Put Railway Cup back on track!

IT probably escaped your attention, but amid the raft of club games this weekend, the Railway Cup plays itself out, almost silently, in Galway and Kilkenny, respectively.

Having this once great provincial competition tacked onto the end of a breathless season may seem fitting, given interest in the tournament has eroded steadily over the past few years. Even this week, the result of Eirrgal Ciaran and Crossmaglen's re-fixed

Ulster club game will generate more curiosity among GAA followers.

As demands on players continue to rise, the Railway Cup has fallen sharply in the list of priorities. Playing the competition on the first weekend of November, with winter finally settled in, personifies a competition on life support.

However, Brian McEniff, who has consistently championed the virtues of the tournament and yet again takes charge of Ulster footballers this year, feels its potential isn't been harnessed. "The main problem has been the timing of the event. Last week, just a week before we are due to play, we had eight Ulster clubs involved in the championship. Even more so than other years, it has been extremely difficult to get a squad together.

"If we are to give the competition a chance, we have to look at ways to promote it, to make it more attractive to the players and punters. It is not too attractive playing it in the first weekend of November, aside from the club games, the weather has got very wintry in the past few weeks."

The inclement weather has also served as a hammer-blow to McEniff's preparations. While most of those expected to make the Ulster team are currently involved with their club, he had scheduled a challenge game between Armagh and the rest of Ulster, which got rained off twice.

It will seem like a long time ago, when he stands on the side line of a windswept Pearse Stadium this weekend, but McEniff can remember winning the Railway Cup for Ulster in front of 50,000 spectators at Croke Park.

All it needs, he feels, is a little thought and effort to make the competition a big deal again.

"We are doing the Railway Cup no favours, scheduling it like we have. If we expended just a bit of the money we are using to promote the International Rules, we can make these games a much more attractive prospect.

"There are a few proposals being put before Central council. My idea would be to run the club final and Railway Cup final on the same day in a double bill, same with the club hurling final and the Railway Cup final.

"If you had this on St Patrick's Day weekend, four games in Croke Park, over two days, that would certainly generate renewed interest in the competition."

For the time being, though, the competition lurks in the background, a tournament in decline.

The die-hards and a few curious locals will probably go to Nowlan Park and Pearse Stadium this weekend, to see the best hurlers and footballers in the four provinces. McEniff believes the players want the Cup revived, still recalls the buzz he got from pulling on an Ulster jersey, still gets the same buzz from managing the side.

However, until there is a radical overhaul, this weekend's games will be little more than a footnote in the GAA results.