Club players will continue to suffer on the fixture front
THE LATEST attempt to bring an organised schedule to club fixtures in the county met with a strong rebuke at last week’s County G.A.A. Board meeting. The Sarsfields club brought before the meeting a comprehensive and professionally laid out motion dealing with the fixtures schedule in the county - a plan had it been adopted that would have brought a whole new meaning to being part of the Association for the ordinary club player.
Sarsfields officer and club delegate on the night, David Gannon, presented a detailed and well-thought out motion backed up with a thorough fixtures schedule on paper.
He eloquently put the motion to club delegates, stressing the need to have a fixtures plan in place that would enable the ordinary club player have a structure, not just to their playing commitments but also their own personal lives.
This was a motion that not only provided a voice for the players, but more importantly, it set out a schedule for league and championships which brought a whole new clarity to the fixtures schedule for the ordinary club players.
There is little doubt that the ordinary club players want to see a fixtures plan that would enable them to get on with their everyday life - family commitments, job and social life - which is what this motion was all about, trying to find a common ground for these members of the Association.
Incidentally, Gannon gave a real insight into the problems facing the ordinary club player, giving as an example the problems he encountered in fixing a date for his wedding so as not to clash with a footballing weekend, as his sport is Gaelic football.
Here, we were looking at a plan that was professionally put together, brought before the County Board by the Sarsfields club, and eloquently put before the meeting by David, himself a teacher and stalwart club player.
Unlike our inter-county set-up at national level this was not about money. It was about putting in place a fixtures schedule that would enable club players to prepare professionally for games, knowing when their leagues and championships were scheduled for.
But the motion gathered little momentum, not surprisingly, as this is a County Board not open to debate inside the four walls. They are even less open to change, and will rather stick with the status quo before taking on board a newly-proposed fixtures structure that would have taken some hard work to overcome the current system.
As it stands, fixtures are presented willy-nilly through the best months of spring and summer, leaving clubs with a fixtures plan of the championship being run off on a blitz system through wind, rain and muck. So much for the ordinary club player’s thoughts!
In Wexford it now seems as if the ordinary club player is just secondary. After the motion was put we heard the message from the C.C.C.C., with officers Denis Cadogan and Mary Foley outlining the problems with inter-county fixtures.
It may have had its teething problems initially, but with a little thought, foresight and hard work, it was a motion that not only could have been taken on board but also shown the ordinary club player that huge efforts to accommodate them is a part of the thinking of Wexford G.A.A.
For me there was huge frustration to hear the lack of debate. The message from the C.C.C.C. is like a pre-recorded voice telling us ‘what about the inter-county fixtures?’
Inter-county fixtures will always be there. Ard Stiúrthóir Páraic Duffy is playing his part in trying to tighten the inter-county schedule to make more time available for club activity, unlike the Wexford C.C.C.C. members who are happy to deliver the same annual message while not wanting to take on a proposal that would take them out of their comfort zone.
It was interesting to hear from Central Council delegate Tony Dempsey on the decision to provide the princely sum of €6.2m to the G.P.A. This is solely towards inter-county players. No doubt this also adds to the frustrations of the ordinary club players and is a prime example why so many clubs are struggling for numbers, leading to amalgamations.
The gap is widening by the year between inter-county and ordinary club players. It’s a further step towards increasing professionalism which is rapidly creeping in at inter-county level.