GAA SPECIAL CONGRESS TO HELL OR TO LEINSTER: Keith Dugganreports on the current mixed feelings within Galway hurling regarding their proposed move to compete, for at least three years, in the Leinster Championship
TODAY, THE GAA will once again try to find a solution to make Galway hurling fit. For decades now, the maroon game has survived and sometimes prospered despite the vague, nagging feeling it has never truly been assimilated into the highest circle of the national game.
Nobody can predict with any great confidence that the motion to usher Galway and Antrim into the Leinster championship will be passed at today's special congress.
Even the five-man delegation journeying east from Galway are bound to have mixed views on the wisdom of this latest venture, Central Council delegate Bernie O'Connor being among those who voiced grave concerns about the proposition at a deeply divided meeting in Athenry on Monday night.
It is a strange anomaly in GAA culture that despite the constant pleas and promises to try and strengthen the national roots of hurling in the so-called weaker counties, the miraculous contradiction of Galway - a thriving hurling county in a struggling province - has always caused much scratching of heads.
The 1960s experiment of absorbing Galway into the Munster championship did nothing to strengthen the game in the county, and after going solo again in 1970 Galway made remarkable progress in 10 years by winning, in 1980, their first All-Ireland senior title since 1923.
The 1980s were, unquestionably, the brightest decade for Galway hurling, culminating in the 1987 and 1988 All-Ireland-winning years.
But those four senior titles are a poor return given the quality of hurlers Galway has produced and they have struggled to make anything more than a sporadic impression since the new championship structures were adopted.
This fresh urge to press on and take a place in the ailing Leinster competition was probably inevitable after Galway's miserable summer.
Despite high expectations, they failed to make the quarter-finals this year and exited the championship leaving the impression that the maroon game was further away than ever from cracking the secret of fresh All-Ireland success.
The public statement released by the current squad stating their support for the motion to join the Leinster championship undoubtedly helped to secure the motion, with 66 delegates out of 120 voting to join Leinster in the secret ballot. David Collins, an established county player, and Liam Mellows delegate, was one of two people who spoke out in favour of the move east.
"The way the players see it, this is the best way of getting more games," Collins says. "That is what it is about. There was nothing else on the table so we felt we had to go with it and see if it works. If it doesn't, we will be back to where we started after three years but at least we will have tried."
There was heavy pressure on John Fahey, the Galway hurling secretary and a member of the Hurling Development Committee, to harness the support of the home county, and while he acknowledged the concerns over the move, he urged delegates to give the proposed system a chance to work.
"What I would say to you all is to give it a try," he said in his address.
"It is not the end of the road and you do have that opt-out after three years. I would say to delegates that they should support it, that they should be brave in making this decision and they should not be looking back at histories. Galway hurling is different today from what it was back then."
The positive vote may have originated as much from respect for Fahey's integrity as from any collective enthusiasm for seeing Galway hurling in Leinster.
Apart from the geographical objections to the move - the fundamental rationale that Galway simply does not belong in Leinster - the nine delegates who spoke out against the motion had varying concerns.
There is some discomfort at the notion of Galway hurling parachuting into territory where counties like Dublin and Wexford are desperately trying to assert themselves.
Also, there is a suspicion the enthusiasm for Galway's inclusion is down to a desire to reinvigorate the stale Leinster competition - and flagging gate receipts - as much as it has to do with finding a suitable place for Galway in the greater scheme.
There is lingering resentment that an alternative proposal drafted by Galway clubs and presented to the HDC was dismissed.
This involved Galway joining the three "losing" counties in the Munster championship and playing a round-robin series, with the top two teams going into the quarter-finals. Antrim would do the same in Leinster and the two floating counties - Galway and Antrim - would alternate between the provinces each year.
The appeal of that plan was that it gave all counties involved three elite championship games and would preserve home and away venues. There are also fears based on Galway's unhappy period roosting in the Munster championship. Gerry Cloherty, the former county board chairman, sounded clear warning bells on previous experience.
"There was an opt-out of Munster after three years but it took us 11 years to get out of it and that was not due to the stubbornness of the Munster council," he told the meeting.
"We had friends on the Munster council, it was not they who kept us in Munster, it was the system at congress that kept us in it until we finally got out in 1970. So there is no such thing as an opt-out and anybody who thinks anything other than that is a fool. The issue divided the county previously - I don't want us to go back to that situation again."
But the reality is Galway hurling has reached a fork in the road anyway. If today's motion at congress is successful, a significant number of Galway hurling people will fear the worst. Among those who spoke out during the week was Athenry delegate and former Galway coach Jarlath Cloonan.
"My position is clear in that I have always favoured the shortest route to the All-Ireland final," Cloonan explains. "There's been no attempt to change the Munster championship because I think it is a great competition and even though Leinster might be ailing at the moment, I have attended some brilliant finals as well.
"And if you look at the last 10 years of competition, since the new championship structures have come in, it is the strongest counties - Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary - who have won every All-Ireland title except for one [Offaly in 1998]. But in the preceding decade, when the old knock-out system still prevailed, seven different counties won the All-Ireland.
"With the exception of 2001 and 2005, when we got to finals, Galway hasn't been successful under the new structure. Galway hurling teams play better in Croke Park and I think there is no question that the new second-chance system suits the strongest counties best. You will only get one chance to beat those counties. Ask the Cork footballers."
The reservations are based on ideological grounds and also on the general anxiety that increases with every championship summer that ends in disappointment for Galway.
Despite the roaring success of Galway's clubs and underage minor teams, they have now passed the 20-year mark without taking possession of the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
Ger Loughnane's appointment as county coach two years ago was a dramatic attempt to place the fortunes of the marquee team in the hands of one of the most enigmatic and passionate coaches in the modern game, but the Clare man's two years in charge have left him baffled.
The uncertainty as to whether Loughnane will be in charge of the Galway side next season is another potential matter of friction in Galway hurling. Loughnane's appointment has yet to be ratified. This week, he was as available for comment as the head of an Irish bank. But his disenchantment with last year's championship system was obvious.
The thought of playing in Leinster may well be enough to persuade him to try and crack the Galway riddle once more.
However, with alternative candidates being spoken of within the county - Jimmy Heverin managed Portumna to the All-Ireland club title in March and the long-serving Mattie Murphy guided yet another beautiful shoal of Galway minors to the All-Ireland final this September - it is by no means certain Loughnane will be back.
It all means that, as of today, the short-term future of Galway hurling is utterly unclear, and until the votes have been cast and counted, is also in the hands of others.
If the motion is rejected by delegates today, it leaves Galway back at square one but the fact Galway have, as GAA president Nickey Brennan prompted, given leadership on the issue through both the county board mandate and the players' statement may be enough to swing it in the HDC's favour.
However, the opposition to the development within Leinster - Kilkenny's Eoin Larkin the latest to voice concerns about the motion - may yet see the proposal unravel.
"It is disappointing to hear that some people are against it," David Collins says. "We would hope that it would be advantageous to Leinster counties as well - for instance, it will give Kilkenny another game before the knock-out stages of the championship."
Collins confirmed that not everyone on the Galway panel attended that meeting about the Leinster issue but that a majority of the squad had been present and they had been strongly supportive of the idea. Other players contacted privately said they felt joining Leinster was the best way forward for the team.
Meanwhile, the Galway championship is in full swing, with reigning champions Portumna narrowly scraping by Clarinbridge to set up the possibility of another box -office tussle with rivals Loughrea.
That arguably the best club side in Ireland - featuring the brightest young prospect for many years in Joe Canning - faces a struggle just to make it to the county final - suggests there should be no fear for the welfare of the county game.
But Galway hurling is caught in a delicate moment. It is hard to gauge the precise level of popular support for the move to Leinster but it seems safe to suggest that for everyone who believes it is the right thing to do, there is someone else convinced that it will do nothing for the future of the Galway game.
Regardless of whether the Leinster experiment proves a success, it illustrates the long struggle the GAA has had with the task of finding a home for Galway hurling.
In 1914, when the British government were grappling with the finer points of partition, a vexed prime minister Herbert Asquith was moved to pinpoint the root of the problem as "that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of mankind - the county of Tyrone".
There is the sense that the Galway problem has caused the similar gnashing of teeth among the GAA's administrators.
Potentially, Galway present perhaps the most potent opposition to the awesome and seemingly relentless Kilkenny hurling squad Brian Cody has fashioned.
For all the honesty and skill of the Munster championship, the All-Ireland hurling championship has become predictable again and it has been a long time since it has heard a Galway roar.
To those in favour, it is the only way forward for the west of Ireland county.
For those against, today's vote must prompt echoes of a certain chilling historical proclamation: To hell or to Leinster.
