Delaney presents stark vision for Leinster

Convention News: Leinster secretary Michael Delaney has expressed grave concern about the state of the province's senior championships.

Writing in his annual report to next Saturday's annual convention, he says that the hurling championship is "practically extinct" and that the football championship has "lost much of its charm".

His comments come against a backdrop that has seen Kilkenny win all but one of the last nine senior hurling titles and a gap that now stands at six years since a Leinster county won even an All-Ireland football semi-final.

Delaney also questions the impact of the All-Ireland qualifier system on the provincial championships on the basis that the dilution of knock-out competition is affecting match attendances and team attitudes, but feels that sight of this is being lost as new championship formats are considered.

"In all this talk of change of systems very little reference is made to the effect on provincial senior championships," he writes. "These once great flagships of the association are fast diminishing. The introduction of the qualifiers has had a detrimental effect on these championships.

"This is neither a criticism of the qualifiers nor a plea for another change of direction - it is merely a statement of fact. In Leinster, the provincial hurling championship is practically extinct. The recent domination by Kilkenny is only partly the reason. There is virtually no incentive for any of our other counties - apart from local pride - to concentrate on anything but the qualifier and All-Ireland series.

"The Leinster senior football championship has lost much of its charm. The emergence a few years ago of a couple of new Leinster champions proved to be a false dawn - they were immediately swallowed up in the extended qualifiers by counties that had already been knocked out of their own provincial championships.

"Nowadays, apart from Dublin games in Croke Park, the general public are apathetic about our games. The frightening thing about this is that if Dublin hit a trough or go out early it will have serious financial implications for our council.

"Do I exaggerate? Consider this - there was a bigger crowd at the first round O'Byrne Cup game on January 6th between Wicklow and Carlow than there was at the SFC game between the same counties last summer. What was the difference? Okay, it might have something to do with the team management, but another major difference was that the O'Byrne Cup game was knock-out."

Delaney is also highly critical of the influence of county managers on recent playing rules experimentation and calls for decisions on these matters to be made only within the official structures of the GAA.

"It is vitally important that all our decisions are made within our own official structures. The emergence of ad hoc groups like county managers must be resisted in the area of administration of our games. Their recent intervention to overturn the decisions of Central Council on match regulations is disturbing.

"Likewise, they now seem to be focusing on telling referees how they should do their jobs. That is not their responsibility, and any further attempts to influence this area - or any other of like nature - must be resisted."

This is a reference to criticism by county managers of what has been characterised as more stringent officiating during the recently started National League campaigns.

Some of the new rules on discipline are also critically appraised, with Delaney pessimistic about the likely effect of certain refinements to the rules.

"The new disciplinary code, amazingly, has drastically reduced the minimum suspensions in many instances. Striking with the hurley or kicking now has a minimum penalty of four weeks compared with the previous 12 weeks. There is a distinction between 'with force' or 'with minimal force' in these infractions, but this immediately puts pressure on referees and disciplinary committees - history and human nature tells us which of these descriptions will apply in both instances."

The new rules and structures are already under pressure. "Already there are disturbing signs that referees' decisions will not be accepted when put under scrutiny. This is a dangerous trend and must be monitored carefully by Central Council."