GALWAY’S PARTICIPATION IN the Leinster hurling championship has been cast in doubt with two clubs putting forward proposals to pull out the year after next if they are not granted equal status.
County champions Sarsfields and intermediate club Ballinderreen have table motions calling for Galway to pull out of Leinster in 2017 unless there are significant changes.
These include the granting of home games, equal financial status, representation on the Leinster Council and the inclusion of the Galway minor and U-21 teams in the Leinster championship.
The motions from the clubs will come before the Galway convention next week.
The Sarsfields’ motion asks for the county minor and U-21 team to be included in Leinster, while the Ballinderreen motion goes a step further and seeks the same rights and benefits as the other teams that participate in the Leinster competition.
“This is a recommendation that we’re putting forward in the hope that it will highlight how we are being treated here,” said long-serving Ballinderreen county board delegate, Michael Kelly.
“Financially and otherwise we have been treated very poorly by Leinster. We have no home games, no representatives on the Leinster Council and we only get three per cent of the money back from them.
The whole championship is due to be changed after next year and we want to be in there with our recommendations to see if we can get anywhere. Now is the time to let the country know the way we’re treated.
“We are the last two years talking about this at hurling board level and everything. Plenty of delegates have asked why don’t we pull out of Leinster?
“It’s time to put it one way or the other. If delegates want Galway to pull out let them back this recommendation. There is no use in talking about it or making threats if you don’t carry them out,” said Kelly.
Galway first joined the Leinster championship in 2009 and after defeat in their first provincial final a year later, the won their maiden Bob O’Keeffe Cup in 2012 under the management of Anthony Cunningham.
The Tribesmen also participated in the Munster championship for 12 years centred around the 1960s, but there is not likely to be much appetite for a return to their southern rivals again.
Sarsfields’ club chairman Sean Fahy, members feel Galway stand a better chance of success if they are allowed play in minor and U-21 levels as well as senior in Leinster.
“It’s something that came up from the club members. We felt we’d stand a better chance of being successful if all our teams were involved,” said Fahy.
Our minors aren’t getting too many games and the U-21s just get the one chance too. That’s where the idea came from really. Having to travel away to games all the time came up too. Home games would be very popular if we could get them.
“It might be a bit drastic to say we’ll pull everyone out, but at the same time I don’t know if we are being listened to either. It wouldn’t be new to us either – we were on our own before. It would be a comeback to what we’re used to.”
“We put the motion forward to open up a debate and see what the potential is for all of our teams to be included.
“We’d like to see what the other counties think and to hear if the hierarchy could develop something,” he said.
