Former Cuala manager Maher relishing new role as National Head of Hurling

By Tom McLoughlin

Early next month, former Cuala manager William Maher will take up his position as National Head of hurling. The Tipperary man's role is to lead a strategic plan to support the promotion and development of Hurling and to ensure alignment with the wider games development county planning and operational processes.

I asked him about the approach he will take to the role as he seeks to develop a cohesive and effective strategic plan.

“Developing a plan will take a lot of innovation. A lot of thinking outside the box, a lot of brain-storming with people who understand what’s happening on the ground. It’s an exciting time for me, an exciting time for the Association and we move forward with the full support of Uachtarán Jarlath Burns. The development of the plan is a really positive step with huge support from the Hurling Development Committee led by Terry Reilly."

“Everyone is behind this so it’s a case of how do we get a National plan that cascades down through the provincial managers, games development structures, down to county development plans and getting hurling in there and then measuring what we are doing. That’s really distilling down the task ahead.”

William is of course very familiar with Dublin hurling having coached Cuala to consecutive senior county titles in 2019 and 2020. So what does he think of the current state of hurling here in the county.

“Hurling in Dublin is thriving, it is in great shape in my opinion. You drive around certain areas and see boys and girls carrying hurleys when that would never have been the case a few years back. There are real vibrant clubs with huge numbers participating. You look at Na Fianna’s unbelievable achievement in winning a club All Ireland. But this kind of progress is not surprising given the amount of work that has gone on in Dublin hurling, building that huge base of volunteers and players in both camogie and hurling.

“Dublin is in a great position and always looking to make the next step but there is no doubt that participation in the games in the city has improved significantly over the last twenty years. I think it is testament to a lot of good work and good planning that has gone on in Dublin GAA over a number of years.

“Dublin county teams have been competing for minor and u20 All Irelands for the last number of years so they are there or thereabouts. Now it’s a case of seeing if we can help move that on, increase participation further and then see how we can help develop Dublin teams at the very top level.”

A recent report by the GAA’s National Demographics Committee underlined major challenges for the Association both in terms of rural depopulation and sprawling urbanisation, especially along commuter belts.

William says the strategic plan will be developed with this in mind.

“The recent report on demographics was stark reading. Any plan we will be implementing will have to bear in mind demographics and where the people will be living in five, ten, fifteen years. We need to establish hurling facilities where people can play the game so if that is an existing club or the formalisation of new clubs from existing football entities so be it. It’s important to be flexible in this instance. There is the example of Burren Rangers in Carlow where there was no traditional hurling club in the area and four football clubs came together to form a hurling and camogie club which has already won a county title.”

Despite the fact that there are strong pockets of hurling in most counties, in the first instance the real challenge is increasing participation in hurling across the whole country.

“You look at the Dublin colleges example going back a number of years, starting with one Dublin college team and then progressing to colleges competing on their own over time, such as Colaiste Eoin. Schools like St Fintan’s in Sutton are starting to develop now as well, a hurling culture is developing. So again it is about building and developing more units to provide opportunities for our young players to play at the highest levels.”

William acknowledges that there is a lot of good work already underway and his role will support and strengthen this work.

“Currently we have our new club grants and start-up packs for new clubs. We also have refresher packs coming in the next month for existing clubs that need support. We are trying to allocate resources towards the development of clubs and maybe the re-establishment of existing clubs where hurling has waned. There are loads of pieces to this work, it is vast. We need to get more people playing in the first instance and work from there.”

Because ultimately it is a numbers game. The more people playing hurling and camogie the stronger the games will become. Increasing participation will be at the core of William’s new role.

“The biggest thing for me is participation numbers, getting kids at the earliest primary school level playing hurling through their clubs and giving them a pathway to play right through from juvenile to adult level. Many counties have existing pathway structures but we need to build these systems and pathways for children, growing at the bottom and developing at the top.

“It’s all about getting more players playing the game but everything has to be aligned. We cannot have individual counties doing their own thing on hurling. It has to come from the top and cascade right down.

“I can’t wait to get into the role, aligning everyone’s priorities and measuring what’s happening and then seeing how we can progress from day one.”

Dublin GAA wishes William every success in his new role. He can be certain that he has the full backing of everyone involved in Dublin hurling and camogie in growing and developing our great game.