Maher enthused by hurling's progress on a number of fronts

By John Harrington

The GAA's National Head of Hurling, William Maher, has hailed a very positive week for the small ball code.

On Tuesday the Government announced that €1M would be available in their budget to spend on hurling and camogie projects.

The following day Leinster GAA unveiled a new senior provincial hurling championship format they believe can raise the standard of the game in the province.

Two very different announcements, but both ones that further raised the volume of the increasingly positive mood music around the game.

“I think there's a lot of positives around hurling at the moment,” says Maher. “The exciting new format for the Leinster Championship that was proposed this week and will go before Annual Congress next year is a major positive.

“Then we saw on Tuesday the Government announcing a million euros for hurling and camogie development nationally. That's on the back of €744,000 last year. So, the Government are supporting us with finance.”

Maher’s main focus in the coming weeks will be on gauging the impact of the Hurling Expert Advisory Group’s rule amendments which are being trialled in the Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup League.

There are 24 amendments that are being included in the trials, and they range across a wide variety of elements of the game. Among the enhancements taking place in the trial are:

• Extend the power of line umpires to provide assistance to referees
• Handpass requires a clear and definite strike with the hand
• Sliotar can be carried for maximum of six steps in the hand
• To use your arms to tie up an opponent is not permitted
• Throw-ins to start a half to be contested by one player off each team in midfield
• Puck outs must travel at least 45 metres. Minimum of three players from each team must remain between 20m and 45m lines for puck outs
• A 65m puck to be taken from the 65m line nearest your own goal
• Two points awarded for a sideline struck cleanly over the bar
• One maor foirne per team to be permitted to enter the field during breaks in play

Maher is looking forward to seeing how they fare.

“Hurling is not in that bad a place but we’re trying some tweaks to see if they can make the game better," he says.

“There has been extensive consultation, extensive communication, extensive deliberation on these trials.

“We've had meetings with inter-county referees, just briefing them on what the expectation is.

“We’ve briefed third-level to make sure that they understand what the rules are and players and coaches are well briefed before they head into it. We’re also briefing provincial councils to make sure that they also have a vision on what's happening and where we're going.

“We’re also speaking with individual counties, individual managers within teams.

“The consultation has been extensive, so I'm happy that it's sound and that it will hopefully provide a good framework to gather valuable information that will allow us then to work with the standing committee on playing rules to bring forward whatever recommendations that come out of the trials.”

Growing the game of hurling in a meaningful way in terms of participation numbers arguably the biggest challenge that Maher faces in his role, but he’s satisfied that progress is being made in that regard too

“We’re always working hard on the hurling development piece, trying to build out structures that allow more games to be played and more children to have access to hurling in a lot of areas.

“We’re closely looking at the three different areas – the top, middle, and lower tier counties - and making sure that we're building participation models there to allow more hurling to be played.

“There's a lot of work going on in hurling, and I'm very enthused with the whole thing.”