POSITIVE REVIEW OF
Delegates warned that things are going to get worse
CCC fixtures secretary Paul Wilson delivered an upbeat and confident delivery of his report on fixtures in Wicklow for 2019, informing delegates in Ballinakill that 93.35 per cent of scheduled football games had been completed and 81.42 per cent of hurling matches.
The Hollywood man, flanked by his fixtures team of Mick Hagan (chairman), Alan Nolan (Annacurra) and Conor Doyle (Coolkenno) reflected on the desires expressed after the Fixtures Forum at the start of the year.
‘Following a successful year in 2018 there was a Fixture Forum held in November with all of the clubs invited to review how the year went and build on what was learnt. The Fixtures Forum was well attended and the major outcomes from the meeting were:
‘Get rid of Cup competition, and we did that.
‘Double round of the league for Division 1 and 1A, we completed that as well.
‘Review point system for Division 1 and 1A (If same as last year)
‘Communication – responses from CCC. I would hope that everyone feels that any correspondence that went into the CCC was responded to in a timely manner.
‘More flexibility around changing games during the year. People may say there wasn’t flexibility, but the facts say there was, it’s just it wasn’t the way it used to be.
‘In other words, you weren’t able to go past the date of the original fixture.
‘But once the two clubs agreed on a date beforehand, there wasn’t a problem.
‘The outcome of that meant that we got through the fixtures programme, there was no messing, and everyone knew exactly what the rules were, and it was the same for everybody.
‘All championship Semi-finals and finals to be played at the weekend. I’m pretty sure nearly every single championship semi-final was played at the weekend, certainly something that we did our utmost to do.
‘Two rounds of hurling. That’s one of the things we didn’t get done. We couldn’t fit two rounds of hurling in the league. The way the hurling worked out there were a lot of games that weren’t played do that wasn’t the worst thing.
‘Division 4 to start earlier. That’s just not possible. Division 4 depends on having daylight because it’s a Thursday evening, and whilst we have some grounds with floodlights, unfortunately we don’t have enough to be able to say categorically we’ll be able to start in March.
‘I will say that one of the things that did make a bit of a mess of Division 4 and 5 was where teams pulled out of the competition.
‘Now, if we had of known that we had eight teams instead of 10 you can plan accordingly. The biggest problem you have is when a club enters a team and then pulls out.
‘We achieved all of that was requested except the last two. There was no room in the calendar to play a double round of hurling and with light restrictions and availability of floodlights it was not possible to start Division 4 any earlier.
‘The CCC also undertook some new initiatives this year:
‘Play all League finals in Aughrim where possible – It was suggested by Alan (Nolan), and I have to say I had my doubts but it worked out to be absolutely brilliant.
‘We had a week where we had all the league finals in Aughrim and anybody who was involved said it worked really well and everybody appreicated playing the finals in the county grounds. So, for me it was a very, very positive and good initiative.
‘Parade and National Anthem before all Championship finals where possible – It was Conor (Doyle) who promoted this. I thought it was spectacular. When a player lines out, whether it’s Junior ‘C’, ‘B’, ‘A’ or Intermediate, that’s their Senior final, and for them to have the opportunity to parade and be led out on the pitch – we had a band where possible and if not we made sure we had a piper – I thought it worked very well.
‘These initiatives received widespread support and positive feedback from all of the clubs involved and it is hoped to build on these ideas for next year.
‘In football we scheduled 571 games with 93.35 per cent played. The vast majority of incomplete games were Division 5 and Division 4 where we had a lot of walkovers with teams struggling for numbers.
‘In hurling we scheduled 114 games and of that 81.42 per cent completed. A lot of walkovers and games uncompleted in hurling in the leagues, and 81 per cent is very disappointed.
‘If you look at the football, of the games scheduled – obviously there are championship games built into that – Division 1: 97 per cent of games played, 58 out of 60. One was a walkover, one wasn’t played.
‘Division 1A: 100 per cent. 59 games, 59 played.
‘Division 2: 94 per cent. We had four walkovers, so 65 out of 69 games played. All very, very impressive figures and I have to say fair play to the clubs for making it happen.
‘Division 3: 69 games and 64 were played so 93 per cent completion.
‘And then we come down to Division 4 and 5 and where it drags the percentage down. Division 4, we had 85 games, 75 were played, 10 walkovers. And if you look at Division 5 then, we had 61 games scheduled and we had 14 walkovers. And as I said