Grassroots hurling gets €2.6m boost

THE GAA’s National Hurling Development Plan, unveiled at Croke Park yesterday, will invest €2.6m into coaching and games initiatives.

€1.25m is being put up by the Irish Sports Council, €354,000 is to come from the Sports Council of Northern Ireland, while the GAA will contribute €1m to a 32-county project described by President Sean Kelly as “probably the most important initiative ever taken in hurling.”

Nineteen full-time and 23 part-time officers will be engaged as part of the initiative although there is still no word yet as to when a National Director - or National Hurling Development Manager/Coordinator, as it has been rephrased - will be in place to spearhead the project.

The scale of the initiative is ambitious with projects focusing on rural areas as well as urban, consolidation of existing hurling enclaves as well as expansion into pastures new with mobile hurling coaching units, Schools of Excellence and steering committees.

Regarding a time frame for success, Kelly hopes to see minor teams from weaker counties making an impact in five years’ time with their senior counterparts doing so within a decade.

That may be too ambitious, according to Hurling Development Committee (HDC) member Liam Griffin who’s been instrumental in transforming the fortunes of St Mary’s of Rosslare.

“I know this is going to sound negative but someone in my club once asked me, ‘when will we be strong?’ My answer was when the children of the children we started with first are playing.

“I’m a little bit concerned that people think Carlow or Westmeath are going to win the All-Ireland senior hurling championship,” said the former Wexford manager. “Don’t expect that because we have a Christy Ring Cup, that we’re going to see people come out of there and go screaming into the McCarthy Cup. That’s not going to happen.

“This is a new beginning for the game of hurling. We are starting from the bottom to build things up. We are actually reinventing a new game for half of our own country.

“We’re looking at a long haul to get people up there. Don’t expect immediate results.”

The key components to the success of the plan, according to Griffin and Kelly, will be volunteers and accountability. New full-time and part-time officers are being appointed to buttress not replace the efforts of volunteers.

“There’s an absolute must for accountability,” Griffin added. “If we’re not getting value for money then it’s not going to work. We in the GAA have to be accountable for where this money is going.

“Where it’s not working, the money should be withdrawn. That’s my honest opinion. If you don’t make progress you don’t get money. It has to be like that.”

That will count equally for whoever the first National Director is. Griffin repeated yesterday that real progress was being made in finding the right candidate but stressed that the HDC - where responsibility for the appointment now lies - would not be rushed into filling the position.

“There’s no point in us rushing out to do things as a kneejerk reaction. I would prefer no National Development Manager, and so would the HDC, until such a time as the right person was found for the job. You have to have somebody who is going to drive this and be accountable himself. I don’t think this is a job for life either. This man must be judged on results and if he doesn’t get results then we’ll need to get somebody else.

“The system is good, the structures are there. There is grant aid, the government is going to support it. We in the GAA must now deliver.”