New hurling chief Willie Maher vows to make hurling a truly national game as he targets northern expansion
New hurling chief Willie Maher says expanding the game's profile in the northern half of the island is his 'north star'
The former Laois senior boss said: "That's what we are working towards."
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GAA National Head of Hurling William Maher is aiming to expand hurling across the country of Ireland
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He is committed to a long-term plan of increasing underage participation, especially in counties where the game isn't number one
But it's a mammoth task for the
Maher acknowledged that in some cases where football rules the roost, he'll be battling 100 years of tradition.
Maher won All-Ireland minor hurling titles as a player and manager with Tipp and is committed to a long-term plan of increasing underage participation.
Fundamental to this is the establishment of new hurling clubs with 45 of these already up and running. There are five new clubs in Munster, five in Connacht, 18 in Leinster and 17 in Ulster.
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Maher noted: "The first step in any of these processes is getting more kids playing the game."
Speaking at a Croke Park press briefing, he displayed a graphic with a map of Ireland showing existing hurling clubs with white dots.
Concentration levels are high from Munster upwards until you cross a line between Dublin and Galway, after which there are far fewer clubs.
Maher said this picture must improve and revealed: "That's the north star. That's what we are working towards. If that's even in participation numbers, that would be a major impact.
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"Are we going to get counties to win the Liam MacCarthy Cup here in Croke Park in the next 10 or 20 years? Probably not.
"But at the same time, how can we get more players playing the game? Then we can start thinking about things like that. That would be the dream.
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"I think hurling hasn't really moved outside its traditional boundaries in 100 years so it's important to try to broaden that out without trying to impose it on GAA clubs up the country.
"It's to give kids the opportunity. We want to work with people to actually hold people in clubs to account, yes, but at the same time to give kids the opportunity to play our national game."
A schoolteacher by profession, Burns said that he and camogie President Brian Molloy would like hurling to be on 'every single curriculum in every national school in Ireland'.
Burns said: "That's not an unreasonable thing. That's something that we are going to work with camogie to try to achieve. I think that would be massive.
"The second thing that he said is that we need to move away from this concept that in order to master the skills of hurling, you need to almost be born with a hurl in the pram.
"That you need to take it everywhere, that it's an extension of your arm. That is true of the best hurlers we have.
"But that doesn't mean to say that when you reach the age of 10, 12, 13, that you shouldn't be able to take the game of hurling and master it and become a really good player."
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Maher said this sort of back-up from central GAA, and the support of the various committees and coaching departments, is vital for success in his position as national hurling chief.
Maher said: "I think there's a big difference there as regards from before. This is not an operational role and this is not a travelling the highways and byways of the country and developing coaching courses.
"Yes, I'll be going out there. Yes, I'll be getting my hands dirty as regards all of that and meeting people. But I think it's giving them the tools to actually promote and develop hurling with their communities."
Maher will spread his message throughout the country during seven different roadshows across all four provinces during May and June.
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