Ó Fearghail says GAA will address Galway’s Leinster issues

Introducing a 'Rest of Ireland' championship has been advanced by GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail as a possible solution to issues arising from Galway's participation in the Leinster hurling championship.

He was speaking in Dubai at the conclusion of this year’s football All Stars trip to the UAE.

Galway and Antrim (not currently in the senior championship) have been playing in the Leinster championship since 2009 but the former have become increasingly aggrieved at the refusal to allow them home matches or to compete in the province's underage competitions.

“Yes, there are some counties in Leinster that have expressed total opposition,” said the president.

"I think we need to grasp that. We have to grasp the nettle and that's Galway's position and Antrim's position. Other counties are just going to have to accept that. Have we reached the stage where we have a Munster championship and a Rest of Ireland championship?

“We’ll have to put a number of proposals before these counties and let them see. It still goes back to the point of fairness.”

Outgoing Leinster chair and presidential candidate John Horan said earlier this month that he felt the matter was one for Croke Park rather than the provincial council to deal with and Ó Fearghail agreed.

Total unfairness

“I have no doubt that it’s for ourselves to deal with,” he said.

“I accept that there are issues for Leinster counties also,” he continued, “but it’s gone on too long.

"I see a total unfairness in the situation and I think you need to look at it and Páraic [Duffy, director general] and myself have already decided ... we deal with it ourselves and we will deal with it and we are going to address it and we'll address it almost immediately when Congress is finished [next February]."

Asked whether he would be dealing with the venue or the underage competitions issue, he replied that both would be on the table.

“I don’t think the situations can be separate. We have tried that, we have seen where the seniors are in one place and the minors in another, I think the whole county needs to go together ... but I can’t be too adamant about that because a lot of Leinster counties don’t agree with that position and we have to listen to them and we’ll do that. But I don’t mind giving you my own opinion on it.”

He poured cold water on the proposal from a Galway club that the county try to restore the 1960s arrangement whereby the county competed in the Munster championship.  “I’m not sure that’s a viable option, no, I really don’t.”

Commenting on the establishment of the Club Players Association, which will officially launch in January, Ó Fearghail said he welcomed the debate and called on club players to get behind the current proposals from the director general, which provide for round-robin matches in the last eight of the All-Ireland football championship but also a tightening up of the inter-county calendar to make more dates available for clubs.

“There is nothing that I have seen from anybody representing a group called the Club Players Association that ... would upset me to be fair about it.”

He added that much of the group’s positions were ones with which he already agreed and described the inroads made into club fixtures by inter-county activity as “unfair... It shouldn’t be like that, it just should not be like that but it needs to be tightened and it needs to be shaken in the way that I think the current proposals will do”.

Striking decline

Those proposals also draw attention, in one of the appendices, to a quite striking decline in football championship attendances over the past 10 years. Ó Fearghail said whereas there is a fall, it has impacted most strongly in Leinster.

"You do have to look at it province by province. Ulster is very strong and steady in attendances. Connacht are also equally strong but it depends when Galway meet Mayo. It just depends and Munster is quite similar. I mean Clare and Tipperary have been wonderful for the championship but when Cork meet Kerry is an issue.

“There’s no doubt there is a steep decline and has been for a long time now in Leinster and we’re very aware of that. But the decline in Leinster also bears examination: it’s in the early rounds; it’s in the earlier stages. Once you get to a final it tends to [increase] though it’s still a decline you can’t mask.”

Dublin’s domination of the province in recent years has been identified by most people as the most significant factor in the fall-off and the president didn’t disagree.

“Perhaps the gap has just gone too wide and it’s something that’s being addressed at the moment by ourselves and by Leinster Council.”