Fogarty Forum: Railway Cup should be a regular feature

Over the weekend, James Stephens joined the list of clubs that were not too big to go down. There will be a major post-mortem following their relegation and it's no guarantee they will bounce straight back up to Kilkenny SHC level. 

Kevin McManamon, Leinster, in action against Peter Harte, Ulster. during the 2014 M Donnelly Interprovincial Football Championship semi-final at Páirc Táilteann, Navan. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach / SPORTSFILE

In the end, it wasn’t workable. Feelers were put out and the sense was the clubs weren’t going to have it. Without their best players since the previous year, a Railway Cup final on All-Ireland final day simply wasn’t going to wash.

Floated by a committee charged with improving the match-day experience on football and hurling’s biggest day, the idea to reintroduce a curtain-raiser at the same time revive a time-honoured competition was an admirable one.