Mayo involved in plan to tackle hurling’s minnow status in Connacht
Tooreen captain Shane Boland signs an autograph on Meghan Olson’s jersey at the end of the recent Mayo SHC final against Ballyhaunis. Picture: David Farrell Photography
The ultra-competitive rivalry that was so superbly put on display yet again by Tooreen and Ballyhaunis who could only be separated after extra-time in last Saturday week’s Mayo senior final, cannot disguise how big the gap between the top two and the county’s eight other hurling clubs.
When Tooreen’s second string team is still ahead of those other eight, by virtue of their quite comfortable win against Ballina Stephenites in this year’s county junior ‘A’ hurling championship, you know the chasing pack still has significant ground to make up.
It’s undeniable that work to try and make that happen is ongoing, and the spawning of underage and adult teams in recent years from Belmullet to Ballyvary offers real hope for the growth of the game right across the Plain of the Yews. But what happens now is critical to ensuring those teams remain 50 years from now because time was, back in the 1950s to 70s, when teams from Swinford to Manulla and Cong to Claremorris were winning Mayo senior hurling titles. And where are they now?
To be able to provide hurling within 20 minutes of their home club for anyone who wants to play the game is one of the four tenets of a new hurling development strategy that has been proposed for the four Connacht counties outside of Galway. Provincial hurling officer Damien Curley was in Castlebar’s Hastings Insurance MacHale Park recently to outline to Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon and Leitrim representatives, ideas aimed at helping to grow the number of players in these so-called ‘weaker’ hurling counties, and to improve the general standard of hurling within those at club and inter-county levels also.
Mindful, however, of the importance of learning to crawl before you walk, Sean Ó Raghallaigh, Mayo GAA’s hurling chairman, told this month’s meeting of Mayo County Board about the need first to maintain and develop the existing clubs and where possible, develop new clubs.
Currently, there are 10 hurling clubs in Mayo – Tooreen, Ballyhaunis, Castlebar Mitchels, Ballina Stephenites, Westport, Gaeltacht Iorrais, Caiseal Gaels, Moytura, Claremorris and Ballyvary – along with eight in both Sligo and Roscommon, and two in Leitrim.
“It’s a challenge for these counties as they wouldn’t have the biggest population of players who play the game,” said Ó Raghallaigh.
“The balance in Mayo is to maintain and nurture the newer clubs and to provide the support that they need so that they can build good structures.
“It would be great if we could maintain our 10 clubs in Mayo and keep them strong and develop more senior clubs, bringing more of our junior clubs through.
“As regard developing new clubs, it would be great if we could but we definitely want to support the 10 we have,” he added.
The Connacht GAA Hurling Development Strategy also proposes that the province would operate underage teams for 15 and 16 year-olds, made up of the top four to six players from each of the four weaker counties, where they would come together and have the opportunity to play against stronger counties.
Sean Ó Raghallaigh would favour such a move.
“I think academy squads and to allow the best players to progress and to showcase their skills would be a good idea because we have some fantastic players at county level who would benefit from the opportunity to play at a higher level.”
One of the difficulties that Mayo and those surrounding counties has, however, is the paltry number of Games Development Officers who are dedicated to the promotion of hurling. Cian O’Toole took up his role as Mayo’s sole GDO last summer. The onus, therefore, falls back on the clubs.
“It’s difficult to find coaches to coach the game so a big push will be on the clubs,” admitted Sean Ó Raghallaigh.
“It takes some expertise, not a massive amount, but some, and we need to grow the coaching base in order to develop players.”
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Following on from the drama of their fourth consecutive Mayo SHC title, Tooreen are back in action next weekend in the quarter-final of the Connacht intermediate hurling championship. They’ll travel to Dr Hyde Park to play Roscommon champions Four Roads on Saturday, October 26. Throw-in is at 4.30pm.
