Two weeks ago, Galway County Board chairman Noel Treacy revisited an issue which Galway don’t want to go away.
Speaking about the Leinster Council’s objection to Galway's application for their underage teams to join the Leinster championship, Treacy said that they would be having further discussion with Leinster officials in an attempt to re-visit the proposal.
When the Leinster counties voted overwhelmingly last November to keep Galway out of their underage competitions, they were perfectly entitled to put self-interest first. Galway would present such a major challenge that those Leinster counties had no wish or reason to accommodate a county which has been such an underage powerhouse over the last two decades.
That was also the reasoning behind the opposition from Offaly, Wexford, Dublin, and Laois to Galway's arrival in the Leinster senior championships in 2009. All that saved Galway (and Antrim) at the time was it was a national issue, voted on by Special Congress as part of an overhaul of the All-Ireland championships, which received an 80% majority.
Leinster has been a far more viable alternative to the isolation which Galway had to deal with for so long, but there are still enough people within the county who feel they haven’t got enough from the transaction of their entry at senior level. Galway don’t have any home games. Now, with the rejection of their underage teams, the belief has hardened in Galway that the relationship is too one-sided, and not fully reciprocal.
The push for more competitive action for their underage teams also highlights how the penny has finally dropped in Galway. They have been gobbling up All-Ireland underage titles for the last two decades, but it has made no real difference at senior.
At minor level in particular, where Galway have won eight All-Irelands in the last 23 years, Galway have had the system off to a tee. Yet what benefits have they really accrued from those successes? Has success softened some of those young players? Would they have learned more about themselves, and what it really takes to win at senior, if they had to come through gruelling campaigns in Leinster?
Galway have churned out armies of talented young hurlers but in the context of such a massive fall-off, Niall Corcoran provides an interesting case study. An All-Ireland minor winner in 2000, he never made it in Galway afterwards, primarily because he wasn’t considered enough of an archetypical Galway stickman or stylist.
But he thrived when he transferred to Dublin, winning a league title, and a Leinster title. Ironically, two of his best games for Dublin came against Galway in the 2011 and 2013 Leinster championships. How many players like Corcoran have Galway flushed out of their system in the last 25 years?
There has been a clear discrepancy in the amount of All-Ireland titles won at underage and, particularly club level, compared to the strike rate at senior inter-county level, which now extends to 27 years. In the same timespan, Galway clubs have won 12 All-Ireland senior titles. The Galway champions, though, have always had the advantage in their All-Ireland bid of not having to negotiate a tough provincial campaign. Some of those teams were so powerful and dominant that it might not have mattered if they had to enter a tough provincial campaign. But it would definitely have made a difference in trying to maintain a relentless pursuit of All-Irelands.
In the past 27 seasons, only three Munster clubs have won All-Irelands. Has the standard in Galway been that much higher than the overall standard in Munster during that time? Absolutely not. The system is a glaringly obvious factor. If Galway clubs had to travel to Wexford Park or Nowlan Park, or take on a side like Ballyhale Shamrocks at a Galway venue, a week after winning a county title, would they have won as many All-Irelands in the last 25 years? No. Yet might that difficult journey have hardened many of those players more for inter-county level? Made them hungrier? Possibly.
Winning so many All-Ireland club titles has been beneficial for Galway hurling, but the famine at senior inter-county level has finally made Galway people realise that a different pathway has to be explored at underage.
The flipside to that pursuit, and the roadblocks now put in their way, also highlights the huge power of the provincial councils. It also underlines the huge inequalities which exist in the different provinces.
Waterford and Limerick meet in a massive minor hurling playoff on Wednesday evening, with both teams having already lost to Tipp and Cork respectively. The winner could still lose again (in the Munster final) and go on to win the All-Ireland, just as Waterford did two years ago having lost twice in Munster. On the otherhand, Clare got a bye into this year’s semi-final, but defeat on July 1st will end their season. Just like Galway, one team in Munster every year (if they lose) doesn’t get a second chance.
Meanwhile, there is no back door in the Ulster and Connacht minor football championships, when there is in Munster and Leinster. The Munster minor football semi-finals take place next week. The Connacht minor championship doesn’t begin for almost two months. How does all that make sense?
It proves once more how much the Provincial Councils dictate so much of the agenda, often at the cost of the greater good. And in Galway’s case, how Leinster have put self-interest ahead of hurling’s greater good.
