Heated exchanges between two of Galway's leading officials over the election of the new Galway hurling committee overshadowed last Thursday night's hurling convention in Loughgeorge.

County board chairman Noel Treacy and outgoing hurling committee chairman Joe Byrne became embroiled in a war of words over the issue.

Relations have been strained between some members of the Galway hurling fraternity and the county board since the GAA decided to phase out hurling and football boards two years ago - stripping them of much of their powers in the process - and things came to a head this week over the election of the hurling committee officers, which is now the county board's responsibility.

While Byrne agreed with Treacy that the identities of those proposed for the roles could not be revealed until county convention, several delegates expressed anger at their lack of input into the selection of their new chairman.

Byrne, who was stepping down under the five-year rule, then launched a scathing attack on the county chairman, criticising his "scant" attendance at hurling committee meetings.

"We have developed a monster guys, but make sure the monster doesn't eat us. I mean that," he was quoted in yesterday's Irish Examiner.

"All we want to do here as a hurling committee is make a recommendation. And by the way, it wasn't an election.

"With all due respect now, I don't want to be lectured to. We are a hurling committee trying to promote hurling in Galway.

"We had a hurling committee meeting in November and Mr Chairman, to be quite frank about it, your attendance at our hurling committee meetings this year was very scant," he added.

Treacy replied: "I am not obliged to attend any sub-committee meeting. I am not a member of the sub-committee, but under the rules of the association, I am obliged to attend any meeting I deem required to do so.

"On the night of that meeting I was at another GAA meeting elsewhere tying to resolve an issue with a club. That was the position on that night. I can't be in two places at one time," said Treacy.

County board vice-chairman John Joe Holleran called for cool heads.

"I would say it would be an awful tragedy if we saw in the paper that there was loggerheads between the county chairman and the hurling chairman," the former long-time football board chairman said.

"I would hope that calmness would prevail and that our media people here tonight would refrain from giving bad reporting from what went on here tonight."

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