Moves to establish ‘Hurling Board’ set to step up a notch

MOVES to form a County Hurling Board could be set to step up a notch with the break-away group contemplating submitting a formal motion to the Limerick annual convention. In the past week representatives of the new break-away group met in the Gaelic Grounds with officers of the County Board and four weeks previously the two sides had held an initial meeting.
A 16-man committee are behind the plans to establish a seperate Hurling Board for Limerick - four representatives from clubs from each of the four divisions. It is understood that the intentions of those behind the Hurling Board are to ‘run’ all aspects of Limerick hurling - including fund-raising. Leader Sport believes that at last week’s meeting between the Limerick GAA hierarchy and the break-away group any possibility of official support for the move was ruled out.
However, this Tuesday night there was a brief discussion about the proposed Hurling Board at the September County Board Meeting.
The meeting was discussing a proposal to expand “Lifting The Treaty” when Limerick GAA Chairman Liam Lenihan proposed that a sub-committee be set up to investigate the possibilty of creating “Lifting The Treaty 2”. The chairman asked for opinions as to the appointment of two members of this break-away group into the sub-committee.
“As you are aware there is an ad-hoc hurling committee and we have sat down with them twice and they have some very definite ideas about how hurling should be progressed.
“With your permission I was going to ask them to nominate two people to come onto the committee,” explained chairman Liam Lenihan.
He added: “We will take our instructions from ye”.
The Limerick GAA Chairman then outlined the dealings with the new group.
“At the first meeting they outlined verbally what their aims were and then they came back with a document to the county secretary and that was circulated to the officers and we had a look at it and we met them last Wednesday.
“Noel Hartigan gave a presentation on what is happening at underage level because there are some people out there who wouldn’t be aware of it. Mike (O’Riordan) gave a presentation of what’s happening at adult level and Gerry (Philips) spoke about coaching and games and Tony (Roche) spoke about our underage county teams.”
Liam Lenihan told the meeting that the motive of the “ad-hoc committee” was to set up a Hurling Board: “They are self-appointed and self-regulated, but they certainly have ideas”.
It appeared that news of the break-away group was news to some club delegates and while there were no decisions made and the discussion was brief, there is no doubting that the topic will be discussed again in the near future. It is understood that another meeting between the break-away group and Limerick GAA officiers could take place inside the next week.
However, there is an increasing feeling that the ‘Hurling Board Committee’ could be set to formulate a motion which they would require a club to submit for December’s annual convention. That motion would seek to gain official recognition for the new Hurling Board.
The break-away group contains a number of high-profile figures within Limerick hurling - including past and present high-ranking officials, former inter-county hurlers and footballers and former members of inter-county management teams.

Jerome O’Connell