Proposal to drop lower tiers from national league hurling!

Read an article from another web site from the sligo manager talking about this proposal and how he is opposed to it!

I think to just say scrap it is a disgrace, why now after building hurling in these counties are we going to take away something which is a valuable tool to bring together the hurling people in weaker hurling counties?

The GAA need to wake up here, we need to be promoting these games not just cutting them!

If the GAA was to do the honourable thing, they would make these games free admission and get the employed coaches to organise mini go games before after and at half time of games, between local club sides!

In my eyes the marketing for hurling is nothing short of a disgrace!

I dont see why hurling in fermanagh would be given any different attention or work from HQ than hurling in Cork, if anything we in the gaa should be looking to do more work with these counties!

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Further to this im now learning it is because it is to be a combing of counties to enter the league, ie sligo and leitrim - connaught, This looks more like the cost cutting measure Buttler is saying shouldnt happen yet he is behind the proposal!

It's not just limited to the lower tier counties of the NHLs, they are for doing the same to the UK also, "merging" counties that have a land mass the size of Ulster! This would mean that two clubs in particular would have to travel a round trip of 500 miles for one fixture! A complete disgrace!

I must admit, i did know of this plan for the lower tier hurling counties for quite some time as this has been bubbling below the surface for quite a while. The reasoning is that they will downscale the intercounty activity and upscale the club activity within this new region, thus improving the standards in the longer term for these counties. Essientially downgrading the NHLs but keeping the Championship formats as they are.

What i've been told by a promient figure in these developments is that they see no point in a county that has 3 hurling clubs only for them to play roughly 6 or 7 competitive games per year when they can make a new region, a "fifth provience" as he called it (akin to the Ulster Hurling League) and they can play more competitive games against other clubs. As soon as he mentioned this new "fifth provience" i was quick to question him on their plans for the UK and funny enough he was very quick to pipe down!

im in favour of combined leagues i have to say during the domestic season, ie donegal, sligo, cavan and leitrim, fermanagh, tyrone and monghan could all be sectioned into play a combined club league and championship and work together to promote and fund hurling in their region, however they should still be allowed to enter their representive county team into the NHL, should they choose to enter a combined team into say the NHL or a higher tier championship so be it, but this should be choice and not forced.

However i am in favour of them having regional club domestic leagues and championship, as this would if you have a proper junior championship allow for new clubs without the thought of getting tanked. I feel this could lead to new clubs, healthy rivalry, and at underage similar structures followed ie pair of donegal and sligo and leitrim and cavan to have divisional juvenile boards, maybe these boards could have development squads too with the over all aim being to get the regional team idea going at underage.

Im starting to think the sentiment is rights but the goal is wrong.

Furthermore from what i have said above, the regional teams would create a new issue! What about our new teams, south down and fingal, i believe they should step into a revamped intermediate championship, be a lot tougher but they would gain more experience in the long run!

These divisional teams have the problem also of underage competition which they are excluded from, are they allowed to enter the b and c competitions? This is similar to the problem of antrim minors not being in leinster and for that matter antrim u16 and 14.

I know jim hates this county talk but i wouldnt mind a bit of feed back.

Have to read up a bit more on it first but will post something over the next day or two.
Only "hate" I have regarding county is prolonging a championship for no obvious benefit and squeezing the club scene even smaller than what it is.
What I have read there does seem to be a lot of pros , development of the club scene which in turn will lead to a stronger county
Cons, if an amalgamation would that lead to a loss of identity thus support, also as BE alluded to the distances for games, Setanta or Burt in Donegal having to travel to Lisbellaw or Lisnaskea in Fermanagh.

People may laugh but I look at Wexford where some clubs have to travel over 50 miles ( a lot more common that you would think (e.g. for my own club to travel to Castletown it is 110 mile round trip and we would play each other fairly frequently) and the amount of walkovers in these games. Tipp are the same the are split into 4 districts, Cork into 8 etc.
Unfortunately in the times we live in this could become a major factor, clubs are expensive to run and money is getting tighter.

North Side Gael wrote:Read an article from another web site from the sligo manager talking about this proposal and how he is opposed to it!

I think to just say scrap it is a disgrace, why now after building hurling in these counties are we going to take away something which is a valuable tool to bring together the hurling people in weaker hurling counties?

The GAA need to wake up here, we need to be promoting these games not just cutting them!

If the GAA was to do the honourable thing, they would make these games free admission and get the employed coaches to organise mini go games before after and at half time of games, between local club sides!

In my eyes the marketing for hurling is nothing short of a disgrace!

I dont see why hurling in fermanagh would be given any different attention or work from HQ than hurling in Cork, if anything we in the gaa should be looking to do more work with these counties!
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It is easy lay the blame at HQ but what are the Fermanagh(or other non traditional hurling counties) county board doing to promote hurling in the county

The Puke -

The county boards of most of these lower tier counties are doing their fair share to promote hurling, it's the clubs where the blame should firmly be pointed. They (the football only clubs) don't have an interest in hurling and on the whole can be very obstructive to the development of hurling.

The Puke wrote:

North Side Gael wrote:Read an article from another web site from the sligo manager talking about this proposal and how he is opposed to it!

I think to just say scrap it is a disgrace, why now after building hurling in these counties are we going to take away something which is a valuable tool to bring together the hurling people in weaker hurling counties?

The GAA need to wake up here, we need to be promoting these games not just cutting them!

If the GAA was to do the honourable thing, they would make these games free admission and get the employed coaches to organise mini go games before after and at half time of games, between local club sides!

In my eyes the marketing for hurling is nothing short of a disgrace!

I dont see why hurling in fermanagh would be given any different attention or work from HQ than hurling in Cork, if anything we in the gaa should be looking to do more work with these counties!
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It is easy lay the blame at HQ but what are the Fermanagh(or other non traditional hurling counties) county board doing to promote hurling in the county

So in order to punnish these county boards HQ decides to punish the few people who knock their pans in all year round trying to promote hurling?

HQ will be making a mistake here and they could potentially kill hurling in counties such as fermanagh where only a few are trying to keep the game alive and make it stronger, and for that they do deserve criticism.

Why does paudie buttlers office not ask these counties for quarterly secretary reports on what each county board is doing to promote hurling and with targets set at the start of each, we are looking at 7/8 counties here plus abroad, the workload would not be too great im sure volunteers or men from the counties mentioned could come together in a committee to carry out this work, after all why is a man from tipp or people from cork, kilkenny or galway etc for that matter deciding on the future of hurling in counties they probably dont have a clue what the obstacles actually are.

I know paudies does brilliant work but he needs to sit with these counties and discuss the way forward not talk to those already in the top tiers and come up with a plan they "think" will work. This HDC hurling development committee is consisting of those counties who are already at the top, they have made mistakes several times in the format of the top tier, they chop and change consistently and should be frankly disbanded, each division should have a committee running it from the counties included in that competition, ie a lory meagher committee, NR committee, CR committee and so on, these countie will then be able to actively work to face down the problems that exist and the will be given proper time and resources to do it, ie they may find sponsorship for each competition, something HQ doesnt seem to be interested in doing, this money in turn could go specifically into addressing the problems in these specific counties.

NSG I know how passionate you are about hurling but I think you missed a valid point been made here.
If a county board does not actively promote a game it makes it very hard for it to grow and develop a good example is football in Kilkenny.
I can see where you are coming from but look at these few facts
1. All grants for development go to the said county board, they distribute the cash to the clubs in there province
2. County boards are to whom you apply for a grant, they sign off on it and send it further afield eg provincial council etc.
3 County boards set the competitions and fixtures for those club n there championship

An example
So by expanding an new west ulster set up, Donegal, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Monaghan and Cavan.
Croke park has set up a separate entity or in effect a county board to run these competitions.
The clubs that enter (important as not all clubs will) have now got a body over them that promotes what they love and will help in the growth and development of the game.
Really think that was the point trying to be put across.
by having designated hurling people over it, it should help and develop the game in this made up region.

As regards your point regarding the HDC, I don't agree you have to have people from successful counties as in business if you want to set up a new committee to attract investment you get successful people to set it up and run it rather than those who aren't successful at implementing procedures etc.
The point above may of come out wrong but the principle is that these successful counties have had there problems but by in large they have overcome them by selling the game to their public and in turn have vast numbers playing which gives them a grater pick to chose a county team from. That is the start of the model that needs to be done in Connaught, North Leinster, and Ulster (minus the few exceptions in these areas) but the queston again comes back are the respective county boards in these area willing to do that, not talking aboout individuals but are the collective county boards willing to do this. In short the answer is no and as the say the proof is in the pudding, look at the over standard of hurling in these areas.

I know where you are coming from Jim but at the same time they do need to at least talk to the people in these counties, the problems they face will not be faced by a hurling man in kk, gal, antrim or tipp or the rest, i tried to organise a challenge game between my clubs minor hurlers and lisnaskea fermanagh, the fella i talked too has been trying to get hurling going in fermanagh for decades, he tells me the football club wont allow him to use the pitch as the footballers have a match 5 days later, and the school wouldnt allow it full stop, the men from cork, wexford, kk etc dont face this sort of problem, thats why they need involved in the process.

Another thing is that these counties will merge at intercounty level not long after all this and thats my greatest fear, its not fair to shove them into something without actually bringing them in to discuss the way 4ward.

North Side Gael wrote:I know where you are coming from Jim but at the same time they do need to at least talk to the people in these counties, the problems they face will not be faced by a hurling man in kk, gal, antrim or tipp or the rest, i tried to organise a challenge game between my clubs minor hurlers and lisnaskea fermanagh, the fella i talked too has been trying to get hurling going in fermanagh for decades, he tells me the football club wont allow him to use the pitch as the footballers have a match 5 days later, and the school wouldnt allow it full stop, the men from cork, wexford, kk etc dont face this sort of problem, thats why they need involved in the process.

Another thing is that these counties will merge at intercounty level not long after all this and thats my greatest fear, its not fair to shove them into something without actually bringing them in to discuss the way 4ward.

Sorry we all face these problems, I come from a dual club but we are predominantly a football club. I have a county board that will fund a tiddly winks competition before we would get a penny.
Our minor footballers (county football teams in general) are expected to bow down to the small ball the whole time a good example is all dual players HAVE to train with the hurlers (who are very weak this year) and can play a game with the footballers (who are fairly strong this year and I would expect a Leinster final appearance in 2011 out of them) so we do face those same problems. Instead of giving in we work around them.
That is what is needed, to use your example can you not use the pitch in parish next door, or a local secondary school bring them up to your place and play the return at a later date.
To be fair Lisnaskea are in the Ulster intermediate football semi final against St Mary's Rasharkin (Antrim) next weekend so the timing may not be the best.
But you still have to address the question how do you get more people playing hurling and buying into the game in these areas, numbers is what it's all about, you have the numbers you will get the quality.