While Galway Co. Board chairman Noel Treacy was diplomatic and cautious about the county's current dispute with the Leinster Council, others are pushing for a more radical stance.
Jarlath Cloonan, Galway hurling PRO and former senior manager, has told the Irish Examiner that Galway ought to think about hopping from Leinster to Munster.
Speaking to John Fogarty, he said:
The whole thing has gone pear-shaped. Either we’re fully integrated into Leinster or we’re out. All-in or all-out.
We need championship games in the city of Galway. Either we get that and our underage teams into Leinster or we then look at Munster or go back to the situation years ago when we were treated the same as Leinster and Munster champions and go straight into an All-Ireland semi-final. Returning to playing losing teams in qualifiers is not the answer.
Munster could work. Clare, Limerick and Tipp are within striking distance of Galway and providing there were home and away agreements and we were accepted fully then it could work.
Failing that, he suggested something that would surely prove unacceptable to both GAA Central Council and the Galway players themselves - a return to the absurd and anachronistic format that saw Galway begin their championship programme in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Galway switching provinces would be an intriguing solution. On online forums, many Munster folk, recognising the unfair treatment Galway have suffered in Leinster, tossed out the suggestion that the westerners join them in their already vibrant provincial championship. This talk is generous but also a bit 'top of the head'. Presumably the prospect of Galway actually arriving into the Munster championship would herald the arrival of more conservative and hostile voices to the debate.
Galway have played in the Munster championship before. The only surprise is that the experience hasn't put them off the idea for the rest of eternity.
It was the 1960s, a decade in which the Galway footballers reigned triumphant, kings of all they surveyed. The hurlers, by contrast, were in desperate shape. During their decade long sojourn in Munster, they won the grand total of one match, a handy victory over Clare in the Gaelic Grounds in 1961. In their next outing they were slaughtered by an extremely strong Tipperary team.
It wasn't until the 1970s that Galway hurling revived, and the county was transformed from a largely football environment into a proper dual county, competitive in both codes.
The sight of a properly equipped Galway team (this time, they are equipped for the challenge) heading south would make the Munster championship a very tasty prospect indeed. However, it would also mean the championship becoming very lopsided, with a box-office Munster championship progressing side by side with a sleepy and irrelevant Leinster hurling championship.
The prospect of the Leinster hurling championship returning to its 'former glory' sans Galway is not an especially appealing one. They have been the second best team in Leinster since their arrival and their departure would render the province even more of a procession for Kilkenny than it was before.
There is another solution.
If Leinster don't buck up their ideas - and the bizarre comments of Leinster Council chairman and GAA Presidential wannabe John Horan were notably unpromising - and the Munster proposal doesn't prove a goer, then we could always return to the pre-1997 solution where Galway simply enter the championship in the All-Ireland quarter or semi-final.
On initial hearing it sounds like a major advantage but on closer inspection it'd make things worse for both Galway and the neutral spectator.
While they'd only ever be two/three victories away from an All-Ireland title, it's probable they'd find the ridiculous gap between the end of the League and their first championship match a major hindrance.
Look at how hard the Munster champions have had it trying to deal with a five week gap between the provincial final and the All-Ireland semi-final. Tipp 2016 are the first Munster and All-Ireland champions since Cork in 2005.
This is the nuclear solution. If Galway did threaten it, the suspicion remains that the central authorities would baulk at the forced re-design of the championship and would instead force the Leinster counties to behave more reasonably.
In the meantime, Connacht rugby has taken off in Galway. Youngsters are having their heads turned.
Galway City is playing host to big rugby matches regularly. Meanwhile, the city has hosted two proper hurling championship matches against serious opposition in the last four decades.
In 2003, All-Ireland winning captain Joe Connolly spoke at the landmark 'Friends of Connacht Rugby' rally in the Radison Hotel. But now hurling people, many of whom would support the rugby team, are now worried that the profile of the sport might diminish in the county might diminish. Cloonan sounded that alarm in his comments to Fogarty.
Connacht were told to disband 12 or 13 years ago, stood their ground and battled to be what they are today. A rugby match in Galway city is a huge event but in hurling we never get a serious championship game in Pearse Stadium. We need it.
