Changes to Junior hurling structure

BARNDARRIG GAA CLUB proved successful in their bid to change the structure of the Junior hurling championship at the recent County board meeting in Ballinakill.

The motion stated: ‘The Junior hurling championship draw cannot be based on the finishing positions of the Junior league’.

“Essentially, I’ve been Junior hurling for a long time, what happens in the league is that the top four are Junior A, the next four are Junior B and then you have Junior C. What this is essentially doing is leaving the weaker clubs down in Junior C all the time because regardless of players playing where they’re playing, clubs with Intermediate and Senior teams have much stronger teams at the start of the Junior league,” said Tom Doyle from Barndarrig.

“And they’re winning through maybe the first five or six games and they’re ending up in the top championships. We think it should be, you have your league, you might have the top four playing in the semi-finals of the league and once that’s finished then you have an open draw for the championships,” he added.

Martin Fitzgerald said that the CCC would have “no problem” with the motion.

Mick Hagan inquired as to whether there should be a Junior hurling league with no championship involved.

“Yeah, the league and the championship are separate competitions,” said Tom.

“And when the league is over you have an open draw for the championship. It’s an open draw. We’re talking about a system that was in place about seven or eight years ago. Mick (Hagan) knows that system. If you lost your first game you went into the ‘B’ championship and if you lost your second game you went into the ‘C’ championship. And it worked fine.

“Just to add to Johnny’s point there, the team that won the Junior ‘A’ this year gave three walkovers in the league section, so, technically, should they have been in the competition in the first place?”

The motion was proposed and seconded.

One club delegate said that if a team from the bottom of the league is drawn against a top team they will get “hockeyed”.

“And then they’ll go into the ‘B’ championship,” said Tom Doyle.

“And then they’ll get hockeyed by the second placed team in the league in the ‘B’ championship,” warned the delegate.

“They’re less likely to get hockeyed in that system than in the current system because in the current system the top teams, they’re still playing Senior and Intermediate players throughout the league,” said Tom. “But, once they get to championship stage those bigger clubs can’t play their Senior and Intermediate players, they can only play players that have been regraded,” he added.

Jackie Napier said that he believed that the Junior hurling leagues had been very good over the last number of years and that they had provided hurling and he was proposing that the status quo remains. He also said that the club proposing the motion had given a few walkovers themselves.

“The statistics we were given at the Fixtures Review meeting clearly showed that the Junior hurling league has the most walkovers, I think it was 13. The competitions did go well five or six years ago but now it’s a joke. We have had an away fixture with a team from the west and they have never actually travelled to our pitch. They have always given a walkover.

“It’s a well-run competition but it’s not supported by the clubs,” added Tom Doyle.

Jackie Napier’s counter proposal was seconded by Kiltegan.

The vote was held and Barndarrig’s motion was passed.

“There’s no need to count,” said Martin Fitzgerald.