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Pat Daly, GAA director of games research and development. Donall Farmer/INPHO
hybrid hurls

Hybrid hurleys on the horizon as ash shortage looms

GAA looking into using man-made materials, such as fibreglass, in the production process.

PAT DALY, THE GAA’s director of games development and research, believes ‘hybrid hurleys’ may have to be used in the coming years due to the ash dieback disease crisis.

Daly was speaking at the launch of the Hurling Development Committee’s action plan 2015-2018 which is broken down into ‘four key pillars’, or areas to tackle.

Included in the final pillar is research into wood technology to come up with alternative means of producing hurleys.

It has become a hugely important issue following the impact of the ash dieback disease, a fungus that has wiped out ash plantations across Europe and has taken hold in Ireland.

The problem, first noted here in 2012, has seriously affected the GAA’s long-term plan to make Ireland self-sufficient in terms of ash supply for hurley production by 2018.

One potential solution is ‘breeding resistance’ by planting new ash trees from healthy specimens. With regard to hurleys, prototype hurls made from various pieces of dowelled or hinged wood pieces are in existence, allowing manufacturers to use wood that would previously have been discarded.

Another option that will alarm traditionalists is the creation of hurleys from man-made materials, such as fibreglass, but with a normal ash face or bas.

“A hybrid hurley, yeah,” said Daly. “Given the way technology is moving on, how man-made fibres are moving on, that’s realistic.

It’s something we could be looking at. Ash would be moulded on the bas. The rest would be man-made, fibreglass. Ash would be glued on then.

“This is only at a very embryonic stage. What we’re trying to establish is, if the ash is impregnated on it, will it work? Will it have the desired impact? That you don’t have too much feedback, vibration.

“The next year or two will tell us a lot. We’re operating on the back of a principle, that we’re getting ash on to this man-made fibre, this fibreglass base.

“If the thing doesn’t break there at the joint, if the thing is not vibrating, you could have a realistic alternative which incorporates ash and has man-made fibres as well.

A million sliotars

“Ultimately, everybody’s preference is to have ash hurleys. But if things change, necessity becomes the mother of invention. In that scenario, you’re looking at breeding ash plants for resistance, you’re looking at alternative production processes. And this is a third option.”

Traditional hurley makers, of which Daly estimated there are “hundreds” in Ireland, would probably be put out of work by any widespread move to fibreglass or carbon fibre hurleys.

“Potentially, potentially that could happen,” said Daly. “We have the same scenario with sliotars, for example.

“We figure there’s about a million sliotars used in this country. We’re working on a situation where we have a tag within the core, that identifies whether it’s a bone fide sliotar or not, so a lot of traditional sliotar suppliers could potentially be out of business if that comes to pass. And I think it will come to pass.”

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