Carlow boss Colm Bonnar has cited this weekend’s ‘super 11s’ event as another example of weaker hurling counties being marginalised.
Tomorrow at New York’s Citi Field, All-Ireland semi-finalists Tipperary, Kilkenny, Limerick and Wexford will take part in the 11-aside goals-only form of hurling, which is a joint GAA/GPA initiative with Fenway Sports Management, with Aer Lingus on board as airline partners.
Previous instalments took place at Boston’s Fenway Park and attracted good attendances before dipping significantly last year, when the event was cost neutral.
Like Laois manager Eddie Brennan, Bonnar wonders why lower ranking counties weren’t brought on board.
He said: “With my Carlow hat on, they promised a lot when they introduced the Joe McDonagh Cup last year in terms of trying to promote hurling and get these counties up to the next level.
“It would have been unbelievable if they announced the likes of Westmeath and Carlow, who were in that final last year or even Westmeath and Laois this year, that a bonus of these teams getting there is that these two teams go out and compete in that as well.
“That would really go down well with those competing counties and do untold advertisement for the game in these counties, if you knew that if you get to the final there’s a chance you can get on a trip.”
As a concept, ‘super 11s’ has been widely maligned and Bonnar added: “I don’t think the teams take it too seriously but teams that have been out there, they’ve used it to their advantage, Galway or whatever, and they used it as a training bond for their team in terms of getting close together.
“It definitely gives an advantage to any team that manage to get out there because you’re out there with a group of players and that can only be good for that panel of players in the forthcoming League and Championship.
“Carlow would love to be out there, they’d die for it if they could but they just seem to be forgotten.”
The ‘super 11s’ is now a joint-initiative between the GAA and GPA, just like the All Stars and Champion 15 awards schemes, and it was put to Bonnar how the Joe McDonagh Champion 15 was callously swept aside recently while the two bodies didn’t miss a beat in organising this weekend’s event.
“I couldn’t believe it when the Champion 15 was taken off the agenda,” said the former Tipperary star. “It’s very difficult for the players in the Joe McDonagh to get any kind of recognition because the games aren’t televised, there’s very little media coverage of these games
“There’s really nine teams competing and they’re bending over backwards to try and promote those nine teams but there’s a group of six or seven teams trying to catch up and small things can make a big difference with those counties.
“They just keep ticking over the top nine teams, it’s a merry go round, you get all the pluses.
“Anything that’s going seems to go there. It’s just so hard to get up there and we’re back down again in the Joe McDonagh and I’m not too sure who’s worried about it.”
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