Clubs are warned - no more 'cosy' hurling in Galway

STEPHEN GLENNON

THE Galway senior and intermediate hurling championships will undergo a radical overhaul if delegates endorse an innovative proposal – one of many set out by the Galway Hurling Review Group – when delegates vote on these matters at both the County and Hurling Board conventions later in the month.

Following months of consultation with all the stakeholders in Galway hurling, the Group met the delegates on Monday night – and subsequently the local and national press on Tuesday – to set out a comprehensive list of recommendations, 79 in all, along with three proposed motions for conventions.

While the national media will no doubt focus in on the proposal to go before the County Board seeking an open draw for the All-Ireland U-21 hurling championship – so moving away from the provincial structure – most Gaels within the county will be looking more closely at the submission surrounding the senior and intermediate championships.

The Review Group has advised that the number of teams in the senior competition be extended from 20 to 21 – so, potentially, saving a previously doomed Kinvara from relegation – and that a new format be put in place which grants the previous year’s intermediate champions a two-year term, at the very least, at this grade.

Consequently, in the first round, the other 20 teams would play each other in an open draw format, with the 10 winners progressing to a group stage – four groups of four. The 10 losers of the first round would then play off in a subsequent round, with the five winners joining the group stages – along with the intermediate champions – while the other five would be condemned to a relegation battle run on a league basis. One team will be relegated each year.

In the group stages – rounds three to five – teams will play three games, with the top two teams in each group of four advancing to the quarter-finals and the bottom two teams entering a Shield equivalent. There will still be the same number of rounds – eight including the semi-finals and final – and it should ensure a competitive element exists right throughout the championship.

It is a bold and innovative proposal – one which, it is understood, did meet with general agreement from the delegates on Monday night. One suspects it is a proposal that will also be embraced by the players and clubs and, indeed, the current Galway senior management, who have expressed their wish to see a more competitive edge introduced to club hurling earlier in the year.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.