GAELIC GAMES SPECIAL CONGRESS: A SPECIAL hurling symposium in December will be the starting point for the GAA's consultative process to arrive at a long-term format for the intercounty hurling championships.

After Saturday’s special congress to regularise next year’s championships, GAA president Christy Cooney said that wide-ranging discussions would take place with a view to settling on proposals for next April’s congress.

“I would hope that we can get something solid and stop changing around every year the structure of the hurling championship,” he said before adding that the structure of the consultations had yet to be decided.

“There are no structures finalised. There is a suggestion that there’s a hurling seminar coming up on 5th December and that we’ll use that as one part. But I’d like to meet all of the counties involved in the different tiers at different stages and have a consultation about where they see the current structures.”

Later on Saturday that seminar took shape during the afternoon’s Central Council meeting. As part of long-term hurling championship sponsor Guinness’s 250th anniversary, the company offered as recognition of the GAA’s 125 celebrations to contribute €250 for every goal scored in this year’s championship, a total that raised nearly €25,000. Central Council accepted a proposal to spend the money on a symposium to consider the future of the game, which will be attended by officials and players from all counties.

Cooney added that the future of the championship would also be raised during routine meetings with county officers. He also said everything would be on the table when the optimum format is under consideration.

“It’s been mooted in the last week that we should have an open draw and get rid of the provincial championships.

“If that comes through the consultation process and people want to look at it, it would be wrong to do otherwise – and if there is a strong feeling that the provincial structure should be retained the way it is at the moment then that will be retained.

“If though there is a strong feeling that we need to look at serious options like an open-draw situation then we as an association have a responsibility to look at that.

“As it stands I haven’t heard any ‘mootings’ within officialdom in the four provinces to change the provincial structure. Then when an idea gets a bit of momentum and people start talking about it publicly, people give time and thought to that process. So if it comes up we’ll certainly give it consideration.”

In the morning, special congress accepted the various proposals to bring the 2010 championships into line with the DRA finding that promotion/relegation procedures passed at this year’s congress were defective.

This means next year’s MacCarthy Cup will be contested by 13 counties with one team to be relegated next year and none promoted from the Christy Ring Cup. This is repeated through the Nicky Rackard and Lory Meagher Cups with the latter reduced to seven counties for next year.

Two amendments were put to congress. The first, proposed by Leinster Council, was to allow a preliminary round in the provincial championship in order that All-Ireland champions Kilkenny receive a bye to the semi-finals and this was accepted.

The second, an attempt by Monaghan to regrade to the Meagher Cup – to which they would have been relegated after a season in the Rackard had Saturday’s amendments not been passed – was opposed and the amending proposal withdrawn.

Other motions to restore the right of county boards to direct that extra time be played in club matches were accepted – again in response to a decision by the DRA earlier in the year that held additional time could be played only when the teams agreed at the end of normal time.

Finally, Cooney said that whereas he opposed the principle of special congresses, the need to amend the rules for the organisation of next year’s championship had necessitated Saturday’s event.

“It is a matter of concern that we have had to have a special congress and I’ve expressed my view that we don’t need special congresses. I wouldn’t have had one had this not arisen and I did my best to try and avoid holding this if we could have dealt with it in another way. . . . it’s certainly not my intention to have special congresses over the next three years.”