ULSTER IN NEED OF A NEW WAY
TIME TO DISCUSS VISION FOR HURLING UP NORTH
“Things can’t get any worse right now”
“Honestly, it’s not a runner in Antrim”
THE tag on Jerome Quinn’s YouTube video says it all: ‘It needs out-of-thebox thinking in these unprecedented times to bring in unprecedented change for the promotion of hurling in Ulster’.
Cue a roll call of 11 top players and managers backing the idea of Team Ulster – that competitive identity that the likes of Cork AllIreland winner Dónal Óg Cusack has long championed, and that is designed around the idea of any talented player from Ulster having the opportunity of competing for the Liam MacCarthy Cup. It would give them the chance to pit themselves against TJ Reid, Patrick Horgan or Paudie Maher, go toe to toe with Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary — or any of the traditional top counties.
And the 15-minute video certainly is a provocative jumpingoff point. Slaughtneil manager and Ballycastle native Michael McShane outlined its value, but added any Team Ulster would have to train the year-round to compete with a team like reigning champions Tipperary.
Seán Óg Grogan of Carrickmore and Tyrone pointed to the divisional system in Cork and the example of Imokilly winning championships. ‘Why not give it a go? It has to be done properly. It can’t be a gimmick.’
Loughgiel and former Antrim hurler Eddie McCloskey cautioned that it should be explored – but without Antrim where the will isn’t there.
Chrissy McKaigue of Slaughtneil and Derry took to task the current tiered system and said that the opportunity to compete on the highest stage should not be down to a quirk of fate or where you are born. His plea was an emotive one: ‘At this stage it’s worth a gamble, because things can’t really get any worse.’
For those on the other side of the argument, there is the very real risk of doing just that, of diluting the identity of a county hurler in Ulster and the pull of their own county jersey.
Antrim’s Neil McManus (below) put it in plain terms when speaking to this newspaper. Before the hurling Leagues were halted due to Covid-19, his county was one game away from sealing a place in the top flight.
‘I know from talking to other Antrim hurlers, people involved, there is no interest in it. Team Ulster isn’t a runner for anyone in Antrim. And it’s probably not for a lot of other people.
‘For Antrim, we’re very bought into and focused on Team Antrim. We see a great opportunity to try and get back into Division 1, whenever hurling does get going again. Either ourselves or Kerry are going to make that step – God willing it’s us.
‘It has been hard to get back to that position but we feel we would be competitive with the vast majority of teams in Ireland on our day. Things are very much moving in the right direction. There is no thirst for the proposal in Antrim. In truth, there’s never been. There’s been talk – loose talk.
‘The one thing
I’ll always go back to — what happens to the county? What happens to Down if a number of the best players link up with Team Ulster — say Conor Woods, Danny Toner, the two Sands brothers go hurling for Team Ulster. What happens to Down? Surely it’s a much less attractive prospect to hurl for your county without those lads being there?’
The example in Cork where divisional teams allow a player like Séamus Harnedy to come from a junior club background with St Ita’s and yet win a three-in-a-row with Imokilly is effectively the ideal model to replicate.
Except the logistics of a province like Ulster, not to mention an already problematic and jammed inter-county calendar, pose real challenges. ‘I really don’t think it does work, practically or logistically,’ adds McManus. ‘The people who are offering an opinion and saying this is a great idea, maybe they don’t realise Ulster is a
very big place. If you live in the northern end of Donegal, you could be driving for an hour and a half before you exit Donegal. Some of the travel involved here would be crazy. Leaving the Glens on a winter’s Tuesday evening to get up to Belfast for training is slightly over an hour. And we’re talking about bringing people two or three hours of travel any given evening?
‘What about in terms of fixtures? This would affect every county in Ulster – I just cannot see how it would work. To be honest, a lot of these guys that you’re talking about play football as well. And in Ulster, that’s the dominant force.
‘Where is the talk of a Team Connacht without Galway? We never hear that. And why not? is it because Ulster in the north and it’s because you just need to sort it there?
‘If you look at Dublin and the massive strides they have made, there is nearly a coaching officer
in every club in Dublin. Gaelfast,
which has started in Belfast, has six coaching officers for a city of over 300,000 people. ‘If we fund it properly – the city of Derry has very little hurling going on. Armagh the same. We need to get proper investment into those areas and start at the start. Get it going at the grassroots and bring it up.
‘It’s a non-runner in Antrim, to be totally honest. Antrim wouldn’t have any interest in it.
‘The next question is, would there be a desire for it, without the Antrim players? That’s the only question that should be asked. But where does that leave the other eight counties re their own teams? In a very poor position.
‘I definitely would be interested in seeing a proposal. Because it’s so far away from being possible. There is nothing to discuss at the minute. It’s an off-the-wall kind of idea.’
If Team Ulster appears in the Liam MacCarthy Cup – and that is no guarantee given how hard counties have found to break in and stay in the Leinster round robin (the five-team Munster championship is effectively a closed shop) – do Antrim or Down or any other Ulster county still try and compete? No doubt at a lower level without their best players?
And what happens if Team Ulster is subject to the same relegation or promotion guidelines that currently exist? Say, if they take a spot in the Leinster championship and are relegated, in the same way that Carlow were in 2018, the first year of the round robin?
All that time, energy, and trouble to risk ending up in the Joe McDonagh Cup after a year, the second tier competition that Antrim have been regularly competing in?
It’s time, as McManus says, to see an actual proposal instead of all this loose talk in a vacuum.
Only then, can the proper merits and demerits be argued.