Codyjoins committee to boost spread ofhurling across country

Kilkenny’s 11-time All-Ireland-winning manager Brian Cody has signed up to Croke Park’s hurling development committee for the next three years.

Cody, who stepped down from Kilkenny management in 2022, has agreed to be part of the committee that will primarily look at increasing the spread of clubs playing hurling across the country.

The committee, put together by new GAA president Jarlath Burns, will also have former Tipperary goalkeepers Brendan Cummins and Darragh Egan, another Tipperary representative William Meagher, former Antrim hurler Neil McManus and former Cork hurler Seán O’Gorman.

It will be chaired by Antrim’s Terry Reilly, Ulster’s Central Council representative on the GAA Management Committee. Colm Nolan, chair of the previous hurling development committee, is the only outgoing member to be retained. Nolan was a key architect of Kildare’s successful hurling plan at the end of the last decade.

Clare’s James McInerney, Declan Bogue, a sports journalist from Fermanagh, and Carlow’s Ciarán Bolger will complete the committee.

Meanwhile, the two female nominations for GAA management made by the president and director-general Tom Ryan have not been finalised, according to the committee list distributed by Croke Park over the weekend.

As it is, seven of the 19 current management members are female, which is just below the 40pc gender balance threshold set by the Government for sports organisations put in place by 2024.

When the final two nominations are confirmed, it will bring management numbers up to 21, ensuring the threshold is met.

The Ulster female representative has been confirmed as Moyagh Murdock, joining Leinster’s Joan Kehoe, Munster’s Keelin Kissane and Connacht’s Mary Judge. Former Cork chair Tracey Kennedy is a Congress representative, while the respective chief executives of the LGFA and Camogie Association, Helen O’Rourke and Sinéad McNulty, will have votes at the table now.