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Maybe when funding the counties, GAA HQ should stipulate how much is for football and how much is for hurling. It doesn't have to be a 50/50 split of the funds, but whatever is allocated to each code, should be ring-fenced.
Cockney_Cat (UK) - Posts: 2447 - 13/04/2023 12:56:07 2470798 Link 0 |
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I'm talking about the funding and supports that would be available exclusively to hurling for a county to implement its Hurling Development Plan. There'd be an inherent 100% to 0% split for hurling over football. If a county's already been through this a number of times, with little or nothing to show from a hurling point of view at the end of it all, then you're back to the conclusion I had to draw earlier. Related to this is the motion that Wexford brought to Congress this year, and that started with Liam Griffin, which sought to ensure that at least some level of hurling would be provided by clubs to all under-10 players across the country. It was shot down by a large majority, with the "no" votes coming from the counties where hurling plays only a small second fiddle to football. That's a measure in itself of how little interest there is in far too many counties in actually taking positive action to promote hurling. Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2229 - 13/04/2023 15:24:00 2470844 Link 0 |
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The provincial basis for the All-Ireland championship was never appropriate for hurling. Munster is the only functioning provincial hurling championship, and, in reality, this has always been the case. Kilkenny have won 55% of all Leinster titles and have been the only county consistently winning titles for the competition's history. Obviously at times Dublin, Wexford, Offaly, and now Galway have been able to go toe-to-toe with the Cats but the situation is still a bit farcical. It's a clichéd opinion at this point, but I think moving the provincials to January and having an open draw for the championship (based on league seedings) would be a but better way to go. It would benefit all counties, weak and strong, across the four provinces. Báireoir (Dublin) - Posts: 80 - 13/04/2023 15:35:01 2470845 Link 0 |
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Its just stuck me that this could also be pointed at Munster. Only Kerry, Clare / Limerick and possibly Cork will complete in the Sam Maguire. This means that only 1 or 2 Munster counties will compete in both. It is more that the problem in Leinster is that many counties will compete in neither. The GAA has been loosing in Leinster for many years at this stage. Leinster counties are generally smaller than in other provinces. Of the 12 counties with < 100k people living in them 6 are in Leinster. Add to this that you've got the presence of Dublin in there; a county with more people living there than the rest of Leinster combined. Leinster used to be competitive before the GAA created the Dublin monster and it will take some time yet for the efforts to balance out to come to fruition. My fear is that this is all too late. In Kildare I see the Rugby and Soccer clubs are busier than ever before. One positive is the amount of underage hurling being seen now. It will all take time. The real measure about the resurgence of GAA in Leinster will be when a couple of counties other than Dublin wins the football and Kilkenny wins in hurling. brianb (Kildare) - Posts: 279 - 13/04/2023 17:36:29 2470869 Link 0 |
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A provincial championship in January followed by the league and All Ireland is a non runner.My argumemt is that counties who are trying to promote hurling should see proper financial help whilst those intent on building white elephants should not receive the crazy money they have.
jobber (Westmeath) - Posts: 1445 - 13/04/2023 18:13:57 2470874 Link 0 |
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Haven't had the funding or resources. That is the point. Have had repeated platitudes and 'initiatives' coming down from Croker which didn't sustain and were ultimately toothless. Like I have already said, if it was going to happen organically we would have had some growth over 20 years. Yet ZERO growth at club level, ZERO! Still just 3 clubs! So this needs something more if folks are serious about growing the game. We can blame will or inclination or interest if we want, but if you are trying to place something where it didn't naturally thrive before, you need to come with heavy arms and be prepared to stick around and make a difference. That never happened, not from HQ, not from Leinster Council. So either that changes or we let things follow their natural course and see where we are in 20 more years, which will be with zero hurling in the county. That would be a great pity.
LongfordgaaAbú (Longford) - Posts: 470 - 13/04/2023 20:30:58 2470897 Link 0 |
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PS - The problem with Griffins proposal was that it was not the right way to address this problem. Come up to Longford sometime and see the state of our GFC's. 18 of the 21 clubs in Longford are GFC's, only 3 have any hurling expertise. Most clubs are barely able to get by in underage as it stands, amalgamations all over the place to get 15 lads out in competition. Only a handful of clubs in the county who field as just themselves without amalgamation in underage football. Now add hurling to the mix in which vast majority have zero expertise or coaching skill, and do all this before infrastructure is in place to support it - Wasn't well thought thru. Great headline stuff though. Infrastructure and coaching staff first, then players and teams. The guys in Clonguish and Mostrim and Slashers who keep the hurling flag flying in Longford are superheroes. But it is becoming an ever more lonesome furrow to plough, and they need help, bigtime, or hurling is doomed in Longford. Structural help, not a mandate to do more with less.
LongfordgaaAbú (Longford) - Posts: 470 - 13/04/2023 20:39:55 2470900 Link 0 |
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In your last couple of posts, you're not only proving my point, but you're actually strengthening it. In your first post, you say "you need to come with heavy arms and be prepared to stick around and make a difference" - very true. And then you say "That never happened, not from HQ, not from Leinster Council." - maybe also true, but you're leaving out a very important third one. It never happened from within the county either. This is proven by your second post, where you tell how 18 out of 21 clubs in Longford make no effort in hurling at all (again, a great pity). Seems they have insufficient interest to even make an attempt to make it available to eight-, nine- and ten-year-old boys. You don't need any great level of coaching expertise to introduce boys of that age to the game, and you're not talking 15-a-side competition either. It'd just be letting them play the game in training sessions, or maybe having Go Games between clubs, which can be as little as six or seven a side. Don't know if you've seen stories like these: https://www.irishtimes.com/world/africa/2022/11/16/hurling-and-gaa-football-catching-on-in-a-big-way-with-ugandan-schoolchildren/ link https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2023/0317/1363658-gaa-uganda-hurling/ link If people in Uganda who've only ever seen hurling on YouTube can get it up and running, and get resources and equipment in place, then why not people in Longford (or any one of unfortunately far too many other counties)? Fact of the matter is neither Croke Park nor Leinster Council will throw money and resources at hurling in Longford or a similar county unless they're satisfied there's a genuine will and determination there to grow the game. Otherwise it's money down the drain, that could have been better used elsewhere. It could start with even half of the 18 clubs who don't currently offering hurling agreeing to introduce it to Under-10 players, and having Go Games against each other. I know enough about the admin end of things to know that Leinster would probably look favourably on a request for funding to help get it off the ground, and throw in a coach or two to rotate between the clubs. It's up to a county itself to get these things to work. Croke Park and/or a provincial council can help, but they can't do it all for them. Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2229 - 14/04/2023 10:17:26 2470935 Link 0 |
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Totally agree re Griffith's proposal, nowhere practical. Most clubs pitches fully occupied every evening and then add in hurling training with more coaches, volunteers, amazed it got to Congress. In Westmeath we have hurling people who talk a good game but in reality that's as far as it goes, easy to talk, get out and coach underage players at club or county level. Claretandblue (Westmeath) - Posts: 1478 - 14/04/2023 10:18:58 2470936 Link 0 |
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Always easy in any walk of life to find excuses if you don't want to do something. Introducing Under-10s to hurling wouldn't necessarily mean having to find extra slots on pitches for extra training sessions. Could be as simple as letting the boys hurl for 20 minutes or half an hour during one of their existing sessions, once a week or maybe even just once a fortnight. And coaches in these clubs could do a basic Foundation Level hurling coaching course in just a couple of hours some day. But hey, where there's no will, there's no way.... Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2229 - 14/04/2023 12:35:39 2470972 Link 0 |
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What if the reward for winning the McDonagh or Ring Cups was a big injection of finance and coaching into hurling in the winning county? dahayeser (Cork) - Posts: 336 - 14/04/2023 14:41:14 2470995 Link 0 |