GAELIC GAMES:TOMORROW'S MEETING of the GAA Central Council will consider its umpteenth opportunity to lay to rest the interprovincial competitions, formerly known as the Railway Cup, when it decides whether they should proceed this year.
They have been played just once since 2009 but without being formally discontinued or enshrined in the annual fixtures list.
Last weekend the association’s Management Committee decided against accepting any of the seven options put to it by a sub-committee chaired by Armagh Central Council delegate Jarlath Burns and which had been tasked with suggesting appropriate slots in the calendar for the playing of the competition.
It was originally presented to Central Council, who in turn referred it to Management, and now it’s back. “I would regard my work as being done at this stage,” according to Burns. “The starting point was to find where time might be set aside for it and work it back from there. There are plenty of opinions on when it might be played but when you explore each one in the context of the bigger picture it’s very hard to find a fixed date in the calendar.”
Ironically the most imaginative of the proposed solutions is one with very little chance of success. Proposed by Kerry’s Eamonn O’Sullivan it envisages the inter-provincial finals being played on the same double bill as the senior All-Ireland finals – in the slot currently occupied by the minor finals.
In previous years it had been suggested the grade championships, such as the Christy Ring in hurling or the now defunct Tommy Murphy Cup in football, could be played in that space, as the counties contesting senior finals are generally the same as contest minors. This idea would entail the minor championships being played off in time for finals to be held on the same bill as All-Ireland senior semi-finals.
“This would allow the minors get back to their clubs a month early,” says Burns. “It would add to the attendance at the relevant semi-final and also allow greater numbers from the competing counties to attend (at present, just approximately 5,000 All-Ireland final tickets are allocated to the minor final) and free up extra tickets for the senior final.
“As the interprovincial teams wouldn’t have a support base in themselves – all four provinces get tickets for All-Ireland day, anyway – there wouldn’t be any independent demand for tickets . . . It’s going to take imagination to relaunch these competitions and even imagination mightn’t do it.”
