By Noel Dundon (Tipperary Media)
Munster Secretary’s Report is food for thought.
“If surgery is needed on fixtures, the starting point should be the number of games being played at inter county level. Reducing the number of championship games at club level would be a backward step.”
The words of Munster Secretary Kieran Leddy, written in his annual report to Convention provide much food for thought as we embark upon the new club campaign for 2024.
The so-called split season is now in its third year and there has been a lot of commentary, both positive and negative, about the impact of the new fixtures calendar.
For some, it is working well; for others no so well; and for others still, it doesn’t have much of an impact.
The Munster Secretary – a very highly regarded official who has his head screwed on- wrote extensively on the subject in his report and his comments, which went largely without discussion, are worth considering.
“The GAA is unique in that the elite level and the grass roots level are firmly linked as players play at both levels. Therefore, we do not have the fixture freedom that other sports have, and I believe that to separate the two levels where players chose to play at one level only would be the biggest mistake the Association could ever make.
”One of our greatest strengths is the value that players place on playing in their club colours and competing for and winning championships with their club and community…… We must never create a situation where that cannot occur, and my fear is that if we try and run both club and county championships concurrently, then intercounty players will find it very difficult to play for their county one week, and their club the next, given the heavy fixture schedule at both levels.”
That is a very real fear at the present time, I would say. As the inter county scene continues to run away on an out of control train, the level of preparation increases by the season. It is true to say that most inter county players are now in as good a physical shape as many of our athletes competing in the World Championships or the Olympics. Were they to play soccer or rugby they would likely achieve the same elite level as they have managed in the GAA codes, in both the male and female disciplines.
Kieran Leddy continues on the topic of the All-Ireland Finals being moved back into August.
“Trying to accommodate the huge programme of club championship fixtures in place if we take 2 weeks from the Club window is particularly problematic in dual counties.
“Munster GAA collated data on the club championships covering a 10-week period from the end of July to the end of September, and in those 10 weeks, 1,835 adult club championship games were played across the Senior, Intermediate and Junior grades.
814 of these games were Gaelic Football games and 1,021 were Hurling. A total of 305 of these games were played in the last 2 weeks of September, so taking 2 extra weeks from the club championship window will push a significant number of games into October.
“Once we leave September, evening light is an issue, and training and playing games in the evening becomes very challenging. Therefore, it makes sense that championships progress to the knockout stages at the start of October, where the minority of clubs are still involved, as opposed to the majority still involved as we head into the winter months.
That leaves August and September as the months that clubs play the championship group stages. Ideally, we would have our All-Ireland Finals in August, and we would have a better spaced programme of games at club and at county level. It is difficult to see how we can do this though, given that almost all club championships and all inter county championships are now played on a round robin basis, and this leads to a very heavy schedule of games, particularly in counties where clubs play both codes.
Given that the inter county games are the real cash cow, it is hard to see these being cut though – club games would seem more vulnerable, it would appear. A long debate is to be had, but there is little appetite to have it.
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