Last week, on the Our Game podcast, Sambo McNaughton called for players from the Liam MacCarthy Cup teams to speak out in support of their counterparts in the lower tiers of hurling.
"I would love to see the Limerick hurlers, Cork hurlers, or Kilkenny hurlers to say 'Hang on a minute, our brothers up in Fermanagh here are not being treated equal. This is our game, we'll stand by them'," said McNaughton.
Pictured is Kilkenny hurling Captain, Eoin Cody who has come on board as an AIB ambassador for this year’s GOAL mile. Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Bryan Keane
Earlier this month, it was revealed the GAA's Central Competitions Control Committee has recommended that counties with fewer than five adult hurling teams should be excluded from the National League from 2025.
Should the recommendation be passed at a Central Council meeting next month, it will mean that Cavan, Fermanagh, Leitrim, Longford and Louth will only participate in the Lory Meagher Cup. Their inter-county season will be cut from six months to three with the money saved redistributed to pay for hurling coaches in clubs and schools.
[READ MORE: The Seven Players To Win Hurling All-Stars As Backs And Forwards]
McNaughton's sentiment was echoed by Fermanagh hurler Luca McCusker. For teams like Fermanagh, who will play in Division 3B next year, the National League is a "meaningful" competition, unlike for the majority in the top tier.
"I'd love to get the backing of the boys to show that they care," McCusker told Balls.
"We are all hurling men."
31 July 2021; Dan Teague of Fermanagh, centre, celebrates with team-mates Dylan Bannon, left, and Odhran O'Connor after their side's victory in the Lory Meagher Cup Final hurling match between Fermanagh and Cavan at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
Kilkenny's Eoin Cody, a two-time PwC GAA/GPA Young Hurler of the Year who won his first PwC All-Star last week, is among the first Liam McCarthy Cup hurlers to speak out in support of the five counties. Galway hurler Conor Whelan had already called the proposal "barbaric".
"I don't think it's really development," Cody said at the launch of the AIB GOAL Mile.
"I see it as the opposite. In order to promote [hurling] in these counties, they need to be hurling more, not less.
"I don't really get too involved in things that don't involve me. The GPA has a strong feeling that it's not right. I'd back that.
"It's not an easy thing to do. Hurling is a difficult sport, especially for those that aren't born into it, aren't reared with a stick in their hand.
"I definitely feel that it's not promotion of the game."
This year AIB and GOAL are calling on GAA clubs to ‘Step Up Together’ this festive season and host their own GOAL mile to raise funds to support vulnerable communities across the world. AIB is also offering people the chance to win €1,000 for their GAA club simply by registering for their GOAL Mile by visiting www.goalmile.org and also registering their club for the AIB GAA GOAL Mile competition at www.jotform.com/team/232784181278060/AIBGoalMileCompetition2023.
