GAA president reveals new hurling workgroup could re-examine proposal to exclude five counties from Allianz League

GAA president Larry McCarthy. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Colm Keys

The proposal to exclude five counties from the Allianz Hurling League is off the table for 2025 but GAA president Larry McCarthy has said it could be considered by a National Hurling Action Plan Workgroup which has been established to look at all aspects of hurling, though chiefly in the lower tiers.

The group is chaired by Colm Nolan from Maynooth GAA who oversaw a successful Kildare hurling development plan in 2018.

The proposal, devised by the GAA's Central Competition Controls Committee, would have seen Leitrim, Louth, Longford, Cavan and Fermanagh reduce their inter-county footprint with money saved from preparation put into resourcing hurling development instead.

But the adverse reaction forced CCCC to withdraw it ahead of last Saturday's Central Council meeting.

McCarthy said it will now be referred to the new group while he also intimated the vacant National Hurling Manager position, that the former Kilkenny selector Martin Fogarty last filled, could also be a consideration of that group.

"It's dead for 2025 but it's not dead, they will consider it," said McCarthy of the controversial league cut plan.

"We were in consultation with the county boards," he said. "They were quite in favour of what the CCCC wanted and then when they had full committee meetings that changed obviously.

"But the players had a representative at the Central Council meeting so they knew what was happening in that context. The GPA are there (Central Council) and when it came up at the first meeting, they would have been made aware of it way."

The workgroup met for the first time over the weekend.

The other members include the former Mayo footballer Keith Higgins who has also hurled extensively for the county's hurling team too, Éibhear O’Dea, a member of John Kiely's backroom team in Limerick and a key architect of the county's much-lauded Academy, Kieran Farmer (Fermanagh), Darragh Cox (Sligo) Joey Carton (Waterford) Kevin Kelly (Derry) Paddy Scales (Offaly) and Ryan Gaffney (Armagh) as camogie representative

Their terms of reference will be to:

  • conduct a review of the findings and recommendations of previous plans, reports, action statements on the game over the past 15 years.
  • conduct a review and analysis of current hurling activity at Club, Primary, Post Primary, Higher Education and Inter-County levels across all tiers of the game - but with a special focus on the game in Joe MacDonagh, Christy Ring, Nickey Rackard and Lory Meagher counties.
  • review the current Hurley and Helmet Scheme.
  • consult with key stakeholders as required.
  • work with the Camogie Association to identify areas/projects of common interest and co-operation for inclusion in the plan.
  • explore and identify ways in which the Camogie Association, the GAA can maximise the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status for the games of camogie and hurling in supporting the implementation of the plan.
  • produce a plan for presentation to Central Council on its findings, recommendations, and a roadmap for implementation.