Galway’s new hurling manager Anthony Cunningham wants the game in the county to adapt as much as it has to in order to help the senior team achieve success.
The Tribesmen’s talented group has continued to come up short in recent years, with Cunningham last week ratified as the latest man charged with getting them closer to ending their Liam McCarthy drought.
John McIntyre’s replacement hopes to see club championships run in tandem with inter-county games to give every side the best chance of success, while he also hopes to put greater focus on bringing some of the county’s successful minor and U21 players of 2011 into the senior side.
“I think the players are there, the hunger is there and players want to go on and continue to develop and win,” Cunningham was quoted as saying by the Galway City Tribune.
“However, for the young players in particular, they have to show a bit more when they go out and play club senior and intermediate hurling.
“So, we will probably be looking for the club championships to be played in tandem with the inter-county set-up. The landscape has to change on the club scene and on the county scene and I think we need everybody rowing in the one direction.
“There are a lot of days and weekends that they can play these games and they are going to have to push on with that and we look forward to working with them on that. There is a lot of good work being done by the Review Group at the moment and we are looking forward to endorsing it and working with as much of that as we can.
“What I also would be saying – and I go to a lot of the matches - there are a lot of meaningless matches played in the championship. If you win a match now, you are almost guaranteed that you are in the preliminary quarter-finals.
"That is a very unhealthy situation because there are a lot of clubs going through the motions. I don’t think the players are getting the cut and thrust of championship hurling, which they should be.”