Good morning comrades. This weekend we get another glimpse of Offaly and Carlow, who played out a great Joe McDonagh Cup final a few weeks ago.
The immediate reward for both teams is to enter the All-Ireland series at this stage. Carlow play Dublin, Offaly play Tipp.
It's extremely likely that Carlow and Offaly will lose and neither team will play inter-county hurling again until next February. By then the buzz from the Joe McDonagh will be long gone.
They deserve better, and if we consider in almost 150 years of stewardship, the GAA has failed to expand the hurling map of Ireland even marginally, then hurling deserves better also.
In fact, before the end of the Second World War, 11 different counties had won All-Ireland hurling titles. Since then, just nine counties have. The last new name on the cup was Offaly themselves, way back in 1981. We haven't had a first-time All-Ireland finalist since then. That's failure.
We now have just two provincial championships for our national game.
We've a Leinster competition with falling attendances and little tension, and a Munster scene which seems to be thriving but just needs two teams to fall away before it follows the Leinster model.
Imagine standing over a gravely ill relative, and saying 'no, no, I can feel a pulse, no need to call a doctor yet'. The GAA is the one refusing to call a doctor. Munster hurling is that pulse.
We need a plan for hurling, not pats on the head. A plan for growth.
Offaly are on the way back after a sharp fall that should never have been allowed to happen. Teams like Carlow, Westmeath and Kerry seem stranded - too good to slip out of the Joe McDonagh, not good enough for permanent progress.
Small groups of heroic volunteers in the so-called weaker hurling counties put together the odd good team and keep hope alive. What help do they get from the GAA leadership?
They need finance and guidance for academies and career pathways, specialised hurling coaches arriving like missionaries, regional hurling centres, shared expertise for developing partnerships with local businesses to help the funding of hurling, twinning mentoring arrangements with stronger counties, a guarantee of immunity from relegation for two or three years when Carlow make the Leinster championship. And that's just for starters.
Rugby has marketed and grown itself brilliantly. Soccer produced a recent plan looking for half a billion in funding to develop their game here. The best of luck to them.
Could we pay Guinness to come back and market the game, a la the late 90s?
Where is the GAA's campaign for the the funding to preserve a sport and cultural asset which is as old and precious as our language?
Imagine, a kid in Carlow, Sligo or Donegal cannot hold a hurley in their hand today and realistically dream of playing in an All-Ireland senior hurling final. No number of pats on the head will change that.
If you can, get out and watch Offaly and Carlow this weekend. They deserve it.
