Galway officials shoot down Leinster championship proposal

GALWAY will not be competing in the Leinster senior hurling championship next year after GAA officials in the county again shot down the proposal.

The matter was discussed at length at a meeting of Galway hurling board with the majority of delegates voicing their opposition to the move.

Two years ago Leinster invited Galway to participate in their championship, and, while Galway boss Conor Hayes is in favour of the move, GAA officials in the county are opposed to it.

It is understood that around 15 delegates spoke on the issue, with just one of them in favour of Galway participating in the Leinster championship and most of the others vehemently opposed to it.

Galway Hurling Board secretary John Fahy has confirmed that the matter was discussed and that there is little support for a move to Leinster.

“Galway’s position on the matter is that we want to see a full open draw system. Nothing has happened to change that view,” he said.

The Leinster Council is not unduly concerned about the decision — with Chairman Liam O’Neill stating yesterday that they had never invited them to participate in the first place.

Mr O’Neill explained that the only decision taken by them was to ‘explore’ the possibility of Galway taking part in their championship — when the Council ‘gave permission’ to Nickey Brennan to ask them if they were interested in doing so.

At the time, Mr Brennan was Chairman of the Hurling Development Committee as well as being the Leinster Chairman.

“It was never a formal decision by the Leinster counties to invite them,” stressed Mr O’Neill. “A different interpretation is being put on it since then. We never had our cap in hand to Galway to come into our championship. Nickey wanted to explore it at the time and we gave him permission.

“While we might discuss it, there’s no foregone conclusion in Leinster either. Some people have been asking the question, would it be in the best interests of Leinster to have Galway and Kilkenny in every final from minor up to senior every year, with Wexford, Offaly, Dublin and Laois becoming the ‘Christy Ring’ teams of the Leinster championship.”