GAELIC GAMES:SATURDAY'S REPRIEVE for the Railway Cup interprovincial competitions will last at least two months, but they will not take place this year.

An unexpected rearguard action at the weekend’s Central Council meeting argued for retention of the apparently doomed competitions and no decision was taken.

There is no Central Council meeting next month, so the next opportunity to review the situation will arise at April’s annual congress in Mullingar. That will be exactly a year since the decision was taken by Central Council to suspend the competition for 2010. Afterwards, GAA president Christy Cooney appeared to signal that it would not be revived after 2010.

There was little attention paid to the competition’s absence from last year’s schedules, but when moves were initiated to bring a formal close to over 80 years of the Railway Cup, opposition grew, culminating in last weekend’s meeting.

A number of former interprovincial managers made their support for the competition clear last week. Ulster and Connacht football coaches Joe Kernan and John O’Mahony and Leinster hurling coach John Conran all called for the Railway Cups to be maintained.

In the two months between now and congress there will be consultation with the provincial councils as to the future of the interprovincials.

Connacht secretary John Prenty has been a consistent critic of the competition, citing the costs of fielding teams, particularly in the finals of recent years, which were played abroad, and asking could the money not have been better spent.

It is believed the Munster Council shares this view and Leinster is undecided, but sentiment in Ulster is strongly in favour of continuing the competition.

From a marketing perspective the competitions have proved difficult to sell. A promotional campaign for finals that were held in Croke Park three years ago failed to draw more than 10,000, of which just 2,000 were paying customers.

There would also now be logistical problems with finding a date in the calendar with the close season in November and December, unless an exception were to be made for the interprovincials.

Suggestions that the traditional spring dates could be found would appear unlikely given that the first three months of the year are the busiest on the calendar.

Not counting any promotional spend, the administrative costs of organising the competitions is said by Croke Park sources to be around €200,000.