Format fine, but time to bring in the professionals

IT’S GETTING tiresome, all this talk about once again changing the format of the All-Ireland senior hurling championship.

In recent weeks, we’ve heard all the usual old suggestions dragged up; reverting to the way it was, going back to the original back-door (just the beaten provincial finalists getting a second chance), bringing in a modified system whereby teams get just one chance to lose, having two different qualifying groups and on and on and on.

And don’t forget the one about the Munster championship winners getting straight passage to the All-Ireland semi-final. Nonsense, all so much nonsense.

Short of Galway playing in Leinster, giving that province a real competitive edge, the system that was in operation for the last two years is just about as good as you’re going to get, while maintaining the only two provincial championships that matter — Munster and (to a rapidly decreasing extent) Leinster.

Unless the GAA is going to really bite the bullet and do what every stream of logical thinking calls for and introduce a Champions League type championship, they should just leave well enough alone.

What can be streamlined, however, are the dates and the drawn matches. Accelerate the programme, start it later and finish it earlier by sensible usage of Friday evenings, Saturday and Sunday afternoons, and introduce extra-time for all drawn games up to the final itself.

But please, stop fiddling with the format. Either scrap it completely and start from scratch, or leave it alone.

The real problem with the hurling championship isn’t the format it’s the lack of real competition.

Kilkenny and Cork are dominating for two simple reasons: one, they have the playing numbers and two, they are professionally organised and prepared (and no, I’m not suggesting Brian Cody and John Allen were paid!).

If the GAA is really serious about making the All-Ireland senior hurling championship more competitive, their challenge is simple — make the other top seven or eight counties truly competitive.

For next season, the Galway and Clare county boards have already taken steps themselves. The appointments of Ger Loughnane and Tony Considine generated a lot of hot air about money, professionalism, payment of coaches. Get over it lads. Loughnane and Considine will have Galway and Clare competitive next year, believe that. And this is not to knock the efforts of the outgoing managers in both those counties, Conor Hayes and Anthony Daly.

But these two will bring the kind of clout, win the kind of independent financial backing that’s needed at this level, to make that final push for All-Ireland honours. Both Daly and Hayes, two outstanding hurling men as players and managers, brought their teams close to All-Ireland glory; Considine and Loughnane can go a step further. They will be under extreme pressure to do so, but pressure won’t faze these boys.

Instead of criticising, instead of questioning the ethics involved in those appointments — the notion of professionals in an amateur game — we should be embracing it, bringing it out in the open.

In another code last week Ronan O’Gara shipped criticism here at home for saying what should have been said years ago. Ronan reckoned that many so-called English ‘stars’ are over-hyped, TV-manufactured, while many Irish rugby players are undervalued, even by their own.

Ronan wasn’t being outrageous, or arrogant, or deliberately provocative, he was simply stating a new reality - Irish rugby can now stand with the best, certainly in the northern hemisphere.

There is also a new reality in hurling, and it’s this — professionalism is already with us, has been for decades. In the weeks when a semi-professional Irish team (look at their near full-time preparations and conditions, see what I mean) is meeting a fully professional Australian outfit, accept that truth, bring it into the open.

All inter-county teams should now be looking at making full-time, well-paid, professional appointments to manage their senior county teams. Have everything out in the open and above board. Give those managers certain parameters within which they must operate, and let them off.

The hurling talent is also in Tipperary, in Waterford, in Limerick, in Offaly, in Wexford, in Dublin, in Down and Antrim with a bit of serious input. Forget the fears — professionalism will not destroy the GAA. Open it up, and watch it grow.