Tyrone Club Football and Hurling

[orangeman]

So play an early round in May, let the lads go to USA and come back for the second round ?

Is that it the logic ? Surely not ?

[clarshack]

i used to be of the opinion that the championship shouldnt start until august so that players wouldnt head away, but after the farce of this year i think there is no choice but to have the 1st round in may/june.

this will also allow the reserve championship to be played off much sooner.

[Knock Yer Mucker In]

FFs lads, not one of you have taking into account that half I say again, half of the clubs in Tyrone will be left with no soul from late May onwards, playing league games that most blubs will have little interest. Can someone tell me how this serves the club best? Please anyone explain to me how this serves the club well?

[trileacman]

FFs lads, not one of you have taking into account that half I say again, half of the clubs in Tyrone will be left with no soul from late May onwards, playing league games that most blubs will have little interest. Can someone tell me how this serves the club best? Please anyone explain to me how this serves the club well?

So we should stick to this year's delightful schedule?

You may be right but we need solutions here not complaints. What other ways can we work it? We're all open to suggestions that can solve this.

[EC Unique]

FFs lads, not one of you have taking into account that half I say again, half of the clubs in Tyrone will be left with no soul from late May onwards, playing league games that most blubs will have little interest. Can someone tell me how this serves the club best? Please anyone explain to me how this serves the club well?

That is a problem for the individual clubs to deal with themselves but I can't help but think you are exaggerating the effect. I would be of the opinion that the lads that Feck off after the first round Championship exit are not true club men anyway so good luck to them. Tyrone clubs at senior level have a terrible record in the Ulster club and the only way to improve that is to give them a better chance to prepare for it.

[Knock Yer Mucker In]

You all seem to think that playing a round earlier will sort the problem.

Well we won the championship in 2008, the 1st round was played in early June against Errigal in Carrickmore. Guess what we still had to play the quarter final, semi final and final in three consecutive weekends, with playing Letterkenny seven days after winning the championship. It didn't make one blind bit of difference to how the championship was run off. We still had no time to prepare for the Ulster championship. So there you have it, our real time experience of playing the 1st round earlier.

I am giving you concrete evidence of how it made no difference, that is why I am of the opinion why we should not play it early as it will mean half of the clubs with no real football focus, which the championship does give and therefore makes the leagues more meaningful. But there is no reason in the world why the leagues can't be finished by the end of July.

[orangeman]

FFs lads, not one of you have taking into account that half I say again, half of the clubs in Tyrone will be left with no soul from late May onwards, playing league games that most blubs will have little interest. Can someone tell me how this serves the club best? Please anyone explain to me how this serves the club well?

That is a problem for the individual clubs to deal with themselves but I can't help but think you are exaggerating the effect. I would be of the opinion that the lads that Feck off after the first round Championship exit are not true club men anyway so good luck to them. Tyrone clubs at senior level have a terrible record in the Ulster club and the only way to improve that is to give them a better chance to prepare for it.

There are a lot of very good club men who have in the past gone to the States for the summer. That doesn't mean they;re any less club men than those who stay.

I can remember some very staunch Errigal men who got on the plane in the past.

[Moortown Spuds]

FFs lads, not one of you have taking into account that half I say again, half of the clubs in Tyrone will be left with no soul from late May onwards, playing league games that most blubs will have little interest. Can someone tell me how this serves the club best? Please anyone explain to me how this serves the club well?

That is a problem for the individual clubs to deal with themselves but I can't help but think you are exaggerating the effect. I would be of the opinion that the lads that Feck off after the first round Championship exit are not true club men anyway so good luck to them. Tyrone clubs at senior level have a terrible record in the Ulster club and the only way to improve that is to give them a better chance to prepare for it.

There are a lot of very good club men who have in the past gone to the States for the summer. That doesn't mean they;re any less club men than those who stay.

I can remember some very staunch Errigal men who got on the plane in the past.

Aye but what parish within the confederation were they from?

[blewuporstuffed]

FFs lads, not one of you have taking into account that half I say again, half of the clubs in Tyrone will be left with no soul from late May onwards, playing league games that most blubs will have little interest. Can someone tell me how this serves the club best? Please anyone explain to me how this serves the club well?

That is a problem for the individual clubs to deal with themselves but I can't help but think you are exaggerating the effect. I would be of the opinion that the lads that Feck off after the first round Championship exit are not true club men anyway so good luck to them. Tyrone clubs at senior level have a terrible record in the Ulster club and the only way to improve that is to give them a better chance to prepare for it.

There are a lot of very good club men who have in the past gone to the States for the summer. That doesn't mean they;re any less club men than those who stay.

I can remember some very staunch Errigal men who got on the plane in the past.

And they are perfectly entitled to do so, but that shouldn't affect fixtures for the vast majority who don't go.
Anyway, i think its a slightly different argument from the one KYMI is making that it will take the impetus away from the club season from all the clubs that go out early.
That may be the case, but what is the solution then?
in an ideal world the club championship could start in late july/ early august and finish in late September, however with Tyrone usually still involved at this stage this simply isn't possible.
I agree that simply playing on round earlier and then simply doing everything else the same as last year wont leave things any better, but if it is combined with a few of the other proposals, it may certainly help matters

[Redhand Santa]

Its the people involved with the CCC who set and ran the fixtures who are the problem rather then just a broad sweeping statement about the county board. There is no doubt that the county manager has to much influence on this minority of people also, i.e.club championship put on ice until Tyrone are out instead of playing during the end of July of mid August at latest.

I'd say Harte is a lot better at accomadating club fixtures than other county managers. I think he is used as an easy enough target in this. The issues this year included Tyrone's run to the league final and the fact they got so far through the qualifiers which makes it difficult. No matter who was managing the county the club championships would not have been played in late July or early August this year. Tyrone had games nearly every week up to the quarter final on 3rd August. Then they had the semi final 3 weeks later. It would have been difficult to fit in a full round of club championship in this timeframe and unfair on the county players. An early round of fixtures is the only way of guaranteeing them prior to Tyrone's exit.

What is evidently clear from all your posts that you are firmly in the county team corner, therefore club issues doesn't really matter to you, that is based on reading your posts. Some one from a purely county team coloured glasses would argue the points you have made. If you had the club and county team interests you would try an accommodation. The 1st round of the championship being played in May, early June puts the club, which represents a massive group of people, in a weak position. Anyone who is involved at club (which you don't sound like you are, cause I couldn't see reference to club activity in your posts) level knows once you go out of the championship, your club suffers, so keeping all involved to August shouldn't be misunderstood on how important it is. The question that should be asked is why Kerry can play their club games during a run to an All Ireland and we can't?

You've made a lot of assumptions in there. Not only were they nothing to do with the discussion but they were also wrong. I have a great interest in both my club and county. I'd say quite confidently that I've more than likely been to more club games than you this year. Whether that my own club games or our underage games or even games as a neutral.  If you'd looked back through my posts you'd see I made various suggestions to improve the club season.

Like many others I suggested playing away with reserve games. I also wanted more constant fixtures without the big gaps. My point above was that its hard to play club championship games in late July early August as more often than that they'll be interrupted by Tyrone. So the options are to cram fixtures into September or play an earlier round or 2. For me there is great optimism in may or June and teams are ready for the championship. It can be worked that players going to America won't miss any games as the next rounds aren't to September and it can be better planned.

I only got involved as I thought a cheap dig was being made at Harte that was unreasonable. The players are available a lot more than the likes of Armagh during their championship involvement.

Why should it be?
Look, if lads decide to go to america for the summer, then fair enough, but the whole adult fixtures shouldn't be planned around them.

I actually don't think it should be a big factor but was responding to the point about players clearing off for the summer if being knocked out of championship. In my opinion the majoirty will go either way but my point was that one of side effects of this system is that players away will still be available for championship.

[Redhand Santa]

FFs lads, not one of you have taking into account that half I say again, half of the clubs in Tyrone will be left with no soul from late May onwards, playing league games that most blubs will have little interest. Can someone tell me how this serves the club best? Please anyone explain to me how this serves the club well?

I take the point but its a very hard thing to fix either way. Your point about playing the games late July/early August leaves everything very up in the air as it will depend on Tyrone whether the games will be played. For me everyone would be better knowing the time of championship early in the year. Obviously the current system can be stuck too but it leaves a very tight timeframe for playing of the championship.

Getting a round or even 2 in early on free's up space to complete the championship and give a break before ulster. I know people complained about the first round games being played over 2 weekends this year but it made sense. The county board is responsible for maximising the popularity of the competition and this was better done by spreading the games out. It also gives all teams a bit more exposure. This is obviously easier to accomodate early in the year. It also gives the county board more time to promote the first round as dates can be known well in advance.

Teams will also get a chance to play numerous games with their county players available close to the start of the championship if its earlier in the year. Its always hard to get a team playing properly if 2 or 3 county players our making their first appearance in 2 months for the clubs - I know this will still be an issue for the quarter finals in September but with 2 weeks of first round games played earlier in year maybe a round of league fixtures could be played before it. I also think that games were always more popular when played earlier in the year.

There currently is a lot of problems with club fixtures. Its important regular fixtures are put in place during the year and known well in advance. As others have noted there's also no excuse for holding up reserve championship for county games.

[trileacman]

If I post like this does it make my opinion better than the rest of ye?

What the fcuk's all that about?

[LeoMc]

LeoMc I hear and understand what you say and we all should give our tuppence worth to a set of fixtures but it is pointless. We could formulate the best scenario possible but then MH and Micky Donnelly will request changes and of course our CB and CCC will bow down to the request. The issue in previous years was not necessarily the fixtures plan - I think it was the point of how it was ambushed by all and sundry to accommodate our county teams. in 2011 it was perfect, games regular, holiday period defined but then the men at the top table thought they could improve on it and put their own stamp on it and bandjaxed the whole thing !!.

If the fixtures are in place then we must stick to them !!. Another issue is that in August there was no notification of what would happen in A) if Tyrone win B) Tyrone lose - this caused uproar and we had to wait until Monday morning to see if there was any football for the upcoming week.

No wonder all lads play other sports during the winter - organised fixtures with no cancellations for stag do's, weddings, flu bugs... or whatever.

Formulate a fixture schedule by all means but it means nothing if we don't stick to it - and that means clubs, county managers, Cb, CCC...

So what changes did they request this year?
IMO the year this was such a shambles compared to previous years was poor communications. It was a case that games were not being communicated so clubs could not plan ahead.

[Mikhailov]

LeoMc,

It is not only this year that has been the problem - it has been worse this year as many posters have highlighted and you are in agreement with me on the main point of communication. As I stated, this year communication was as big an issue as any - no plans put in place for scenario A or B and everyone waiting until Monday morning to find out if they have a game coming up.  If teams were aware in advance that they possibly will play option A or B then they can plan but there never was any advance notice from CB or CCC of any scenario going forward and this caused ill feeling among the ordinary club player.

However, from memory and without much investigation, ACL game 1 was called off to facilitate NFL semi and then played the Sunday before the NFL final !! - what was the point in calling it off for the semi. We got to game 7 then all of a sudden games are delayed due to county teams for various reasons (13 day rule, 6 day rule, weekend training) In senior league the last 8 games were mostly played out of sequence from the original schedule whereas 1-7 went as planned.

The senior c'ship initially was planned for weekend of August 9-11 but was pulled and not played until early September. I think from mid August to early October some teams only played max 2 games if they lost c'ship 1st round game.

I admit it is a hard problem to solve but no one seems to have a viable solution. I personally think if we went back to 4x12 and played H & A then that is 22 games with NO cancellations but then the question is how can we handle 22 games when we cant handle 15. one solution is to start in early March (lot of Tyrone teams play UL which is in Feb) and play every Sunday. How we accommodate county players and starred games needs to be carefully planned if we went down this route but we have to try other options as the current situation is not working.

Yes, we can say that this year was an exception as minors and seniors doing well caused these issues but we will always do well - we are a top county and should always be hope to be playing in August so we need to plan our schedule around this.

[orangeman]

We can't get 15 played - why talk about playing 22 ?