*Michael O’Malley and the Kilmaley senior hurlers are the reigning Clare Cup champions. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
CLARE GAA’s February meeting which takes place on Monday night at Hotel Woodstock will be asked to ratify a masters fixture plan for the season which proposes the weekend of March 11th/12th for the opening rounds of the hurling leagues with March 18th/19th the start up date for the football leagues.
League finals are scheduled for July 2nd (Clare Cup) and July 8th/9th (Cusack Cup) and it’s expected that all of the leagues in hurling and football will conclude at this time.
There will be three weeks from the conclusion of the hurling leagues to the start of the hurling championship with the first rounds scheduled for July 22nd. The senior hurling championship final is scheduled for October 22nd.
The race for the various football championships will begin on August 5th with the senior final set for October 15.
The proposed dates for the start of the under 21 championships are September 30 for hurling and October 8 for football.
The masters fixtures committee comprised Kilrush native Colm Browne (chairman), Paraic Boland (Broadford), Tom Duggan (St. Joseph’s Doora/Barefield), Martin Hehir (Clondegad), David O’Brien (St Joseph’s Miltown) and Tony O’Donnell (Crusheen).
In their report to Monday’s meeting the Masters fixtures committee noted that there were a number of motions put forward by clubs to address the format of the 2024 senior and intermediate hurling championships at which point both championships will return to 16 teams.
“It is welcome to see clubs proactively thinking ahead and planning for the future and the respective clubs are to be commended. Both the Broadford and Newmarket motions effectively create an A and a B group with 8 teams in each group in both championships. Both the A and B sides are then split into two groups of 4 with each club getting 3 games before quarters finals. The alternative formats would be to have 4 groups of 4 or return to the format of 8 v 8 which existed pre Covid”, the committee noted.
The report goes on to say that “while acknowledging support for the Broadford motion in principle at the January board meeting, it was concerning that only ten clubs voted when we presently have 17 senior teams”.
The committee go on to express concern that clubs are proposing a split in the senior and intermediate championships into A and B groups and they ask “are clubs concerned about one sided games and overall competitiveness in our championships”.
Because of this, the masters fixtures committee suggest “a committee be put in place to review our hurling championships and the overall competitiveness of same. Given the appetite to split our championships, is it time to consider the addition of a premier intermediate championship leading to an overall structure of 12 senior teams, 12 premier intermediate, 12 intermediate and 12 junior A teams with follow on grades below”.
They go on to propose that a committee of nine people be appointed made up as follows 3 senior club representatives, 2 intermediate club representatives (Intermediate highest grade), 2 junior A club representatives (Junior A highest grade) and 1 junior B club representative (Junior B highest grade)
“The committee should be provided with terms of reference to review the hurling championships and leagues, invite submissions from clubs and interested personnel and hold workshop meetings with clusters of clubs over a few evenings. The committee should formulate proposals to bring to the October 2023 meeting of the County Board with clubs to review and consider.
“Clubs should vote on the proposals at a separate meeting two weeks later from which agreed proposals would be brought forward to the structures meeting for implementation in the 2025 competitions. We would therefore propose that no changes are made to competitions for 2024 and instead the senior and intermediate championships, which should both have 16 teams, would be run on four groups of four basis. This will allow our senior and intermediate championships to return to 16 teams and for clubs to know where they stand as the consider the proposals and options advanced by the Committee”, the report to next week’s meeting, concludes.
The Masters Fixtures committee proposals are with the clubs for the past week.
