Ireland minor hurling championship has the potential to be a great competition. The format should be based loosely on the four-tier MacCarthy-Ring-Rackard-Meagher structure currently used at senior level - but without the absurdity of provincial restrictions.
Do away with the provincial championships, the 'special minor championship', the minor B and the minor C championships, and replace them with a three or four tier structure. On top of that Liam, there has to be a strong group element incorporated so that every county gets at least four games, and if necessary, groups can be split into shield and even plate sections so that every game is meaningful.
How much more beneficial would it be for the hurlers of Antrim, Down, Carlow, Westmeath or Laois to play at least four competitive games every summer, some of which would be against the top sides instead of the usual 60-minute massacre?
I realise that for some counties the cost of travelling the length of the country for a minor match would be prohibitive. Well for a start, not all games need to be played at a home venue, so a £1500 overnight stay or a flight to Cork airport could be replaced by a coach trip to Tullamore when Ulster meets Munster.
And sure maybe with the GPA on board next year, they could persuade Halifax to drop the gimmicky Hurling Twinning Programme and sponsor the minor championship instead?
A group made up of Cork, Wexford, Dublin, Offaly and Antrim would make a great summer of hurling for the Saffron under-18s, don't you think?
A change that was rejected by Congress a few years back should also be reconsidered. The proposal to change the minor grade from under-18 to under-19 failed to get the necessary support, but it should be resubmitted as a hurling proposal on its own.
The three-year window would tip the scale ever so slightly in favour of the weaker counties. The stronger players from the likes of Antrim and Down would still be challenging for a spot on an under-19 team when they emerge from the under-16 grade and while the Tipps, Galways and Kilkennys of the world will always have strong players coming through for virtually every position, when Antrim lose a Neil McManus or Down a Conor Woods to the under-21s, it could be years before they produce a player of similar ilk.
Further down the tiers it would have a knock-on effect in that players – most of whom are dual players – will have a stick in their hand for at least another year toward the adult grade.
Some - but obviously not all – of those players who would be hanging up their hurl at that stage will instead continue to play both codes.
A few years ago, the Monaghan manager Frank Brady told me that he had lost a few players off his panel to the footballers. He wasn't talking about Banty's county squad - three players had opted off the county hurling panel in order to concentrate on trying to win an intermediate club title.
That's what he and other managers in the 'weaker counties' are up against. That's where 'development' needs to take place, not in Ballyhale or Portumna.
I've ranted on a bit Liam so I'll leave you to get on with the job at hand, and remember, if anyone mentions senior competition tomorrow, kick them out of the room.
Le meas,
John Martin
ROSSA BREAK LOUGHGIEL JINX
O'DONOVAN Rossa are Belfast's most successful hurling club. The Falls Road side sit joint second in the county's roll of honour behind Ballycastle for senior championships won.
Their last senior championship came in 2004, and since then the club's senior side has undergone a barren spell, dropping into Division 2 of the All County League, and failing to get past the semi-final stage of Antrim's three-horse-race senior championship.
That looks like changing in the next few years however. The Antrim minor and under-21 championship trophies now sit in Rossa House, along with the Ulster Division 1 Senior League title, signs that the transition period is edging closer to its end.
Gerard McGettigan is one of the players who will pay a major part in the Rossa renaissance. He is one of the unsung heroes of this year's successful minor side that will aim to add the Ulster club title to this year's haul next week against Ballinascreen. The final against the Derry champions was called off last week due to the weather, and has been rescheduled for Sunday 13 December.
McGettigan is earning a reputation as an 'engine room' player. He's the type of midfielder who keeps a team going when the chips are down, and will leave nothing behind on the pitch.
Currently studying law at Queen's, McGettigan keeps a level head on and off the pitch. Hurling is his first love and he has also "played a bit of football now and again". He was content to stay in the minor and under-21 ranks this year, unlike some of his team-mates who showed their face at training for Aidan Hamill's senior squad.
"Obviously I'll try and make the step up to senior next year. I suppose it helped a few of the lads that went to the (senior) training but I was training two nights a week with the minors and that was enough for me," said McGettigan.
After Rossa's minor championship victory over Loughgiel, the players joined the under-21 training sessions as they prepared for their final showdown against Cushendall. The win over Loughgiel was particularly sweet for McGettigan, with the Shamrocks having thwarted several All-County title bids throughout his underage years.
"We always seemed to meet Loughgiel and lose out to them. This year's final was really the first time we beat them," McGettigan said.
"To be honest I was a bit surprised at the success this year. We were expected to do well last year, and at under-16, but it didn't happen. It wasn't expected this year so I suppose that made it a bit sweeter."
After their county win, the Gortfad Electrical/Leadon Timber Frames Ulster minor club
Tournament was the next stop. Traditionally not a happy hunting ground for Antrim clubs, Rossa faced Down champions Ballygalget in the semi-final.
"We only beat them by four but the scoreline didn't tell the true story. We probably should have won by more and I think Ballinascreen will give us a harder match in the final, but we're confident we can do it this year," said McGettigan.
"We've been training three times a week for this one. Sean (Shannon, manager) is driving it forward along with Jim and Paul Close. It is great to have that experience on the sideline."
McGettigan is one of a number of players who came through West Belfast hurling nursery St Mary's CBGS. He won a Mageean Cup medal in the 2007-08 season before losing out in the All Ireland final to a Maurice Shanahan-inspired Blackwater Community School.
As well as their colleges experience, Stephen Shannon, Stephen Beattie and Christopher McGuinness were part of the Antrim minor side that lifted the Ulster championship last summer. Shannon and McGuinness were two of nine Rossa players selected to attend last week's trials for Dinny Cahill's senior squad.
McGettigan added: "It is good to see so many being called up to trials but it doesn't surprise me, there is a lot of quality there. There is a great feeling round the club at the minute and winning an Ulster title would be the icing on the cake in a great year."
