Re the holiday period,
I think moving it till the august fornight may be the way to go.This would correspond with allireland qtr/semi finals if tyrone were to get that far, a period were there are likely to be no club games anyway.
I would say for most club players, when the holiday period is, doesnt matter so much, as long as there is prior notice that its coming up.
I would say as many compnies now take the august fortnight off as the july one anyway.
Adding on from WeeDons estimated dates for the 2014 season, looking at previous dates for the All-Ireland series I reckon these will be the dates used in 2014...
Round 1 - Saturday 28th June (Should Tyrone reach the Ulster SFC Semi-Final, it'll be on the next day, 29th)
Round 2 - Saturday 12th July (Last year was the first time when all fixtures in this round was deliberately spread over two weekend, previously it was played on just one. If they remain to do this for 2014, then this round could also be on the 5th July).
Round 3 - Saturday 19th July (Ulster SFC Final is on 20th July. Unless Tyrone are knocked out in Round 1 or 2, they will be playing on this weekend)
Round 4 - Sat/Sun 26th or 27th July (yes, a potential six day turn around if Tyrone are the beaten Ulster finalists!)
Quarter Final - Sat/Sun 2nd or 3rd August.
Semi-Final - Sunday 24th or 31st August.
Looking at that list, if Tyrone were knocked out by either Down or Monaghan in Ulster, then if they reach Round 2 they'll be playing quite likely on the 12th July and it's a very good chance they'll be playing on the weekend of 19th/20th July. If you have the two week holiday period between Mon 7th July to Sun 20th July, it would be unlikely a non-starred round of league games could be fitted in during that period with the 13-day rule. OTOH if you had a two week holiday starting with a coincide of the southern August Bank Holiday, starting on either 2nd or 4th August and ending on the 15th or 17th August, you would miss out on a fairly free period between the All-Ireland Quarter and Semi-Final fixtures of something between three and four weeks - if for example Tyrone were to be playing in the first semi-final, even with the 13 day rule the 8th-10th August weekend will be free for club games (1st round of the SFC in my earlier suggestion). Assuming Tyrone get as far as the Quarter finals in the first place or even the semis (something we've only reached once in the last four years). On that basis alone, it would be fairly clear that keeping the current two week break in early-mid July would put less pressure, at least in theory, on club fixtures. Especially during the best time of the year to play such games. Understandably not everyone takes their holidays in July, with many preferring August, but a line has to be drawn somewhere.
There needs to be more flexibility on the rounds as well. There were times this year where rounds could of been swapped around to suit better but didn't happen.
this is one of the things that could have saved alot of problems this year.
Rigidly sticking to the 'rounds' of games leaves a inflexible system an dends up taking more time overall.
Only the last 3 rounds or so should be in strict rounds like that
From about the start to middle of May until the end of August, there should be some grounds for flexibility with the extended daylight in the evenings for some ad-hoc midweek games to be played if agreed with the clubs involved especially if the travelling team doesn't have to go far. I'd also say that the last two or three rounds should be played together, but also the first two rounds as well - start the league together as well as finishing it. You'd want to make sure you keep some reign on fixtures piling up so there isn't a large gap between teams in the same division in the amount of games played at any point of the season, for example in the Fermanagh and Western soccer league it isn't uncommon for teams to have a difference of five or even six games played during the course of their season.
