Was it worth shifting the all Ireland finals back 2 weeks ?

[Keyser soze]

Whatever about February or March  there are usually 27 weekends from the 1st weekend in April to the 1st weekend in October inclusive.
Can we not designate say 11 weekends for Inter County Championships, 11 for Clubs and 5 flexible weekends?
Should be easier when 2 tier All Ireland SFC comes in.
How you distribute those weekends would require a bit of thought but the aimed would be to have all County Finals played by 1st weekend in October.
4 weekends out of 6 in October /November for Provincial Club Championship and second half November 1st weekend in December for All Ireland Club.

The problem with all these plans is the sheer variety of GAA competitions, at club and county level, in both codes. The overall provincial, national and county Master Fixtures plans are almost incomprehensible in their complexity.

Only a tiny minority of clubs take part in provincial Club Championships and only a subset of these take them anyway seriously. I don't think its a good idea to curtail the entire season for everyone, just to suit this minority.

Heh?? What are you talking about, sure the whole thing can be solved in a post that takes 2 minutes to type.

It's the people who are making the fixtures are stupid and know nothing about fixture making is the real problem here.

[thewobbler]

If Junior leagues are still running in November, that's not a GAA issue or a master calendar issue. It's pure ineptitude from the fixtures secretary in your county.

——

How to tie a ribbon around the club season:

1. Only knockout games (championship or league play-off) are permitted past 01 October, at all grades of club football. This measure will force secretaries and clubs to find homes for their rearranged fixtures earlier in the season. It will force clubs to play league matches without county players earlier in the season.

2. League play-off series will be scheduled for any/every weekend in October and November when no club involved in that series has a competing fixture in a county or provincial championship. I.e. no "7 day" rules here. If you're competing for a county league and a provincial championship, you play every weekend until one or both is concluded.

3. Neutral venues for end of season matches should be selected according to their playing surface, and not location of capacity.

[rosnarun]

t

Whatever about February or March  there are usually 27 weekends from the 1st weekend in April to the 1st weekend in October inclusive.
Can we not designate say 11 weekends for Inter County Championships, 11 for Clubs and 5 flexible weekends?
Should be easier when 2 tier All Ireland SFC comes in.
How you distribute those weekends would require a bit of thought but the aimed would be to have all County Finals played by 1st weekend in October.
4 weekends out of 6 in October /November for Provincial Club Championship and second half November 1st weekend in December for All Ireland Club.

The problem with all these plans is the sheer variety of GAA competitions, at club and county level, in both codes. The overall provincial, national and county Master Fixtures plans are almost incomprehensible in their complexity.

Only a tiny minority of clubs take part in provincial Club Championships and only a subset of these take them anyway seriously. I don't think its a good idea to curtail the entire season for everyone, just to suit this minority.

Heh?? What are you talking about, sure the whole thing can be solved in a post that takes 2 minutes to type.

It's the people who are making the fixtures are stupid and know nothing about fixture making is the real problem here.

the real elephant in the room is no solution will fully work while intercounty players are playing club football

[joemamas]

t

Whatever about February or March  there are usually 27 weekends from the 1st weekend in April to the 1st weekend in October inclusive.
Can we not designate say 11 weekends for Inter County Championships, 11 for Clubs and 5 flexible weekends?
Should be easier when 2 tier All Ireland SFC comes in.
How you distribute those weekends would require a bit of thought but the aimed would be to have all County Finals played by 1st weekend in October.
4 weekends out of 6 in October /November for Provincial Club Championship and second half November 1st weekend in December for All Ireland Club.

The problem with all these plans is the sheer variety of GAA competitions, at club and county level, in both codes. The overall provincial, national and county Master Fixtures plans are almost incomprehensible in their complexity.

Only a tiny minority of clubs take part in provincial Club Championships and only a subset of these take them anyway seriously. I don't think its a good idea to curtail the entire season for everyone, just to suit this minority.

Heh?? What are you talking about, sure the whole thing can be solved in a post that takes 2 minutes to type.

It's the people who are making the fixtures are stupid and know nothing about fixture making is the real problem here.

the real elephant in the room is no solution will fully work while intercounty players are playing club football

Not true.

The real Elephant in the room is Replays.
Play games to a conclusion and your can draw a real schedule in January.
Think about it.
It is really that simple.

Provincial council top brass wont be happy but big deal, they arguably screwed up the schedule for decades.

[LilySavage]

Its possible to allow for a replay you know. Just one week extra. Wicklow (also Westmeath, Kildare etc) final could have been 2 weeks ago. If a draw (or bad weather) ,reply, refixture following week. If that draws then play extra time. Wicklow were out of the Championhip on June 9th. Its county boards who are creating these messes, not the central calendar. Separately they need to go back to Week 1 and Week 3 in September for the all irelands. Have the semis on consecutive Sundays, not run over a weekend. These 2 weeks exposure will be soon gobbled up the pros in other codes if they are left have them. Games need to be promoted.

[joemamas]

Its possible to allow for a replay you know. Just one week extra. Wicklow (also Westmeath, Kildare etc) final could have been 2 weeks ago. If a draw (or bad weather) ,reply, refixture following week. If that draws then play extra time. Wicklow were out of the Championhip on June 9th. Its county boards who are creating these messes, not the central calendar. Separately they need to go back to Week 1 and Week 3 in September for the all irelands. Have the semis on consecutive Sundays, not run over a weekend. These 2 weeks exposure will be soon gobbled up the pros in other codes if they are left have them. Games need to be promoted.

Problem with allowing replays is that it takes the certainty out of the schedule, what if there are multiple replays.
with respect to All-Irelands, they should be back to back weekends. I agree they should be on last Sunday in August first Sunday in September, or both a week later.

Having both semi-finals on one weekend great idea, and now necessary (especially in football) where some apathy has crept in, (see attendences for this years semi-finals), it would have been worse if they were on separate weekends.

[shark]

Its possible to allow for a replay you know. Just one week extra. Wicklow (also Westmeath, Kildare etc) final could have been 2 weeks ago. If a draw (or bad weather) ,reply, refixture following week. If that draws then play extra time. Wicklow were out of the Championhip on June 9th. Its county boards who are creating these messes, not the central calendar. Separately they need to go back to Week 1 and Week 3 in September for the all irelands. Have the semis on consecutive Sundays, not run over a weekend. These 2 weeks exposure will be soon gobbled up the pros in other codes if they are left have them. Games need to be promoted.

I love nothing more than to have a pop off GAA administration, when it's justified. But the Westmeath county board could not have had their finals finished any earlier, without either changing the format of the competitions and/or starting the championships in April. The clubs, speaking for their players, said they did not want April championship games. And rightly so (speaking as a player who doesn't appreciate the idea two separate seasons for the same competition). Westmeath hurlers exited the championship on July 7th - only then could championship begin, and every weekend since has had either football or hurling championship. There were no playoffs or replays. There just were not enough weekends.

The only way to properly fix fixtures is to centralise. As pointed out elsewhere, not moving the dates for provincial championships meant that moving the all-Ireland finals meant nothing to the vast majority of counties.

[thewobbler]

Rosnarun is right.

[shark]

Rosnarun is right.

We don't need a perfect solution. We need a better one that we have now.

[five points]

The only way to properly fix fixtures is to centralise. As pointed out elsewhere, not moving the dates for provincial championships meant that moving the all-Ireland finals meant nothing to the vast majority of counties.

The Cavan Div 3 League final was recently conceded as Drumlane said they couldn't field a team on the appointed date after winning the replayed Junior Championship final and losing in the Ulster club preliminary round. Efforts to reach agreement with their opponents Killinkere came to nothing as they had a few players going to weddings on the bank holiday weekend.

Imagine some young one not long out of college  sitting at a desk in Croke Park and trying to sort that one out.