Board to pull no punches on discipline

STEPHEN GLENNON

THE Galway senior hurling championship gets underway this weekend, with the County Hurling Board vowing to clean up the game locally by introducing stricter policing measures. 

In recent times, the game in Galway has too often become embroiled in controversy, so becoming the centre of unwelcome media attention. As a result, the Hurling Board, led by Chairman Joe Byrne and Secretary John Fahey, has taken the unprecedented measure of holding dialogue with the clubs in advance of the championship in an effort to address certain disciplinary issues, including the abuse of referees.

Secretary Fahey said another of the key issues the Board was particularly anxious to tackle was the number of partisan people gaining access to the line for championship games. “We had a very positive meeting – actually, it was more of a dialogue – with the clubs on Monday night,” said the Hurling Board Secretary, “and the gist of it was that we talked about the whole area of discipline on the sidelines and match regulations and we gave a very clear outline of what we expect.

“Those at the meeting also got a chance to voice their concerns and one of the things that came out of the meeting was consistency in refereeing. So, we will now be following this up with a meeting with the referees on Thursday night.”

It is hoped this audacious move by the Hurling Board will have a positive effect on the championship, reducing, if not eradicating, the number of incidents of referee abuse, while also fostering respect between clubs and match day officials.

“We are looking to tackle problems before they arise, and one of the areas we will be focusing on is pitch incursions,” continued Fahey. “There are too many people on the sideline for these games so we are looking closely at that whole area.

“We want to clean up our games. We want to eliminate situations of people running out onto the pitch, for no good reason. For instance, when somebody gets injured, you have people running in from the four corners of the pitch, and most of them not knowing anything about treating injuries. That’s not good enough.”

In any event, Galway Hurling Board will be hoping that the opening weekend of championship games will remain incident free – although some club players are already having an eventful week as they desperately seek to find a way home from abroad during the current aviation crisis.

Some of this include Liam Mellows goalkeeper Paddy Gannon (London), Athenry stalwart Diarmaid Cloonan (United States) and Turloughmore’s Conor Feeney (Hong Kong).

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.