JOHNNY McINTOSH: An important plan for Ulster hurling

THIS week I have been thinking about the Ulster hurling teams’ poor performance this season and on the back of the GAA rolling out a new Head of Hurling.

It makes me wonder what the overall plan for Ulster might need to look like.

It was massively disappointing for Derry to lose out in the Christy Ring final for the fourth time in five years.

It was fantastic for Down to be promoted to Division 1B but they didn’t really push on in the Joe McDonagh.

Antrim were lucky to stay in Division 1B and were relegated back down to Joe McDonagh.

Despite what some may feel, it won’t all be straightforward to Antrim to climb back out again.

Yes, we all have to get our own house in order in Derry, Down and Antrim but I still don’t think there is enough going on within the GAA hierarchy to actually promote what we need.

It can be said they are developing hurling across the country based on participation. That’s important too but it’s nothing to do with enhancing standards.

It’s nothing to do with raising performance, it’s nothing to do with bringing the bar up.

It just looks to me like a numbers game in that we’ve got 100,000 people playing hurling across Ireland and, if in five years we can get 125,000 playing hurling, we’ll be successful.

That’s going to get more teams playing, but that may ultimately be to the detriment of the game getting better in those counties.

From the point of view of the long-term hurling plan, the first of four pillars is increasing the number of meaningful games opportunities.

Yes, there was a solution in creating competitions in grades like the Christy Ring and Joe McDonagh Cups. That’s a good plan but one of the issues is how it’s too late by the time they come around.

With Antrim u-20s this season, by the time we played Dublin, we were caught cold because they were better than us. If only we had been able to get more matches against the likes of Dublin and teams from the same tier.

The GAA may well argue that we’ve national leagues but those all become a bit of a struggle for us. There is a situation of teams yoyoing between the layers.

In recent columns, I have appealed for the GAA to get into schools with hurling development roles like what Chrissy McKaigue has been doing with the footballers in St Patrick’s Maghera.

There have been two roles advertised for Antrim GAA Schools Games Development Coordinators in St Mary’s Belfast and St Louis Ballymena.

It’s a step forward for GAA but I feel there needs to be a full focus on hurling. Look at Antrim Grammar School and their employment of a full-time Director of Rugby. A total focus on rugby.

Imagine James McNaughton, Antrim’s best player at the minute, in St Louis as Director of Hurling. A total focus on hurling. That’s why I keep looking at rugby with envy.

They want to be a rugby school and win an Ulster Schools’ Cup because that’s what they believe in. I’ll be watching on to see how they grow over the next four or five years.

Back to hurling. At the minute, football is leaving hurling for dead. Even the Munster Championship was eclipsed this year by Gaelic football.

This time last year I would have gone if there was a football game in my backyard, I wouldn’t watch. Now, I would sit and watch a football game and think what they’ve done with the rule changes has been fantastic for the game.

From the GAA’s point of view they, the top eight counties in hurling should be left to their own devices. They are at the level those below want to get to.

As for the next eight counties, that’s where they need to put their resources and the energy.

Gaelic football is constantly in flux. Dublin and Kerry are always going to be up there but the rest will float up and down. Look at Louth winning the Leinster Championship.

The rankings within football can just change after two years. The biggest damaging factor in hurling is that teams just cannot break through.

Below that, in the bottom half, participation is still important but it’s one step at a time. If we can create something that looks a bit more tangible other counties may strive to get involved in growing the game. Look at football in the nineties. Ulster teams inspired by Down 1991 and Sam coming north.

If Jarlath Burns gave me a wish list, I’d have a Director of Hurling in our universities in Ulster. They could then help the Ulster Council with their other elements of hurling promotion the rest of the year.

I’d like to see a Director of Hurling in every county. In counties with a smaller pool of clubs, it could be on a part-time basis. It would be another step at properly growing the game.

They would look at coaching, promotion and everything linked to the structure for progress. They might even delve into the marketing and sponsorship side, tapping into businesses who want to put their shoulder to the wheel of growing hurling.

Peter Canavan has been involved in something similar in Holy Trinity Cookstown with Tyrone the big winner in the long run with another arm of development in place alongside their other schools.

The GAA and the Ulster Council could pay 50 per cent each. It would help with what Ulster Schools already have in place, a Mageean Cup that has produced All-Ireland winners at B level.

A Director of Hurling would be looking at everything in a county. Where they are strong and where the holes are. It would filter into the development squads.

Back to my initial thought of raising Ulster hurling’s stock. There is no quick fix but we need to start looking at it and we need to start looking at it now.