Location the selling point

Hurling Focus on the weaker counties: One of the more poignant moments of last Saturday's congress debate on the proposals of the Hurling Development Committee (HDC) came during the speech of HDC chair Pat Dunny. A well-regarded dual player with Kildare, he hurled with the county during a rare era of senior competitiveness in 1970s.will take to whip up interest in, and enthusiasm for, the new hurlingchampionships

As he outlined the case for the new championship proposals, Dunny disclosed that in his career he had only hurled in Thurles once. For any hurler, playing Semple Stadium means a lot and sometimes, stripped of context, more than playing in Croke Park.

Major hurling counties get a fair share of appearances in Thurles so it was sobering to hear how few the opportunities could be for a player from a non-elite county outside of Munster.

It also cut to the core of the argument in favour of the proposals. The fact that there are more guaranteed matches during the summer makes sense to all intercounty players. The introduction of senior quarter-finals redresses the competitive imbalance between the provincial championships by ensuring that in the race for the All-Ireland series everyone starts at the same tape.

For many observers the championship will only be properly fixed when it is organised on a league basis, thus allowing the game's relatively small number of competitive counties to play each other more often during the summer. That, however, is a long way off and few blamed the HDC for lack of ambition, praising instead the efficiency of the campaign for gradualist reform.

"They did as much as they could," says Michael Duignan, Sunday Game analyst, Offaly All-Ireland winner and former Meath manager. "People were talking about getting rid of the Munster and Leinster championships but that wouldn't have passed.

"Ger Loughnane paid tribute to Pat Dunny knowing the politics of the GAA and that was evident in the result.

"At least now everyone gets matches through the summer, which is the only time to be playing the game."

Loughnane, the HDC member and star witness (whose testimony was ultimately not needed) at congress, afterwards echoed the line that the proposals were essentially aimed at the non-traditional counties.

Central to this is the provision of two further tiers of championship after senior in order to give all counties a championship they can realistically contest. Previous attempts at establishing such an outlet failed because the counties involved didn't always take it seriously and they in turn detected a similar lack of enthusiasm among the authorities.

"The trouble with that is when Meath got knocked out, no one ever knew when the B would be on," says Duignan. "It might be July or it might be August so club matches couldn't be organised. It would be a huge thing for a player from Meath or Kerry to know that they were going to play a final at Croke Park. It would certainly build up profile and give players and supporters something to aim at."

Donnach Callan hurls with Louth, currently the bottom-ranked county in the National Hurling League. He has been an energetic advocate of improving the lot of weaker hurling counties and has worked closely with the Gaelic Players Association in this respect, briefing the HDC on life at his end of the spectrum. He sees the new championship structures as a start, guaranteeing extra matches in the summer.

"For the last four years we've played Meath in the first round of the Leinster junior championship, which has meant one match all summer. At the moment the only thing that keeps you going is just the desire to play. It's always a struggle and there's no incentive.

"We made the point to the HDC. It would be a major incentive for us to play in Croke Park - a major thing. There's talk of rugby and soccer playing at Croke Park but we feel that we're part of the association and yet only the elite players get to play in the big stadiums.

"If I knew there would be a final in Croke Park, played before a senior championship match, I'd really put in the effort. All players would do the same if there was a set date every year when the final would be played. At the moment it seems as if the junior championship is played just for the sake of playing it."

Taken in tandem with Dunny's remark about his own career, reaction to the HDC plan reflects the huge importance of venue and fixture-making for the status of the new championship tiers.

Kerry manager Eddie Murphy already this week made the point that the new championships' viability would depend on matches having a sense of occasion and not being staged in remote fields or at best on the undercard of football matches.

Páraic Duffy chaired the Competitions Review Task Force, which sponsored the HDC proposals. He says that raising the profile of the new championships was a key element in their presentation.

"This was sold at provincial briefings on the new structure - that the finals would be in conjunction with major games. My understanding was that the Tier Two final would take place on the same afternoon as a senior semi-final with the Tier Three final being put on with a quarter-final.

"I never heard any commitment about the rest of the fixtures but I think the GAA is morally obliged to put the finals on with major games."

There are, however, other problems for the non-elite counties besides when and where they get to play their championship matches. Under the current system the structures are tilted hopelessly against the likes of Louth.

"There's also the big gap of two or three months between the end of the league and the beginning of the championship in July," says Callan. "You lose momentum and players go back to their clubs, which then takes preference among the players who are thinking 'Sure it's just one game and we never beat Meath'.

"Getting coaches into the counties is also important. They've done it up north and you can see the results. Even Cavan won a match this year for the first time in years. They have structures in place. At our county convention this year there was a vote to appoint a hurling coach but it hasn't happened due to a lack of funding.

"I think it would be good to get separate sponsorship. If there were a separate sponsor they'd push the championship more than an overall sponsor who's only going to be interested in the senior."

At the heart of the new structures is the question of how seriously they will be taken. Counties will always maintain that their fading interest in subsidiary championships was always as a result of a Croke Park failure to promote and maintain the status of these competitions, either through scheduling or fixture-making.

There is also the simple, human need for a bit of recognition. Callan has known for an entire hurling life that his birthplace ruled out any chance of the game's glittering prizes. But next year he and his colleagues will have summer action on hard grounds and some realistic motivation.

And if Louth are there in Croke Park with the voltage of an imminent All-Ireland semi-final buzzing the ground he'd love the attention.

"Even television coverage would help. A few highlights on The Sunday Game would do wonders for the profile. Imagine Ger Loughnane analysing Louth and Longford for a couple of minutes. That'd go back to the county and get people talking."

In last Saturday's edition in a report on a Central Council meeting at Congress, remarks on behalf of the provincial council of Britain about the suspension of Galway's Kevin Brady were attributed to Mayo's Paddy Muldoon. The speaker was in fact Britain delegate Paddy Johnson.