Former top official blasts plan to drop League hurling for Longford as "mind-blowing"

A proposed plan to drop National League hurling for Longford and four other counties has been described as "mind-blowing" and "a terrrible decision" by former National Hurling Development officer Martin Fogarty in a hard hitting contribution on the topic on GAA Podcast "Our Game".

Newspaper reports have suggested in recent weeks that any county with less than five teams would be removed from the National Leagues and confined to the Lory Meagher Cup with monies saved diverted towards promoting the sport of hurling at juvenile level, through coaching and equipment.

The news had met with a furious response from the hurling communities in Longford, Fermanagh, Cavan, Louth and Leitrim with Louth captain Peter Fortune speaking on the OurGame.ie podcast as he revealed that representatives from all five county panels were coordinating a campaign to fight against the decision.

Longford hurler Johnny Casey hits out at proposal to exclude five counties from the National League

In an interview with Colm Keyes of the Irish Independent, Longford’s longest-serving senior hurler Johnny Casey has said that hearing of a proposal to cut five counties out of the National Hurling League from 2025 onwards was like taking a “hit to the stomach”.

Leitrim manager Olcan Conway described the plans as mental but Martin Fogarty, the GAA's first ever National Hurling Development officer, launched a stern rebuttal of the plans as he referenced a document which is believed to have been submitted by Croke Park's CCCC: "It is mind blowing really, it is terrible. I don’t know what kind of feelings I have other than pure torment for the counties involved.

"I heard it yesterday morning and I didn’t believe what I was hearing until I actually read the document. I could spend an hour going down through every line on that document and picking serious holes in it."

The former Kilkenny U21 manager also questioned the rationale behind the plan: "You take these five counties and whoever is pushing it behind the scenes, saying we’re not getting good value for money for investing in say 30 players. I’d ask the question, are they getting good value for the money their investing in the football players? Because let’s be straight about it, and I’m not knocking them in the slightest, those football teams, they’re not winning - if winning is the yardstick. They rarely win games and they’re costing vast amounts of more money."

Referring to fact quoted in the report, Fogarty questioned what was being conveyed to the CCCC: "To take one point that came out in that letter was alluding to a panel in one county that had six outside players. That’s within the GAA rules and if those rules were changed, that team would still have a panel of players. Incidentally, those six players, I have it on good report, that they’re very, very well connected with the particular county, they’re not just flying in for matches and whether they are or they aren’t, the rules are there.

"This will kill off hurling in these counties"

Reps from the five counties who may soon be ringfenced into Lory Meagher Cup with no league have come out strongly with a statement

Full show https://t.co/FoswuMM8ww pic.twitter.com/uxmJCu5SGP

— OurGame.ie (@OurGameHQ) November 9, 2023

"Then there was the reference there about six players who failed to make their club team for a county final - now that’s absolutely scurrilous and that information was put up there to mislead because I know for a fact, that six players, if they weren’t injured or had other personal issues, they would have been the first names on those teams. To me, when I saw that section of the document, I said this is wrong, very, very wrong and somebody behind the scenes are trying to hoodwink the CCC in trying to push out a boat there or run an agenda that is absolutely contrary to hurling development."

Fogarty also felt that removing the five counties could signal the deathknell for hurling in those counties: "Hurling in these counties is walked on, at the best of times, and the efforts that have to be made by clubs and players to play the game, there should be statues built to most of these people. To come in and try to do this and throw them out of Leagues is just absolutely terrible.

"For people to promote hurling in these counties, they have to be absolutely dedicated and what happens is that they get brow-beaten so much that they throw in the towel and that is what happens. To see this coming down the line, I’d have a tear in my eye for the people involved."

The former Croke Park official also warned that counties like Mayo, Carlow and Tyrone could find themselves removed from League hurling if this proposal goes through: "Just looking at it, we have five counties mentioned but you could have a few more following on them very quick because, to the best of my knowledge, there are only five adult clubs in Tyrone, maybe a fifth teams comes in.

I can tell you from those of us that are involved in the grassroots of hurling in Longford we very disappointed to hear that this is how the GAA are planning to improve hurling.
It makes no sense and seems to be a money saving exercise rather than a solution to expand the game

— Jimmy Jests (@jimmyjests) November 9, 2023

As a Tipp man now hurling in Longford, players wish to have a say

— David Buckley (@DavidBuckley17) November 8, 2023

"Even Mayo were working off of four up to last year but a good man, Adrian Hession, did huge work over there and got a few more teams competing at adult level so basically Mayo and Tyrone are working off four adult clubs as well. If we look down to Carlow and Carlow on a given day could give the Liam McCarthy a good run for their money but they’re picking usually from three or four clubs so what is the criteria for being allowed into the national league? Is it success or is it the number of the players in the county?"

For those wanting to watch the full discussion on OurGame.ie, click HERE.