All Star trip is criticised

A member of the GAA's Management Committee has strongly criticised the decision to replace the Railway Cup football competition with next week's All Stars trip to Dubai. The comments came from Noel Walsh who is one of the GAA's trustees and a long-time advocate of the inter-provincial competition which has been omitted from this year's calendar of events.

In recent years the Railway Cup took place at the end of January and beginning of February but this year its abolition has been proposed by the Games Administration Committee (GAC). Next Tuesday the 1999 and 2000 All Stars will depart for an exhibition match in Dubai to be played next weekend.

Walsh deplored the listing of the All Stars trip in the GAA's official diary in the light of the Railway Cup's omission. "That's appalling. This after all is a junket and while I have no difficulties with players receiving these trips as relaxation and a reward for all they contribute, this isn't the best timing for it. I don't see why this couldn't have been fixed for an earlier date."

He also said that he was going to raise the matter of the Railway Cup at last night's Management Committee meeting even though the subject was not on the official agenda.

At the end of last year, the GAC decided that with increased championship fixtureloads in football this year and probably hurling in 12 months, there wasn't enough room on the calendar for the Railway Cup, the All-Ireland B football championship and the Oireachtas hurling tournament.

Having communicated this view to Croke Park, the committee made no provision for the tournaments in this year's diary. A final decision will be made by Management but Walsh believes GAC acted precipitously.

"No decision has been taken on this yet. I think it was a bit high-handed of the GAC to make no provision for the Railway Cup and say that they'll stick it in later if they're told to."

Padraig Duffy, chairman of the GAC, says that consideration of the All Stars trip formed no part of the fixturemaking process. "We simply decided that there wasn't room for the competition. It wasn't listed in the calendar because we didn't think it should be there. Our intention was to try and leave both December and January free from fixtures. The only advantage about the end of January as a date is that the Railway Cup gets played but there's no prestige to that. Players aren't fit and it's not an ideal situation.

"The All Stars tour hadn't been arranged by the time we made our recommendation so it had nothing to do with that. If we were fixing matches for January, our first choice would have been the Dublin-Kerry League game which now can't be played until March."

Duffy says that should the Management Committee decide against abolition of the competition, its position in the calendar is likely to revert to January from next year. "If it is decided the Railway Cup stays, we'll have to find another slot for it this year but we were determined to bring the issue to the forefront. In the future, it's hard to see when else it could be held except at the end of January."

Although he supports the principle of organising overseas tours for players, Walsh believes that these events have lost much of their allure.

(His point is partly substantiated by the Players' Committee survey which is believed to indicate - inter alia - that players would prefer the Railway Cup to be played in Croke Park rather than as an overseas exhibition).

"Travel is no longer a big attraction. I was talking to Tony O'Keeffe (Kerry county secretary) and he was saying that the Kerry lads are only back one weekend and they're off again the next. Nearly all teams have holidays nowadays and you can see the effect of that in the number of withdrawals from next week's trip.

"I've been amazed at the number of players who've pulled out. It hasn't just been the original players but the replacements called up instead of them. This won't be a competitive game and it's hard to see how it will meaningfully promote football."

Dublin's new hurling selectors won't be named until tomorrow at the earliest. Manager Kevin Fennelly who was appointed last Monday has completed his first week looking over the county panel but he won't be in charge for tomorrow's Walsh Cup match against Wexford in Gorey.

"Kevin will have a watching brief in Wexford," according to county chairman John Bailey. "He will probably name three selectors because there's a lot of matches to keep an eye on in the county. He came to training in Belfield during the week and there was a great reaction to him amongst the players."