A FEW YEARS BACK just after his intercounty retirement, Sean Cavanagh put his feet up and drank in the splendour of the 2018 All-Ireland hurling semi-final on television.
The splendour of Cork and Limerick prompted him to reach for the phone and breathlessly tap out his astonishment for a stone-cold classic on Twitter, playfully asking wondering if it was too late to take up the sport.
Six years later, Cork and Limerick are on the box again, doing their thing.
Somewhere in Newry, a young lad by the name of Oisin Sheehan watches the game. As soon as it is over, he bounds outside excitedly, grabbing his hurl to start battering the ball into the goals. All the while, he’s accompanying the action with his own commentary, ‘And Hoggie buries it!’
His father, the Down hurling manager Ronan, watches on with approval before Tweeting, ‘It’s why we need more big hurling games on TV… Thurles here we come next week.’
What’s the difference?
You’d imagine that Sean Cavanagh would have had the ingredients of a smashing hurler. All that co-ordination, fine motor skills, size and power.
But he had limited opportunity to try it out. He reached high levels in soccer and basketball, but Gaelic football was always going to be his preference.
Of course, Eoghan Ruadh hurling club is based just five miles away from where he grew up in The Moy. But it’s difficult when your childhood friends aren’t attending.
Compare that to young Sheehan. All he has known since birth is hurling. His father has been the Down hurling manager for several years now and he has deep roots and friendships in Cork. His close friend, Diarmuid ‘The Rock’ O’Sullivan has in the past leant his support to Sheehan’s coaching ticket.
While Oisin was able to watch Saturday night’s game, the difference in him and 95% of young kids in Ulster and hurling’s barren lands, is he knew it was on in the first place.
The idea that the sport of hurling can be grown by televising all the classic matches is not a universal truth.
Those in the heartlands appreciate watching the game. It feeds into the imagination of children who already play.
It doesn’t however, have any impact on those vast swathes of counties north of the hurling Mason-Dixon line between Dublin and Galway.
Right now, the newly-established National Hurling Development Committee are in the process of identifying what can be done to make hurling a truly national sport; to help establish new clubs all over the country, and shore up those who are struggling.
Full disclosure – your humble correspondent is on that committee.
It starts with putting ‘A hurl in every house.’ It progresses to, ‘A hurl in every hand.’
It will take a plan that must be mapped out for not just years, but decades, and be subject to annual review and assessment. It’s going to take lots of hard graft. And money. Lots of money. Nothing to be ashamed of.
In establishing ‘new’ clubs, very different challenges face those in urban and rural areas. The obvious one is the numbers games in towns, with more children that might be likely to take up a new sport.
The other is facilities. The establishment of rural clubs is hampered by a lack of freely available facilities. Relying on the generosity of neighbouring football clubs will stretch the patience, and end in tears.
With clubs heading towards full amalgamation between the GAA and Ladies Gaelic Football Association, we are long past the pinch point of availability.
There is a way around this.
It will not be easy. It will cause great discomfort. Some – most especially in Ulster – will be vehemently opposed.
But clubs have to be incentivised, encouraged, or perhaps bullied to be reminded that the primary purpose of the GAA is to promote Gaelic Games. Plural and multiple.
This path may be rocky. Already, the committee have identified numerous cases of what former National Hurling Director Martin Fogarty has termed, ‘Hurling Sabotage.’
A friend of mine has been living in a rural part of Ulster for the best part of a decade. His children go to the local club. They are embedded in the community.
His heart belongs to hurling. A few years back, he made some enquiries for people to enjoy a casual puck-about.
That mushroomed in popularity. Armed with enough enthusiasts to put together a social hurling team, he approached the local football club.
It didn’t go well. The chairman was in favour of the club expanding their remit. The football manager, who as an outside manager wasn’t a member of the club, put it in plain terms; if there was a hurling match arranged, he would be calling football training for the same time.
There are multiple anecdotes of that flavour.
Leadership is required to root that attitude out. Leadership is necessary for what could be the greatest concerted effort to truly democratise and push hurling in decades.
And money is needed to staff and fund it all.
And that’s where GAAGO comes in.
Cold. Hard. Cash.
Nothing to be ashamed of.
