The ongoing and totally unacceptable impasse between Galway county board and the Leinster council in hurling took a new twist this week with the news that city club Liam Mellows has tabled a motion to the county convention on December 12 to move to Munster in 2018, if the county’s minor and U21 hurling teams are not admitted into Leinster.
If the Liam Mellows motion is successful at the Galway Convention, then it will be on the agenda at the 2017 GAA Congress in February.
The fact that neither the Galway juniors nor intermediates are allowed into the Leinster championship is a major problem too, as is the refusal to allow the seniors' home championship games.
The Galway minor hurlers last had a home championship game in 1966 and the U21s last played on Connacht soil in 1968 which is totally unfair and does nothing for the development of the game in the county.
Director general of the GAA Padraic Duffy said during the week that "no-one has a closed mind on the matter and the onus is on Croke Park to look at it from a national level. It is an issue that needs to be addressed at a national forum".
It will take a motion at congress for any real movement on this matter and with motions requiring a two-thirds majority to pass, it is not an easy task.
However, something has to happen. Currently Galway are not being treated equally and all the county hurlers want is a fair and level playing field - at all levels,
Having a ratio of training to matches of something like 70:1 for minors and 40:1 for U21 level is totally unsustainable and illogical, and needs to be changed.
Leinster’s self-interest on the matter should not be put ahead of equity and fairness and the development of hurling in Galway.
The bottom line is that Galway hurling should be as entitled to equal status as any other county in Leinster if they are playing in that provincial campaign.
