GAA unveils plans to overhaul SHC
The Hurling Development Committee, which met eight times and consulted with intercounty players and managers, has come up with a list of ground-breaking proposals that will be put to next April's annual Congress in Killarney.
The most far-reaching and controversial is the proposal to split the existing championship format into three tiers, with teams in each tier competing for an individual prize.
Tier A will comprise the country's 12 top counties as selected from the teams playing in Division 1 of the upcoming 2004 NHL campaign.
The ten Tier 2 teams will be drawn from Division 2 while the 11 Tier 3 teams will be derived from the current Division 3 with promotion and relegation operating between each group.
The top tier teams will compete for the Liam McCarthy Cup and it is expected the secondary championship prize will be the Mick Mackey Cup with Tier 3 competing for the Nicky Rackard Cup.
"We've got to have an open mind at all times," said President Sean Kelly.
"There's a genuine desire from everyone involved in hurling at every level to see the game nurtured and brought forward as much as possible. These proposals will hopefully do that and they are only the start of what will be a long process to invest in the future of hurling."
The HDC is urging that it's proposals which will provide more games along with an obvious ladder for weaker counties to scale gets the go-ahead in time for the 2005 hurling championships.
It is recommended that the winners of Tier 2 gain automatic promotion to the top flight and be rewarded with a guaranteed two home games the following season. The Tier 2 winners would also travel to New York and the North American Board area to play US opposition.
"We produced the draft about six weeks ago and presented it to the provinces," said Pauric Duffy, chairman of the Fixtures Task Force which incorporated the HDC. "We presented our full report to them, which included the recommendations from the HDC, and asked them for feedback.
"Arising from that feedback we made some changes to our final report which was presented to Central Council last Saturday.
"This document will now be prepared in terms of motions to Congress next April in Killarney and proposals to Central Council at its first meeting after Congress. Basically, there'll be a decision made on all of this by next May."
In the new system, 12 teams will contest the All-Ireland championship; five teams from Munster and Leinster as well as Galway and the Ulster champions.
Galway and the Ulster representatives will enter at the qualifier stage creating eight teams that will be split into two groups of four.
The top team in each group will play a beaten provincial finalist from Munster and Leinster with the second placed team in each group playing a provincial winner. This will provide four quarter-finals.
Four teams will emerge to contest the semi-finals with the provincial winners, if still involved, to be seeded, otherwise the pre-determined seedings will come into place.
Pat Dunny, chairman of the HDC, said: "Every proposal is an amalgamation of about 10 different ideas.
"We feel that the document we've produced is the best amalgamation of them all.
"It's now up to the counties to make their own progress. We hope to put a situation in place where counties can progress up the tiers but it needs an investment of hard work and time from them too. Counties need to see this as a stepping stone."
The Fixtures Task Force also revealed several proposals for football competitions. Among them was to cease live TV coverage of championship games on Saturday evenings to allow a clear slot for club games.
The lack of preparatory time for beaten provincial finalists before qualifier games has also been addressed with a motion to allow a 13-day gap at least.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
