No date for hurling draws

Following a CCCC meeting on Tuesday, the decision was taken by Committee Chairman Noel Treacy – as was his prerogative – to reschedule the meeting “in order to bring clarity and closure to the recent issues and doubts surrounding the club championship competitions”.

Galway’s senior and intermediate hurling championships, along with a number of other competitions, were thrown into chaos after an objection from the Moycullen club forced the Hurling Committee to abandon their scheduled championship draws, which were to be aired live on Galway Bay FM last Thursday night.

It is understood Moycullen, relegated from senior last year, lodged an objection against the draws proceeding as the competition match regulations for 2014 had not been approved by the Galway County Committee – as should be the case under bye-law 22.

Consequently, the 2014 U-21 hurling championship draws, which had been made, will possibly have to be redone while the move also cast doubts over Galway’s Gaelic football competitions, in which a number of U-21 games have already been played.

However, Galway GAA Secretary John Hynes says he does not believe the football competitions will be affected by this latest controversy as the match regulations had been discussed at Football Committee level and had been subsequently endorsed by the CCCC.

“The Football Committee had reviewed their championships at a Football Committee meeting and discussed their match regulations at the start of the year and these were approved by the CCCC,” said Hynes.

“They still have to get approval from the County Committee and this will be done on Monday night. So, I suppose, for them, it was in transition. It’s a case of ‘once bitten, twice shy’.

“However, there is no problem with the football because they had discussed them at Committee level and I don’t think the same can be said about the hurling.”

This latest debacle arises out of on-going concerns relating to the structure of the Galway senior hurling championship over the past three years. Hynes explains there are two distinct issues at play here.

“The first issue relates to the senior structure or format. There were questions raised at the County Convention by the Athenry club in relation to rule 6.20, paragraph 3, that when it comes to a county championship, a county can organise a bye in the first round but after that any other bye needs approval from Central Council if it is to comply with rule.

“We knew this last year and, as a result, we checked it out with the Rules Advisory Committee who recommended we send it on to Central Council for approval. And this was approved on February 21,” outlined Hynes, who said the second issue relates to match regulations.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.