O’Neill: Sending Cats into Britain the correct decision

The decision for Kilkenny footballers to withdraw from the national league and junior championships was not “a kneejerk reaction” but a carefully thought out decision according to GAA president Liam O’Neill.

The Cats will play in the British championship next year in a bid to give them competitive football and facilitate their gradual improvement and the move will be reviewed after two years.

O’Neill pointed to the advances made by Warwickshire hurlers following their inclusion in a developmental league a number of years ago and revealed that the Exiles provided the template for Kilkenny’s immediate future.

“[Warwickshire] was a success… seeing them nurtured from being on the outskirts of things to being national league players.

“When Kilkenny got in bother this year, the day after, I was on the phone to the secretary [Ned Quinn]. I said to him if we can bring Warwickshire across why not do something for Kilkenny?

“I said to Ned, ‘there is nowhere we can provide competition for you because no one else is in the same stage of development as you are. So why not give Kilkenny breathing space for a couple of years to play in the British championship, without the pressure of playing in the national league and the hammerings who can go off and have a life of its own’.

“It was with that in mind, I approached the British Council. They had seven teams, now it’s eight and they were very positive.

“We didn’t want to do it in March. It would have looked like a kneejerk reaction. It’s not. We thought it out carefully. There’s a bigger picture here and we are trying to learn lessons from where we’ve been.”