Daniel Spillane looks at the proposal raised by Donal Óg Cusack regarding the possibility of Provinces entering the All Ireland Hurling Championship.
If you tuned into last night’s edition of the Sunday game, you would have seen former Cork Goalkeeper Donal Óg Cusack reviewing the highlights of Saturday’s Lory Meagher, Nicky Rackard and Christy Ring Hurling Finals. During his review, Cusack suggested that in order to offer the players of these teams the chance to play in the top-tier (Liam McCarthy Cup) of Hurling Championship, that teams in Ulster would play for the province in the top-tier while also being able to play for their county in the lower competitions. Once teams win the Christy Ring Cup (2nd tier) they would play in the McCarthy cup the following season and their players would then not be eligible to play for the province.
The proposal is based on the setup at club level that currently exists in Cork, as well as other counties. In Cork there are currently 8 Divisions, which are geographically allocated. Similar to the tier by tier setup at inter county level, there are Junior, Intermediate, Premier Intermediate and Senior grades for each club in the county. Any clubs who play below senior grade are entitled to have their players play for their respective division, in a divisional team thus made from the best players from all grades below senior within that division. This allows players of these teams the opportunity to play at Senior level and possibly win a Senior County when they may not get a chance to do that with their own club. As well as this it gives these players a chance to develop individually while playing against stronger opposition. And once a team eventually progresses to the senior grade via winning the Premier Intermediate County, they would then play by themselves thus meaning their players could not also play for their division in Senior Championship.
And so we must ask the question of would this setup work at Inter county level? It is fair to say that this idea does have merit. At present, the All Ireland Championship consists of only 15 counties, with only the same 4 or 5 teams having realistic prospects of reaching an All Ireland Final. Allowing a combined team from Ulster or Connacht to participate could refresh the All Ireland series and allow a new team to offer some much-needed competition within the Liam McCarthy series. The players who would play for their province would develop by playing against the strongest opposition possible and by being competitive against this opposition; it would raise the profile of Hurling within weaker counties.
On the other hand, it could be said that the proposal may alienate some counties such as Kerry. Should Kerry still be playing in the Christy Ring series, they would more than likely not be able to amalgamate with any other team in the province due to the fact that their neighbours are all credible strongholds within the McCarthy competition. Allowing them to blend with another province like Connacht would cause some headaches in logistics and organisation and debate on what teams would be eligible for each province. Also would it be feasible for the weaker teams of Leinster to come together and contend for a Leinster Championship? The question of loss of identity has also been raised, with some arguing that players joining together from different counties to play for a province may not draw the same passion from a player that a county call up would generate. I would have to argue and say that the incentive of winning a Liam McCarthy cup would far outweigh any question of pride for the jersey and some players would so whatever they had to do to get that opportunity. The point was also raised that players who played with their province would have to train with 3 teams, their club, county and province, thus brining in the old debate on player burnout. The current format of the hurling championships would cater for this commitment as the Christy Ring and lower tournaments would be played off before the Liam McCarthy competition gains any momentum. Provincial teams could enter the series at the quarter-final or qualifier stages once the provincial championships have been completed.
The initial proposal was created by Cusack as a motion at the GPA AGM and suggested that an Ulster provincial team would enter the Minor and Under 21 championships before being tested in the Senior Championship. This may be a less radical step to developing the profile of hurling in weaker counties and once these younger players develop at minor and u21 level they may produce a better output for their counties at senior level. And even less radical than Ollie Baker’s suggestion that some stronger teams like Kilkenny would separate their panels into 2 to create more teams and competitors. There are valid points in favour of and against the proposal, and while it would be most desirable to envisage that teams would be able to develop their panels from the ground up with youth development squads and investment into the game, the Provincial selection could be a solution to the problem of competition within the Liam McCarthy series. Donal Óg Cusack has given this proposal the public forum it needed; it may not be long before it comes into effect.
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