Former Offaly hurler Pat Cleary urges GAA to adopt Clontarf's motion

CLONTARF MOTION: Former Offaly hurler Pat Cleary is backing Clontarf's motion for players to play four games before selection for county. Pic: Ray Lohan/SPORTSFILE

Former Offaly hurler Pat Cleary has urged the GAA to adopt Clontarf’s motion to change the composition of the playing calendar and allow all inter-county players line out in club league games.

Cleary’s club Durrow have won just one league game in four years largely owing to their leading players being unavailable due to inter-county commitments.

Against Antrim last Sunday week, they had six on the starting team – Mark Troy, Ciarán Burke, Ross Ravenhill, Daniel Bourke, Dan Ravenhill and Brian Duignan. Another, Sam Bourke, was on the bench. They also have two players on the county’s senior football panel, Kevin McDermott and Jack O’Brien.

Led by former Dublin footballer Dr Noel McCaffrey, Clontarf’s proposal would insist players line out in four club league games to be eligible for inter-county championship in the same year. Such a condition would require a redrawing of the current split season model.

1985 All-Ireland SHC winner Cleary does not want to curtail the inter-county season in any way. Instead, he would prefer to see it extended so that it could be run concurrently with the club schedule allowing inter-county players to alternate between the two.

“We’ve only won one league game in four years,” says Cleary. “That’s because we have a good few county players. We have eight lads on the senior hurling panel, two on the football panel and one on each of the U20 Offaly panels.

“When we go to play a league match in a couple of weeks, we will be down all of those lads. Realistically, we’re not going to have any chance in the league because of that.

“It’s not the end of the world, fair enough, but that’s not really the point. It’s a bigger point that Noel [McCaffrey] is trying to make about inter-county players playing for their clubs.

“We don’t want to see the inter-county cut back. We are very positive about our lads being involved with Offaly. They want to be involved with Offaly and we’re not looking for their matches to be reduced.

“The GAA season itself needs to be rearranged. There would be so many advantages to lads getting a break from inter-county during the year and playing with their clubs.” 

Durrow, Cleary knows, could be regarded as victims of their own success even though they have yet to win a senior county title. “We built up from the bottom about 20 years ago and have won two minors and an U20. We have good success behind us.” 

A longer inter-county season interspersed with windows for club activity would better promote the games, says the former Offaly selector. “If you look at it, 70% to 80% of inter-county activity is now finished in May. The GAA season was never that condensed, it was a summer of Sundays. It was always about activity in the summer.

“Our lads are very keen for their clubs but when it comes to later in the year most people socially want to see inter-county games. I’m not knocking Cork or Limerick club games but it’s the Cork and Limerick hurling teams I want to see. They’re the players I know.

“With Noel’s proposal, I would see it doing the GAA a great favour in dealing with the amount of money on inter-county teams, which has become a bit of a runaway train.

"I know it’s extreme and a lot of people wouldn’t want it but if I had my way all county players would play with their clubs every third or fourth weekend. It would mean plenty of activity in and around the clubs instead of the small numbers now.

“I was talking to a fella who is training a club football team and he is destroyed. He has no chance because of having none of the inter-county footballers available to him.”