No five-year hurling championship withdrawal for Cavan

Cavan will not withdraw from senior hurling competitions for the next five years, contrary to reports this morning.

Cavan will not withdraw from senior hurling competitions for the next five years, but is withdrawing this year, Cavan GAA chairman Tom Reilly has said.

Today's Irish Examiner reported that the Breffni County would not take part in competitions for the next five years to concentrate on underage development.

The report came in the wake of Cavan's withdrawal from the Lory Meagher Cup at the weekend, where they were unable to get 15 players to field against Fermanagh.

With just 60 active hurlers in Cavan, playing resources are hugely restricted.

This morning, Tom Reilly told Des Cahill on RTE Radio 1's Morning Ireland: "We made a decision to withdraw from hurling competition this year.

"We are putting five-year plan in place. We are following the line that Christy Cooney mentioned in his address at Congress. The proposals under Liam O'Neill are at management level at Croke Park at the moment.

"They are looking at county participation when the club structure is very weak within counties and maybe counties haven't got the necessary players to play.

"That is where we are going. We are going to follow the proposals that the incoming president has put to the management in Croke Park.

"We are going to develop hurling at underage and we are also going to develop a club structure where it will be more club competition based and counties will have to prove that they are capable of taking part in the National League.

"The President did mention that at Congress and that is what we will be doing. We aren't withdrawing from senior hurling as such, and we will definitely be looking (ahead). Our plans when competition had finished this year was to look at everything."

Reilly outlined the events which led to Cavan's withdrawal from the Lory Meagher Cup.

"The manager told me that he was very concerned last week going to Enniskillen because he had seven players injured and with seven players injured in Cavan that is just too much," he said.

"Twelve players didn't come in to the hurling panel at all. We have only two clubs in the county so to compete at national league level you are only talking about 60 players.

"We actually only have one registered fully affiliated hurling club (in) Mullahoran. We have tried to make up combinations of clubs for hurling competition every year.

"From now on we have set up a structure at underage which is working at a regional basis with a number of clubs together and it is starting to work.

"People are working very hard on the ground at the moment. Together with Croke Park we are going to come to a solution."