GAA:A Champions League format for the All-Ireland hurling championship is "inevitable", according to the chair of the Hurling Development Committee (HDC), Ned Quinn, from Kilkenny.
He made the remarks at yesterday's presentation in Dublin of the Vodafone players of the month awards for August and September.
Quinn was speaking ahead of Saturday's Special Congress to consider revised proposals for next year's senior hurling championship. He emphasised he was speaking in a personal capacity.
"If I was to speak personally on the whole issue, I think we're in a process that will inevitably lead to a Champions League-type hurling championship. It's a question of deciding when we do it, but for the moment I don't think anyone's going to stand up and propose abolishing the Munster championship.
"I wouldn't like to (put an exact time on it), but I think we're talking five years down the road at least. It's a process that's evolving all the time.
"I'm only giving a personal opinion and I'm certainly not speaking as chairman of the Hurling Development Committee, but I think there's an inevitability about it. If you examine what's happened since the back door system was introduced, we've modified it, changed it, moved it, and we've still to get what could be described as a fair system for everybody."
The HDC will be proposing a new format for next year's hurling championship at Saturday's Special Congress in Dublin. These proposals emerged from a meeting in Croke Park between the HDC, GAA president Nickey Brennan, director general Liam Mulvihill, chairpersons and secretaries from the provincial councils plus the Central Competitions Control Committee.
"We (the HDC) were asked to devise a system," said Quinn, "that would eliminate repeat games in as far as possible, would eliminate the qualifiers, would put in place a promotion-relegation system between the MacCarthy Cup and the Christy Ring Cup and to come up with a "two strikes and you're out" format - and do all that within the context of the provincial system that we have. That was our task."
The format dispenses with the last two years of qualifier round robins and eight-team All-Ireland quarter-finals, and seeks to introduce a series of matches for defeated counties at each stage of the provincial system, plus to accommodate Galway and Antrim. If passed at the weekend, the proposed system will supersede one adopted at annual congress last April before the latter has had even a year's trial.
According to Quinn, there was no row-back on the contentious proposal to allow Leinster and Munster champions direct access to the All-Ireland semi-finals. "There wasn't, because if you're to do away with the qualifier system there's not enough teams to produce knock-out games. This is also set in the context of what Páraic Duffy is trying to do for clubs. It will free up game time for club championships."
He acknowledged, however, that there is a concern at the loss of profile and promotional opportunity for hurling that the proposed system necessarily entails.
"There is concern regarding that, but it's a difficult thing to square the circle: to reduce the number of games to facilitate the clubs and to maintain all the games we have is just not possible, so there was a big demand to eliminate what was described as the meaningless games."
He also said the failure of the idea to add Galway to the Leinster championship was not purely the decision of the Connacht county, pointing out that Leinster counties were unhappy at the prospect of so strong an under-age force arriving in the province.
"I'd have to say that at the meeting I was at in Leinster when a vote was taken on whether Galway were to be invited in, it was 10-2. As chair I can say that Kilkenny were one of the two that voted for them to come in, as I signed the vote."
HDC proposals for SHC
(how it would have looked, if applied to 2007)
Stage One:Galway v Antrim [ say Galway].
Stage Two:Galway v Leinster first round losers (Laois), Antrim v Munster first round losers (Clare)
Stage Three:Cross drawn defeated semi-finalists from Munster and Leinster, eg: Tipperary v Offaly, Cork v Dublin.
Stage Four:Winners Stage Two and Three drawn to play, eg: Galway/Laois v Cork/Dublin, Antrim/Clare v Tipperary/Offaly.
Stage Five:Winners Stage Four v provincial finalists, eg: Wexford v Antrim/Clare/Tipperary/Offaly, Limerick v Galway/Laois/Cork/Dublin
All-Ireland semi-finals:Winners Stage Five v Provincial champions, eg: Kilkenny v Limerick/Galway/Laois/Cork/Dublin, Waterford v Wexford/Antrim/Clare/Tipperary/Offaly.
