The Galway county convention will tonight debate a motion seeking for all of the inter-county hurling teams to participate in the same province from 2018.
Galway’s seniors joined the Leinster Hurling Championship in 2009, but the other counties in the province are against the idea of opening up their competitions to the minor and Under-21 teams.
The motion, which does not specify either Leinster or Munster, is: ‘Galway should participate at all grades, Minor, Under-21 and Senior, in a single provincial system’, and is likely to carry.
“The primary objective is to give our underage players a fair and equal opportunity to play competitive games and to develop,” Galway county secretary John Hynes told RTÉ Sport.
“That’s an opportunity that we don’t have at the moment."
GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail and director-general Páraic Duffy have said that they will try to help to reach a solution and Hynes is in favour of outside aid, saying that it is impossible to solve internally.
“I think at this stage, it’s a national issue,” he said.
“It’s not an issue that Galway can resolve on its own, nor is it an issue that Galway can resolve with Leinster Council.
“It needs to be addressed at national level. In that regard we are very grateful and we welcome support of Aogán Ó Fearghail and Páraic Duffy to give our case due consideration in the New Year.”
Hynes added: "If the motion is passed at our convention here this evening it will probably go forward onto the [GAA] convention clár to be voted on in February in Croke Park and then we’ll take it from there.
"But it does require that there’ll be an immediate rule change to allow Galway to participate at all grades in a single provincial system."
