club championship calendar year

[LeoMc]

We're getting there, painfully slowly.

Now that we have managed to play Provincial championships on a Saturday there should be no reason we can't tighten the whole Championship calendar down to free up more weekends for clubs.

Ulster should not need 5 weeks to play off 1 preliminary and 4 1st round matches. It could be done in 3 and the whole thing completed in 8 weeks.

Week 1: Tyrone v Down
Week 2: Fermanagh v Antrim & Derry v Donegal (preliminary replay)
Week 3: Monaghan v Tyrone & Cavan v Armagh. (& replays)
Week 4: Antrim v Donegal
Week 5: Monaghan v Armagh & Qualifiers Rd 1.
Week 7: Donegal v ? & Qualifiers Rd 2.

[Lone Shark]

I'm really looking forward to the FRC actually explaining how in the name of God they think this can be done, without the county calendar doing most of the heavy lifting - and I think we all know the provincial councils are not likely to play ball in this regard. It's all very well to say that club games should be accommodated, but it's not realistic to say that they can all slot into midweek, or be played the weekend before county championship matches. If you're a dual county, you can't put club football championship the same week as, or the week before, the intercounty hurling team plays - or vice versa. That's all very well when it's a county like Offaly are at the moment, where progress into the latter half of July simply doesn't happen, but if you have any chance of making a run, what then?

Take Wexford this year, who had/will have intercounty senior games on the following dates:

1st June - hurling
7th June - football
14th june - hurling
29th June - football
5th July - hurling/football

Now if they get knocked out of the two competitions in the next round, then that's one thing - but they're on the "A" side of the football qualifier draw and drew with Clare last year. With a little bit of luck on their side, they could easily be playing constantly in either code up until the first week of August.

Around that, you've to work in a club championship where there are eight weekends of football and eight of hurling, without making allowances for replays. Even if you mandate that championships are to have no more than three games guaranteed, that's still twelve weekends to be found, and now they think that this can all be done and have their champions known by the start of October?

I'm really looking forward to seeing how the FRC think they can manage this.

[AZOffaly]

they can't in a dual county. And the fact that it's the 'F'RC means they are probably not even bothered. They'll draft an outline fixture list that more or less ignores hurling.

[armaghniac]

The proposition that the entire structure of the club championship should be determined by  couple of dozen dual players might be hard to sustain.

[AZOffaly]

The proposition that the entire structure of the club championship should be determined by  couple of dozen dual players might be hard to sustain.

Dual clubs. You may play football for your county, and hurl and play football for your club. That's far, far more than a couple of dozen.

[armaghniac]

The total number playing may be more, but in many cases either the county team or the club team won't have a long run anyway. So a change will only affect a few.

[Lone Shark]

The proposition that the entire structure of the club championship should be determined by  couple of dozen dual players might be hard to sustain.

If that's their conclusion, then they need to come out and say that clearly, that the GAA no longer wishes to support players in their efforts to play two sports. If that is in fact what the FRC want, then recommend it, put it to congress and let the GAA vote on it. Not this current tactic of making it all but impossible, while publicly lauding the players who do it.

Personally, I actually do think there should be a policy on this, despite the fact that both my home club and my new club where I've settled to live long term would be devastated by it. I don't agree that a round of county championship games should be held up in order to accommodate six or seven senior hurlers and in one sense, there is no reason why there wouldn't be a round of football games in Offaly this coming weekend. Nonetheless I wouldn't expect my vote to win out in either the Ferbane or the St Aidan's club if I was to advocate it.

Also, just to make the point, here's the Offaly hurling team that started against Antrim yesterday.

OFFALY: J Dempsey; N Wynne, R Hanniffy, C McDonald; K Brady, G Healion, C Parlon; C Mahon, S Ryan; S Dooley, D Kenny, C Egan; B Carroll, D Currams, J Bergin.

The seven players that are in bold above are key men for their clubs in the Offaly SFC, while Seán Ryan also plays with Birr's first team in football, who happen to be junior. Now either you accommodate these men, or else you say to guys like Shane Dooley that by agreeing to be selected to Offaly, you may be forced to miss some Tullamore championship football games, and you roll the dice that the players don't decide to stick with their clubs as a consequence.

You'll have some crack trying to keep hurling alive in places like Mayo, Kerry, Meath and Kildare if you go down that road.

[Lone Shark]

The total number playing may be more, but in many cases either the county team or the club team won't have a long run anyway. So a change will only affect a few.

But you can't just say that it only affects a few and ignores the problem. You're asking clubs to play championship matches without county players, just in this instance they happen to be county players in another sport. You can't just gloss over that, you have to acknowledge it, get approval for it from the GAA as a whole and go from there.

[AZOffaly]

And football in Tipp, Clare, Waterford and Limerick. I presume this change can't be brought in without a reciprocal arrangement for the hurling championship? Actually that's a good question, do the FRC proposals include the playing of the All Ireland Club hurling final in December as well?

[Rossfan]

Calm down gasúns - there's a Committee being set up to see how it can be implemented.

[Lone Shark]

Calm down gasúns - there's a Committee being set up to see how it can be implemented.

Hence the sense of concern, bordering on panic.

[AZOffaly]

Calm down gasúns - there's a Committee being set up to see how it can be implemented.

Ah well. That's okay then

[armaghniac]

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/calendar-year-for-club-competitions-shelved-1.2263123

This idea has been booted out over the back of the stand. I can't say that I am surprised, counties were never going to move their entire schedules on behalf of a handful of teams involved in the later stages of the club championship.

[twohands!!!]

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/calendar-year-for-club-competitions-shelved-1.2263123

This idea has been booted out over the back of the stand. I can't say that I am surprised, counties were never going to move their entire schedules on behalf of a handful of teams involved in the later stages of the club championship.

It always had the feel of something OCD about it - folk who couldnt quite deal with the mental gymnastics of a handful of club competitions going into the next year

Concentrate on setting up the best possible calendar for all parties (sensible and fair) and if it means that all club games are over in a year well and good and if it doesn't no harm.

The fact that those in favour were willing to move the club finals away from St Paddys Day with not even any sort of decent  proposal for any sort of adequate replacement shows how ill-conceived this particular move to sort out the calendar was.