ON GAELIC GAMES: It's hard to see why the HDC's proposal to include Galway and Antrim in Leinster is not worthy of support, writes Seán Moran

An unusually dense special congress awaits delegates on Saturday in Croke Park. Three extremely important matters are down for decision and although the issues of burnout and discipline are of the utmost urgency to the GAA, the proposals directed at them are more likely to fail than the third topic, reform of the hurling championship.

The HDC blueprint also relates to an urgent issue but the problems of the senior hurling championship are so many and varied that realistically it will take more than the importation of a couple of counties into Leinster to solve them. What's under discussion is an improvement on what's there at the moment but it won't operate like magic dust on a championship that is struggling because of a lack of competition.

Kilkenny's domination of the championship has exacerbated the situation but exceptional teams arrive on the scene from time to time and there's not much any opponents can do except work at improving themselves. This type of supremacy can't last forever but while it does the game as a whole suffers.

Football experienced something similar in the late 1970s and '80s after the rise of Kerry and Dublin's decline but it proved cyclical. Nonetheless, during those years general interest waned to the extent that at times little over 20,000 spectators attended All-Ireland semi-finals. Privately concern was expressed among Croke Park officials on the night of the All-Ireland hurling final that it might no longer be capable of attracting capacity attendances were there to be a continuation of one-sided matches. But supporters rarely see their team as being completely without prospects and the All-Ireland hurling final is likely to attract spectators to the spectacle if not the contest.

In the circumstances there's not much that can be done to address that lack of competitiveness in the short term. Moving Galway was one obvious innovation in that the authorities have traditionally found it hard to accommodate the county into the qualifiers format given the lack of a provincial championship. But how much impact will this have?

Galway have had a poor enough support base in recent years and it is open to question how many will follow the team to Leinster for matches and how gate receipts would benefit. There was an average attendance of just over 23,000 at the last four meetings of Kilkenny and Galway (and that's giving the fixture a generous 50 per cent of the relevant double- bills during that period).

From the Leinster perspective, perhaps the benefits to the province are being overstated.

From the Galway perspective, however, it's very hard to know what the problem is with the proposal but there is no doubting the strength of opinion and depth of opposition stirred up by the debate.

I remember speaking some years ago to both of the former managers, Jarlath Cloonan and Matt Murphy, who robustly opposed the scheme. In each case they were surprisingly hostile to the experiment of the 1960s, when the county played in Munster. Cloonan said it placed Galway at a disadvantage because they weren't as emotionally driven by the concept of the Munster championship whereas Murphy, who actually played there in the 1960s, had bad memories of the experience.

In fairness, at that time Galway were quite weak and recorded just one win during their time in Munster. This was before the Coiste Iomána radicalised hurling in the county, producing a generation of "Coiste kids" who would go on to win underage and eventually senior All-Irelands.

It was interesting to note some of the arguments during Monday night's debate. Bernie O'Connor has vast experience of Galway hurling and made the argument that the county had won three All-Ireland senior titles, nine national leagues, nine under-21s and seven minors in the past 30 years "without having to leave our province".

The nub of the argument is contained in those statistics. The enormous disparity between Liam MacCarthy cups and the other titles indicates Galway aren't punching their weight at the highest level of championship.

Part of the reason has to be the isolation. When starting from the same position as everyone else, the county won nine National League titles. At underage levels the lack of consistent competition is disguised because of the turnover in the age cohorts. In other words, not having to leave Connacht has not worked for the county's senior hurlers.

The old progression straight to All-Ireland semi-finals, which the county, it should be acknowledged, surrendered in 1996, was a mixed blessing. Galway reached 10 finals between 1975 and the advent of the "back door" in 1997 but won only three. Under a more integrated system the county might have reached fewer finals but won more All-Irelands.

That's Galway's perspective but, within Leinster, counties in the tier below Kilkenny have come out against the idea. It's easy to accuse Dublin, Wexford and Offaly - as GAA president Nickey Brennan did - of clinging to self-interest at the expense of the bigger picture but Danny O'Connor, Dublin's vice-chairman, insists that the county's view is more broadly based.

He disputes the wisdom of the proposal to involve four teams in relegation play-offs saying it does little to build morale among emerging counties and suggests it would be better for Leinster to expand the championship from within.

"There was a leap of faith at the end of the 1970s," he says, "when Leinster dropped the seeding in 1979. Offaly won their first provincial title a year later and that probably helped Galway make their breakthrough, as they had lost two All-Irelands to Kilkenny and wouldn't have had the same anxiety playing Offaly. The 1980s and 90s were very exciting for hurling." The idea of opening up the senior hurling championship to 16 rather than 12 counties has already been floated by former Leinster chair Liam O'Neill in order to involve counties such as Meath, Carlow, Westmeath, Kildare or Wicklow.

In that spirit, as O'Connor emphasises, Dublin welcomed Antrim into the province but questioned why Galway shouldn't move back into Munster in order to create two six-team conferences rather than a seven and a five.

The need for Leinster to include a team capable of getting closer to Kilkenny than the current cast rules out the notion of strengthening Munster at Leinster's expense, which would be the ultimate effect of following the "two sixes" proposal.

The hurling championship needs a quick shot of adrenaline and, in the absence of any other ideas, it's hard to see why the HDC plan shouldn't get its three-year trial.

smoran@irish-times.ie