World won’t stop if we embrace the split season
JULY All-Ireland finals? Why not? If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that fresh ways of thinking are needed to look at the world – including through the prism of sport.
Just look at some of the things we thought we’d never see in the GAA.
The turnstiles at Croke Park locked last Sunday on the original date of the All-Ireland hurling final. The eerie quiet of Jones’ Road like an out-take from 28
Days Later, the post-apocalyptic part not far off reality right now – just minus the zombie horror element.
It’s not that long ago that giving up the traditional September showpiece final days was deemed a heresy, until the world kept turning and the games lost none of their cultural significance by being played a couple of weeks earlier.
In fact, it’s harder to think of a day loaded with more emotional significance than Limerick’s generation-bridging hurling triumph in 2018, the pinnacle of the greatest hurling Championship ever played by any reliable metric.
And the first one with an August 19 climax.
Or one loaded with more historical significance than Dublin’s unique five-in-a-row, the first leg of which took place earlier than tradition dictated.
Hand dispensers at GAA grounds. Face masks. Eticketing. The bonanza of live streaming, taking in every level of club activity from senior championship down to junior.
County players training full bore for their club championships without being pulled in a different direction by county. Imagine!
A county like Leitrim making the tough decision to put the knock-out stages of its football championship behind closed doors as the lesser of two evils given the government imposed restriction of just 200 people at outdoor sporting events. Live streaming put in place to try and allow every supporter watch the game in some capacity rather than divide a parish along the lines of a Spin-the-Wheel lottery.
The sight of Eid prayers taking place at Croke Park in mid-summer shows how the GAA is embracing new ways of thinking. That iconic photograph of around 200 Muslim worshippers wearing face masks and rolling out their prayer mats on the manicured turf last month reverberated far and wide. Not just as a powerful symbol of religious unity but as a sign of how to adapt to the changing times of a pandemic.
And this at a venue where the Archbishop used to throw in the ball on final day.
If Eid prayers can take place at Croke Park in mid-summer, then it’s hardly that much of a stretch to imagine the All-Ireland finals being brought forward.
Because that is the bottom line of the split season that is back on the table. A system which has been championed in these pages as one obvious solution to the eternal club and county debate.
It has been floating in the ether as an alternative to the fixtures crisis and continued tensions between club and county seasons, which ultimately prompted the formation of the Club Players Association (CPA) in January 2017 and quickly amassed 25,000 members.
The CPA’s multitude of highly detailed full calendar year proposals took in versions of the split season model. Little wonder one was tagged ‘Plan Purple’ with
Wexford’s Liam Griffin involved – he of purple and gold fame.
It’s that same split season idea which has gained serious momentum since the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) recently decided to endorse it and that will be discussed by the GAA’s Fixtures Calendar Review Task Force tomorrow.
At Parnell Park on Sunday afternoon, Kilmacud Crokes manager Robbie Brennan joined the chorus of support.
In other years, county stars like Paul Mannion or Cian O’Sullivan have come back to club duty like soldiers returning from a war, a Celtic Cross pinned to their chest like a medal of valour but also sometimes with the mental and physical scars of a bruising All-Ireland campaign to boot.
That’s a scene replicated around the country as other players jump into a club campaign that tends to be squeezed like an accordion into a short autumn window.
Afterwards, Brennan backed the complete split season proposal recently put forward by the GPA where All-Ireland finals would be brought forward to July and the second half of the year given over to club activity.
‘Brilliant idea, if it’s feasible. It’s still a huge ask for county fellas to go whatever number of months it is – whether it’s back-to-back or whatever.
‘So it would be a huge ask for those still, but at least they’d have some idea of “this is the county, this is the club,” as opposed to this half in and half out.
‘I’d say the likes of Paul and Cian would love that. I hope it gets the necessary support it needs, because it would be good for everybody.’
Kildare senior football selector Tom Cribbin in the Irish Mail on
Sunday shared a similar message, pointing to how players like Aidan O’Shea and his brothers seem to be recharged and revelling in a club run with Breaffy.
How much of a lift it is to the club scene to see the stars parading their talent on live television in high summer rather than mid-winter. Similar stories are being told all over the country. Of clubs being reinvigorated by having their county players all fully invested for the training and playing of an entire championship campaign. It’s sad in a way that such a basic requirement feels so novel and eye-opening.
KEN Hogan spoke on RTÉ radio yesterday as a father of two sons used to travelling separate paths by virtue of the fact that club and county traditionally don’t mix during the summer months. Of Cian going one way to train with Lorrha and All-Star goalkeeper Brian going the other to train with Tipperary.
Not this summer though with county activity stilled. ‘Even though we are in very tough times, very challenging times for the country at the moment, and for the world really, this has been a breath of fresh air, the club season. Every parish in Ireland is alive and vibrant…
‘It’s a no-brainer. To have county players involved with their clubs is just a huge boost to every parish in the country. It would be just fantastic if they did come up with a double season because everyone knows where they stand when it comes to games.’
And it would enable club and county to be completed in the calendar year.
Of course there are serious logistical questions around such a radical step for the GAA.
When does third level competition fit in? Perhaps the first six weeks of the year when those players play exclusively in the flagship college competitions, with no crossover?
When to play minor county, or run development squads? Pack it all into that first six months?
What about the Under 20 All-Irelands? Would hurling have to follow the original football developmental model where there is no crossover between underage and senior?
Will the added focus on club in August and September balance out the lack of promotional opportunities at inter-county level?
The signs of late are that it’s a balance worth striking.