Hurling & Camogie

Mageean Cup delay does "major disservice to promotion of hurling"

Paul Hughes (centre) has managed senior All-Ireland winning teams in both football and hurling during his long and distinguished time in St Patrick's Maghera. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin
Paul Hughes (centre) has managed senior All-Ireland winning teams in both football and hurling during his long and distinguished time in St Patrick's Maghera. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin Paul Hughes (centre) has managed senior All-Ireland winning teams in both football and hurling during his long and distinguished time in St Patrick's Maghera. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin

ULSTER Schools being forced to delay the latter stages of this year’s Mageean Cup does “a major disservice to the promotion of hurling,” believes St Patrick’s Maghera manager Paul Hughes.

The final was originally due to take place last night, but with An Dún lying in wait, the second semi-final between St Louis’ Ballymena and holders St Pat’s has not yet been played.

It’s been pushed back until after the Hallowe’en mid-term break and will not now be played until November 6 in order to avoid a clash with the Antrim MHC final replay between Dunloy and Loughgiel.

The final will take place three days later on Friday, November 9 at the Dub, and will be broadcast live on Facebook as it was so successfully last year.

That follows the decision by Dunloy not to release their players for the Mageean tie. In a brilliant season, the Cuchullains have found themselves winning the Antrim minor ‘A’ football title and going to a replay in the minor hurling final with Loughgiel.

That replay takes place tomorrow at 1pm in Ballycastle.

The Cuchullains had withdrawn their players from the St Louis’ panel last week because of the football final, in which they overcame St Gall’s.

But their busy schedule, and Antrim CCC’s lack of flexibility with dates, has left Ulster Schools with no option but to postpone their hurling showpiece.

By contrast, Kevin Lynch’s and Lavey agreed to move their Derry MHC tie back to midweek in order to accommodate the Mageean semi-final.

Hughes, who has managed both All-Ireland football (Hogan Cup) and hurling (O’Keeffe Cup) winning teams in the school, says this saga “disrespects the entire school sport structures”.

“Now, hurling, and school sport, are the poor relations again and at the mercy of any other unit who wish to make their players unavailable for school games during the year.

“If a Mageean Cup Final doesn’t command respect then lower level competitions certainly won’t either.

“At a time when central GAA are having seminars to discuss the Player Performance Pathway, it seems the school pathway is cast in the role of being a nuisance almost rather than recognising the value of it to so many pupils across the counties and provinces of the country.”

With MacRory league games due to begin in November, Hughes foresees further problems for the prestige of schools hurling.

“The last few years has seen Mageean creating a niche for itself in the calendar before MacRory kicked off – that is now under threat because of the prestige afforded to MacRory.

“Here in St Patrick’s we know the appeal of MacRory, while myself and Colum Lavery had three years with the school MacRory team up until 2016; the boys will now see Mageean as getting in the way of their MacRory ambitions which will certainly impact on our preparations.

“Put it like this, I really couldn’t see a MacRory semi-final or final being forced to reschedule in this way,” said the Derrytresk native.

Ulster Schools secretary Seamus Woods added: “We had detailed arrangements in place for the final tonight and we were streaming it live, as we did last year.

"The other semi-final was played last Friday, and we were hoping the other one would be as well, but that didn’t come to pass. We had to shelve our arrangements and put everything back two weeks to Friday, November 9.

“As with all these matters, we have to work with clubs and counties, and schools have to work with clubs in their catchment areas, and try to reach an accommodation.”