Liam Griffin: 'I can’t say that hurling has come on greatly in my lifetime'

Wexford’s 1996 All-Ireland SHC winning manager is in line to deliver another proposal to GAA's Annual Congress next month, this time regarding the development of hurling

PROPOSAL: Liam Griffin is bringing a proposal to Annual Congress to promote the development of hurling. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

They fooled him once but Liam Griffin is sizing up a return to GAA’s Annual Congress next month.

Four years after he presented a vote transparency motion that attracted just 17% support, Wexford’s 1996 All-Ireland SHC winning manager is in line to deliver another proposal, this time regarding the development of hurling.

Disheartened by a 2019 study which showed the game had dropped out of the top 10 sporting activities and a 2013 ESRI report highlighting a 60% drop-out rate in hurling/camogie for between the ages of 21 and 26, Griffin and fellow St Mary’s, Rosslare members worked on a motion, which was passed at the county’s annual convention last month.

What they recommend is that every club field at least one hurling team at U7 and/or U9 age grades and every county organise hurling games on the “Go Games” model for U7 and U9. There are some dispensations, but the gist of the motion is a reminder to counties that they foster and promote hurling as well as football.

Seventeen months since Martin Fogarty’s term as national hurling development manager concluded and with no indication that he will be replaced, the proposal is most timely. Fogarty had done exemplary work in the Táin area, the 13 counties with nine or fewer adult hurling clubs, but it appears nobody is going to carry it on.

Fogarty focused on under-age level and was enthused by advances in the likes of Fermanagh which has seven under-age units having just one senior hurling club in the form of St Patrick’s, Lisbellaw.

Insisting by rule that clubs at least expose their juvenile members to the game, Griffin argues there can be other success stories. 

“This isn’t meant to be derogatory, but we haven’t really grown the game of hurling on the island of Ireland. We are growing it overseas, though. There’s a hurling club in Zurich, there are hurling clubs all over the globe. We’re spreading it through our diaspora, but we have people in counties who have never had a chance to pick up a hurley and train. Surely, it’s incumbent upon us to try and look at a better way forward for the game of hurling.

“It’s difficult to develop a game in your club when you don’t have any history of it. Unless you start kids early in the game, they don’t have much of a chance. Our motion isn’t draconian. All we’re asking is to give hurling a chance at nursery level and hopefully that will grow and it will become part of the club.

“Some people have denied the results of those (ESRI and Sheffield Hallam University) reports but when the studies came out nobody countered them. Do we still want to be in the same place in 100 years’ time where the same counties are winning all the time?

“A lot of the strong hurling counties, they don’t have the same passion for developing hurling counties for obvious reasons as they’re concentrating on themselves. But it’s a narrow school, the whole system of hurling, and it needs to be expanded.

“The parish rule is acting against young fellas too. In Wexford, you can’t play hurling for another club if your club doesn’t have hurling. There are anomalies that need to be addressed in the form of a strategic plan and this motion can form the first part of that.

“You have lads hurling for their school in Ballyhaunis but going back to their club and there’s no hurling there. I don’t want lads being allowed to wander from parish to parish but we have to give them a chance to play the native game.

"I said before that Kate Middleton got more hurling than some kids in Ireland. Prince Charles was the same. The Chinese President Xi Jinping had a couple of pucks too. Why can’t we find a way forward for more of our children to get a chance to play our game?” 

Griffin cites Naas as an example of what a club can be in a developing hurling county. All-Ireland intermediate champions at the start of 2022, the Kildare club beat Shinrone before they gave Ballyhale Shamrocks a fright in the opening stages of their Leinster senior semi-final last November, eventually losing out by 12 points.

"They proved beyond doubt that they could compete and win through to claim an All-Ireland title. That is down to the pure dedication of people like Austin Bergin driving that Naas club. They found a way but how many traps were laid in front of them?

“To Kilkenny’s eternal credit, they have allowed teams from Kildare and Carlow play in their leagues. Naas play in their minor league (they lost to Dicksboro in the 2021 competition). Kilkenny have shown what can be done and we really do need to look at planning more initiatives like that.

“Listen, we are being sidelined by stories like Limerick possibly doing four-in-a-row and Henry Shefflin and Brian Cody not shaking hands properly. What’s the job to be done in the game of hurling?

"I can’t say that hurling has come on greatly in my lifetime. For a long time, the structures in Wexford weren’t as good as those in Kilkenny. It wasn’t that they had better players but better structures. If we’re playing golf and you’re a one-handicapper out three times a week and I play four times every three months, you’re going to beat the crap out of me. From elite level to those starting the game, it’s about getting more hurling.”