HURLING NEEDS HELP
Davy asks Croke Park to intervene
WEXFORD MANAGER Davy Fitzgerald has called on Croke Park to look after hurling.
In the immediate aftermath of his side’s fourth Allianz League success, and amid the rising tide of big football games, Fitzgerald reckons that the G.A.A. at central level has a responsibility to promote hurling to the best of its ability.
The Association voted at Congress to eliminate the All-Ireland football quarter-finals in favour of two four-team round robin groups, which will bring eight extra championship games in peak summer next year.
This will in effect create 19 championship games during a period when hurling will be confined to a mere five games.
While Fitzgerald insisted that he has no problem with the football proposals, he stressed that Croke Park must look after hurling too.
‘It’s hard for me to comment on the football, because I wouldn’t be one hundred per cent familiar with the structures,’ he said.
‘To me hurling is an incredible game, played with skill and pace. There are very few field games like hurling.
‘Hurling is one of the best field games in the world, of that I’ve no doubt, all the more reason it should be protected and promoted.
‘We have to make sure, the G.A.A. has to make sure, that it promotes hurling to the very top.
‘The G.A.A. don’t take it as seriously as they should. Hurling is a massive game and we need to protect and mind it.
‘Even with the leagues, there aren’t enough top level games that we could be playing. I really believe they need to look at that,’ he added.
‘It’s important when we are doing things to think it out. It’s not whether it makes the most money, or whether it suits some people.
‘It’s about what’s best for hurling and how can we keep as many counties as possible playing at the very top level and that it’s not dominated by one or two or three teams.’
Former President, Nickey Brennan, last week expressed his belief that a round-robin system similar to that about to be implemented in football could also suit hurling.
With a revamp of the National League likely for 2018, hurling counties could yet move to have a round-robin system established for the championship over the coming months.