HURLING Development Committee chairman Terry Reilly says football-oriented county boards are often guilty of “acts of sabotage” against the small ball game.
The Antrim man, from the Gort na Mona club in Belfast, is head of the 12-person HDC which has been set up by GAA President Jarlath Burns.
Reilly said that their initial remit is to focus on the development of hurling and that competition structures or hurling rules won’t be an immediate focus.
He said that “solid foundation blocks” need to be put in place first for the game to grow with a new National Head of Hurling set to be appointed to oversee change.
The example was given at a HDC briefing in Croke Park of a new hurling club which has been set up in Longford and which is thriving.
But Reilly acknowledged that a culture of football coming first in many instances will have to be tackled and overcome.
“Anecdotally, what we’ve heard is that whenever there is a night set aside for hurling fixtures, and then there are football refixtures that might materialise, then they are put on that hurling night,” said Reilly, outlining the challenges in football heartlands. “That would be a case in point for exactly that [sabotage] scenario.
“We need to concentrate on the low fruit initially. You have people that are very willing to work with you, who are very willing to be the people on the ground.
“In relation to the bigger picture, yes, there are challenges throughout. The problem that we have is that we have counties that are carrying out acts of sabotage by not facilitating hurling fixtures.”
Reilly said one way of addressing this is by assuring “counties that we are there to help, that we’re there to assist, so we can give them the confidence to try to roll out as many hurling fixtures as they possibly can”.
If that doesn’t work, the new Head of Hurling will have strong powers to pull non-conforming county boards into line.
