Confusion over June hurling dates

Round two in the Clare Senior and Intermediate Hurling Championships is scheduled for the weekend of June 29/30 but that is dependent on Clare qualifying for the provincial senior decider.

At a heated special structures meeting back in February, delegates voted, 29 to 19, to have a round of the championship at the end of June, if the Clare senior hurlers have qualified for the Munster final.
This was despite the fact that reservations were expressed by some present that it was not satisfactory that clubs would not know until six days beforehand whether they would have a round of championship games that weekend.

Concern has been growing in relation to this issue over the past few weeks and has heightened since Clare defeated Waterford in the opening round of the Munster competition last Sunday.
It’s expected that the issue will be raised at next Tuesday’s board meeting, which will take place in Scariff. Speaking with players and mentors from a number of clubs on Monday last, when there was a full round of league games, they all complained that the “lack of certainty” is a big issue.

Some believe that, irrespective of the outcome of Clare’s game with Cork, there won’t be championship games at the end of June.
Those who support that view argue that if Clare succeed in beating Cork, there will be a request from management to defer the round two fixtures, as the Munster final will be just two weeks away. The mood of the meeting at the end of February would suggest otherwise.

Back then, Clonlara manager Donal Madden and Tulla’s Jim McInerney warned all present that “the greatest threat to the GAA is not soccer or rugby but the GAA itself”. They led the call to have round two of the championship at the end of June.

Back in February, Mr Madden told the delegates that the masters fixtures showed an overwhelming bias towards the inter-county player. “We have 20 senior clubs in Clare plus intermediate and junior teams, roughly 1,000 club players and still we are focussing on the 30 players on the county panel.

“At a time when employment is so low, depression is so high, suicide rates are so high, the level of alcoholism is so high, we are only adding to the problem by not giving our club players something to do,” he said.
The masters fixtures has August 17/18 as the dates for round two of the championship. Delegates were asked to vote between June 29/30 and August 17/18 for round two and the count was 29 to 19 in favour of the June date.

Afterwards, there were claims that the vote should not have been allowed as some clubs had more than one delegate in attendance and all voted. However, there were no objections on the night with regard to this issue
It remains to be seen if a proposal to change from that date will be put to Tuesday’s meeting f and, if so, will the result be different on this occasion.