Gaelic Games

GAA President Ó Fearghaíl reveals proposal to change hurling structure

Revamp would see a round robin introduced for the provincial championships

GAA President Aogán Ó Fearghaíl has revealed a proposal to change the structure of the hurling championship. Photograph: Donall Farmer/Inpho

Sun May 7 2017 - 17:51

The President of the GAA Aogán Ó Fearghaíl has confirmed a proposal to change the structure of the hurling championship.

These changes - which are likely to be put before a Special Congress in October- would include the introduction of a round robin stage during the Leinster and Munster championships, with sides playing each other home and away.

Speaking at the launch of RTE’s summer GAA coverage Ó Fearghaíl also indicated Galway would be able to play home fixtures after the revamp.

He said: “In all the debate and discussions many issues were raised on the preliminary stage [SUPER 8S]in football and one of the issues that was raised that has total merit is that there was risk that by having so many high profile football games, that hurling would suffer and I accept that completely.

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“We’ve had many discussions and we have an excellent hurling development committee in Croke Park and with the hurling development committee and the CCC and our own management, we’ve had quite an in-depth investigation and we will now present at the June meeting, a similar type model in hurling.

“So all the teams involved in the Liam MacCarthy cup will have additional games, there will be home games and away games and we think it will give hurling the exposure it needs.

“It would start on a round robin, keeping the Leinster championship and the Munster championship. We will need to have home games and away games for all counties, and I would stress that Galway included. Galway needs to have hurling matches played at their home venue and with the agreement with the Leinster council we are almost there.”

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