Brennan wants open draw for hurling

GAA president Nickey Brennan has advocated an open draw in the All-Ireland hurling championship, unless there is at least some restructuring of the provincial format.

It was Brennan's first response to Sunday's brutally predictable Leinster final, where his native Kilkenny proved emphatic winners over Wexford.

"This has become an annual debate now," said Brennan, "and that's the frustrating part, that we can't settle on a structure. But there are two options left for the GAA now. One is a Munster championship and what we'll loosely call a Leinster championship, that includes Galway and Antrim.

"If that option is still not acceptable then it's the open draw. I just don't know if the appetite is there for that just yet, but it's still on the agenda. In fairness, there's not a strong argument for getting rid of the Munster championship, I recognise that.

"But I know the Kilkenny County Board have intimated that they realise the problem that's there, and they're not actually looking to retain the Leinster championship at all. They've been extremely open on this, and prepared to enter into any other arrangement that will better hurling."

While Brennan highlighted further faults in the current format, such as the current qualifier series, he also warned against an overreaction to the general state of hurling, citing a largely competitive championship to date: "At the moment we're going through a qualifier system that involves three matches, and some teams losing all three. I don't think that's improving the situation either, and using it's up valuable club time.

"But there's a danger here as well that people are getting emotional about one particular game. Yes, it was a disappointing game, and an extremely poor performance from Wexford. Yet, we've had a great championship so far, not just in Munster, but the two Leinster semi-finals involving Offaly and Kilkenny and Dublin and Wexford were entertaining games. We can also expect some very good games in the quarter-finals.

"I think it is disappointing the way standards have changed in Leinster. Kilkenny are continuing to push ahead, but have dominated underage hurling for so long that what's happening now was an inevitable consequence.

"But Dublin are moving in the right direction, with players opting for hurling ahead of football. They are prepared to do the work and have started to reap the rewards.

"And there are genuine efforts and improvements taking place in the other counties. I met George O'Connor this morning and he is extremely enthusiastic the way things are working out at his level in Wexford, and that the underage players he's dealing with will be the future of Wexford hurling.

"The issue now is that these developments are still off at delivering at senior level, and the question (is) can we afford to have such a lopsided Leinster championship in the meantime. And the answer is probably not. No disrespect to the other teams, but we can't see anyone touching Kilkenny for the foreseeable future."

From his own previous involvement with the GAA's Hurling Development Committee (HDC) Brennan is acutely aware of the difficulties in introducing sweeping changes to the championship format, let alone the relatively minor adjustment of bringing Galway and Antrim into Leinster competitions. It was in fact Brennan who extended the formal invitation to Galway to join Leinster four years ago, which, to his regret, wasn't thoroughly discussed.

"I sent a detailed document to Galway, giving them a major part in all Leinster hurling activities, and that never got to the clubs. So the clubs didn't turn it down; they never got an opportunity to discuss it. That's history, but I'm still talking with the HDC on this.

"And Antrim, from what I hear, want to play in Leinster, because they'll get a higher level of competition across all grades. So this is not just an issue for the Leinster Council. It's a national issue, for the Hurling Development Committee.

"But there is no short-term solution; if there was we'd have sorted it out last Monday morning.

"Still, there appears to be some meeting of minds to have what we would loosely call a Munster and Leinster championship, the latter involving Galway and Antrim. To me that seems a logical way forward. But a few people still need to be convinced on that."

Brennan was speaking at the Vodafone All Star awards lunch, where Limerick's Ollie Moran and Tyrone's Brian Dooher received the hurling and football awards respectively for the month June.

The same two players had received a similar award from the Gaelic Players Association just 24 hours previously, and Brennan confirmed there would be a rescheduling of the events to avoid repeating such a clash.