NEXT MONTH, THE AIG Fenway Hurling Classic is returning to Boston as four teams battle it out in a double-header at the home of the Red Sox.
Dublin face Galway in a repeat of the 2015 match-up while Tipperary take on Clare, both in the Super 11s format.
This modified version of hurling is the brainchild of the Gaelic Players Association (GPA). It’s designed for smaller pitches with just 11 players on each side. The only way to score is under the crossbar into the net, with a goal inside the designated scoring zone worth three points, and a score from outside worth five.
In the aftermath of the Fenway Park clash in 2015, reaction in the States was largely positive, and the GPA were keen on a return. That said, there was also a certain amount of backlash, and opinions were divided.
GPA Chief Executive Officer Dermot Earley yesterday hailed the previous edition as a success, and said the association were looking forward to ‘promoting the game’ further in four weeks time.
He noted however, that he understood people’s scepticism at the same time.
“It was a success two years ago,” he told the media yesterday at the announcement of this year’s GPA/WGPA DCU Business School Masters scholarship recipients.
“We had 28,000 people in Fenway Park. This year, we’re a month out and we’re very close to 20,000 tickets already sold. I think tickets will speed up over the next four weeks and we will surpass that number of 28,000, and hopefully have 30,000+.
“I can understand their scepticism. They might say it’s not hurling, but we are confined to stadiums in the States. We can bring hurling to Gaelic Park, we can bring it to other GAA venues but we want to bring it to the wider audience out there.
“I spoke to a lot of people who are first generation Irish and have been out there for 30 or 40 years, they’re going to go to the game and bring their family and extended family to say ‘This is what I supported as a young fella, this is part of our Irishness’.
“It will be broadcast to a huge audience and it will encourage people that are living in the States, that may not be in that GAA network already, to go and maybe join a local club.
“We are promoting the game and this year we will see how successful it is.”
He continues, when questioned on the possibility of bringing over teams from the Christy Ring and Lory Meagher grades: “As the game does develop over there, I’d love to see all teams being able to go over at some stage.
“We want to showcase the best, and we have our All-Ireland champions, league champions, Leinster champions from this year, All-Ireland and league champions from 2016 as well.
“This year, we’ve changed the format slightly, we have a cup for the winners which gives them an incentive to put on the best possible show and to win. These lads are winners in everything that they do, regardless of whether it’s a challenge match or a tournament, they want to win.
“I think it’s going to be a spectacle and I’m really looking forward to it.”
The former Kildare player accepted that it may be a harder sell in Ireland, considering the fact that it is stepping away from the traditional game.
“Yeah, of course and I can understand that because it isn’t hurling, it isn’t the conventional 15-a-side hurling that people would be used to here.
“But you need to promote the game to a wider audience and this is an opportunity to do that.”
Why though? He responds: “It’s unique to Ireland and instead of maybe promoting other parts of our Irish……
What about in Ireland, look at Cavan for example. They just returned with a senior level hurling team this year?
“There’s 70 million Irish that are also living in the States,” he continues.
He’s stopped in his tracks. Is the ultimate goal to get money over there rather than to promote hurling?
His response: “No, we’re also promoting Ireland and we’re encouraging people to……”
Earley then confirms that there are no GPA fundraising events in Boston, or elsewhere, for the 2017 Fenway Classic.
There are lunches, he says, but ‘no fundraising in the sense of what was done in New York, or Boston earlier this year’. There are fundraising events for the teams that are traveling, ‘but that’s their own initiative’.
Again though, can he understand the scepticism or criticism? Considering tables at the the ‘Inaugural Boston Friends of the GPA Dinner’ cost up to $50,000 (€47,100)?
“I can,” he continues.
“But for us, I don’t want to be in a position to say to a player ‘Sorry, I can’t provide that service for you’ or say ‘Yeah, you’ll have that service but have to wait six months for that’ or say to a squad that I’m going to ration you because we just don’t have the funding.
“Yes, we aim big and that’s a value within the association. It has been successful over there, and we will continue to do so.”
And he adds that the GAA are comfortable with those fundraising activities.
“If you look at our last agreement, it is written in that agreement — signed off by the GAA — that we can raise funds through fundraising, so that’s an agreement that’s signed off by the GAA.”
The GPA chief is again involved in Ireland’s management team — headed by Joe Kernan — for this year’s International Rules series in Australia.
It’s a two-Test series this time around, the opening game taking place on Sunday, 12 November at the Adelaide Oval, and the second clash on Saturday, 18 November in the Domain Stadium in Perth.
There is a clash — the Super 11s are in Boston on Sunday, 19 November — so Earley will subsequently miss the deciding Test Down Under.
He says that before accepting the role with Ireland, he laid everything out on the table for Kernan and also the GAA, and they were satisfied for him to remain involved.
“I think he [Kernan] wanted to keep the continuity from the successful team in 2015, and having discussed it [missing the second Test] with my own board and the GAA, they were supportive and I accepted.
“It’s a great opportunity for me to work closely with some of the top players in the country. To have those one-on-ones that I don’t often get from a squad visit, but certainly sitting on a plane for 12 hours, you can get the issues that players are having.”
Kernan and his management team are close to finalising a squad, he continues, and are happy with all of the involved players’ efforts to date.
There are no representatives from Dublin’s All-Ireland-winning squad in training, but that’s not an issue.
“Not at all, I don’t think so,” Earley says. “It’s an Irish squad and it should be representation from the best players in the country.
“We’ve gone right around all the counties, spent the summer looking. We’ve strong representation from the top teams but we’ve also good representation from some of the less strong teams, if you want to call them that.
“As someone who played it, representing your country as a player is a huge honour. To stand there shoulder to shoulder with lads representing Ireland is a huge honour. It’s the only international outlet we have, so I do think it’s important that the game is definitely continued.”
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