‘It’s worst decision in the GAA’s history’

LANDMARK DAY FOR HURLING AS DELEGATES IGNORE WATERFORD WARNING ON REFORM

In hurling there will be no dead rubbers there and every game will count. Three teams are fighting for the quarter-finals.. TALKING HEADS Delegates listen to debate yesterday at Croke Park before voting on motions

THE All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship faces its most radical overhaul ever for 2018 after Special Congress at Croke Park yesterday.

A Central Council motion, which called for the Munster and Leinster SHCs to be run on a round robin basis, passed narrowly with 62% of the 153 delegates present voting in favour of it, just passing the 60% majority required.

Earlier in the day the Central Council proposal had seen off competition from Dublin, Cork and Tipperary motions before being put to a vote on its own though it certainly wasn’t without its critics with Waterford’s Paddy Joe Ryan going as far as to say it would be the “worst decision in the history of the GAA” if it were passed.

He added that the Central Council motion was “riddled with uncertainties” and implored his fellow delegates to “keep what we have until we get something better”.

His words and those of others failed to persuade sufficient numbers, however, and major reform is on the way for hurling next year, somewhat mirroring that of football, where the AllIreland quarter-final stage will be replaced with two round robin groups next year.

Another common complaint was that the new system will give way to dead rub- ber games, something which GAA director Paraic Duffy played down.

He said: “There are potential flaws with round robins but in hurling, where you have five teams in a group and three are fighting for the quarter-finals or better and two are trying to avoid relegation, there’ll be no dead rubbers there and every game will count.

“I think in the football because of the steps we’ve taken it’ll be a very minor issue as well but I think that we’ve dealt with the round robins as well as you possibly can.”

The Central Council motion didn’t get it all its own way as an amendment from Offaly, Laois and Meath, calling for the finalists from the newly created tier two championship to enter the Liam MacCarthy Cup race at an preliminary quarter-final stage, was passed. It was the preference of Central Council to run the tier two competition alongside the All-Ireland Championship, concluding both at around the same time but that won’t be the case now.

Duffy continued: “It can be fitted in. It’s not a big problem. It would be easier if it wasn’t there but to be fair to the counties in that second tier, they felt it was very, very important.

“We’ll still have the All-Ireland final on the 19th of August. There’ll be gaps between the round robin and various stages and so on. All but two will be finished by the end of July, the two All-Ireland finalists. So there’ll be a great window for clubs in April, a complete month in April, and bar the two teams in the All-Ireland final, August, September, November, December for club games.

“That doesn’t mean there won’t be games played in the summer, there will be.”

Changes made to the AllIreland under-21 and minor hurling Championships also swept through with little dissent.

Ulster counties will now compete in Leinster in both grades, while Galway will follow their senior team into the province at under-21 level.

At minor level, Galway will enter the competition in a round robin against the beaten Leinster and Munster finalists, with the top two progressing to the All-Ireland semi-final.