Weather, GAA falls prey to the elements.
by Noel Dundon, Tipperary Media
For a number of seasons now the Association has been a slave to the elements, more so than any other sporting organisation in the country. And, that was seen once again these days with fixtures being pulled as a result of the heavy snow and ice, desperate travelling conditions, and an unwillingness of clubs to allow players onto their pitches – who could blame them?
I suppose this is one of the downsides of trying to pack so much activity into a condensed season. OK so the Allianz leagues don’t begin for another few weeks yet, but vital preparation time has been lost as a result of the elements not playing ball. Throw in the fact that second and third level competitions have also been affected and you get a picture of disruption which will have consequences for a number of weeks to come.
With the Dr Harty Cup quarter final games having been pulled, there will be a rush on the Munster Post Primary Schools authorities to re-fix the matches – this will eat into the other competitions time as well, though perhaps not as drastically as one might think.
The All-Ireland club football championship ties fell foul of the weather too with the CCC taking the view that it was better to be safe than sorry – a correct call as it happens.
When you are depending on the months January and February to fit in games, weather will always be a problem. The world is evolving as a result of climate change and people can readily attest to this in their own communities as they see serious flooding, mild weather, severe climate events, heavy winds, but little enough frost.
Change is happening before our eyes and the rate of change would appear to be speeding up. So, it is quite on the cards that in time to come, the Association will have to take a global look at its masterplan and try to think its way around the potential loss of weekends and vital calendar slots, in order to ensure that it meets all its commitments to completion of competitions.
This column has been a long time advocate for playing a number of Allianz league games prior to Christmas – that would help to ease some pressure early in the new year. The calendar year format is fraught with difficulties not to mention the fact that no supporters get to see their county team playing from mid-early summer, depending on how the campaign went for them, until the following January. It is a crazy scenario and while it might well give prime summertime dates to the club, there is no reason why better accommodation cannot be found for all.
Weather of course should not be the only determining factor in this particular conversation – after all weather is a very unpredictable element. But, the Association does need to take account and somewhere in the heart of Croke Park, amidst all those high-powered committees who prepare reports and briefs on a plethora of important issues, there ought to be a group looking at climate change and its potential impact on our games going forward.
We cannot ignore the facts which are staring us in the face and building in flexibility will be crucial when any alterations are made to the masterplan.
Long long way from Clare to Tipp – especially to play no game!!
The All-Ireland champions arrived in Templemore for the pre-season senior hurling challenge game which was supposed to be a major fundraiser for the wonderful Mary’s Meals charity. Unfortunately, the Banner boys left the Cardens town without getting their boots dirty with the decision to pull the match being left until the last minute – most would have said that the decision could have been made much earlier, but those who were in Páirc Shileain claimed that conditions were ‘not too bad’.
There was great interest in this game with Liam Cahill’s new look panel due to get a first public airing. A few interesting selection moves raised further debate and had the game gone ahead with any kind of decent conditions prevailing, there would have been a very large local turnout to check out the players and to support the charity. Given the heavily scheduled nature of preparations, it is unlikely that this game will be re-fixed for any time soon – a great pity that. Anyone who wishes to support the marvellous work of Mary’s Meals can still do so locally or online. Please support if you can.