No change to hurling race

THE format of the Galway senior and intermediate hurling championships remain unchanged for 2014.

Delegates at last Thursday’s hurling committee convention at Loughgeorge voted to maintain the status quo in relation to the structure of the county’s flagship competitions.

Several clubs had put forward proposals to restructure the championship but a motion – proposed by Portumna and seconded by Kilnadeema/Leitrim – to retain the same structure as this year was passed by a majority of delegates.

Clarinbridge and Tynagh/ Abbey/Duniry, who both had motions to change the championship, had opposed the Portumna motion.

There were 84 delegates eligible to vote and a total of 44 supported the Portumna motion, “to keep the format at senior championship level as played in 2013”.

That system came into being following a recommendation by the influential Galway hurling review group headed by former GAA President, Joe McDonagh, a couple of years ago.

Portumna delegate, Sylvie Donoghue, who proposed the motion, pleaded with delegates that it was “too early” to change the format which has been in place for two years now.  “We feel it has worked out well – give it another year or two,” he said.

Donoghue argued that the championship should be kept the way it is for another two years.  “The bite is there,” he said of the hurling fare that has been served up over the past two championships.

A similar motion, proposed by Kilimor, in relation to keeping the intermediate championship unchanged, was also passed.

Once those two motions were carried, about ten other motions that proposed various changes and restructuring of the championship formats, all fell by the wayside.

The clubs that had proposed changes were Pádraig Pearses, Mullagh, Clarinbridge, Athenry, Cappataggle, St Thomas’, Sarsfields, and Meelick/Eyrecourt. 

There were several motions in relation to the staging of county finals, and taking it away from Salthill. Sarsfields proposed the county final be staged outside of Pearse Stadium on a minimum bi-annual basis; and from Meelick/Eyrecourt proposed that the county final be returned to “traditional” venues in Athenry, Ballinasloe and Loughrea.

Committee chairman, Joe Byrne, said fixtures were a matter for the Central Competitions Committee (CCC) but the motions could be forwarded to them as recommendations.