Split season is too condensed – time to revisit GAA calendar
AMUNSTER Championship launch that had something for everyone in the audience. The man who has overseen Limerick’s hurling dynasty was there, manager John Kiely talking at length about his team and his players being under the spotlight as the county bids for an historic five-in-a-row.
He was just one of a roll call of attendees from all the Munster stakeholders at the Cahir House Hotel.
Kerry football is turning its eyes to Diarmuid O’Connor as the answer to their midfield questions this summer and the player spoke too of the expectation that comes with the jersey.
In the same function room was Cork speedster Matty Taylor who tried to piece together his own county’s rollercoaster League campaign to date and whether his team can shock raging Munster favourites Kerry.
There was even a remote linkup to a couple of faces who couldn’t be there, Waterford hurling manager Davy Fitzgerald and Jamie Barron appearing via a Zoom link-up from Portugal where they are currently undergoing a training camp.
In isolation, this was Munster GAA sticking its chest out and saying ‘look at everything we have to offer’. And why not, after a 2023 Munster SHC in particular that had claims to being the greatest ever – for quality, drama, competitiveness and plot twists, the top three qualification places going right down to the last ball.
But the thing about the GAA calendar is that nothing happens in isolation. This bit is connected to that bit so that this other bit can work.
And then a few realities intrude.
The clocks haven’t gone forward. It’s not even Easter.
What is going on with a Championship launch where the lights are already on by early afternoon?
There is a surreal element to it all. Like looking at Dali’s famous lobster telephone. Or his signature soft watch, a unique take on ‘the persistence of memory’. It’s become a pop art symbol, one described as being an ‘unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time, a Surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order’.
Which is a close approximation of the current GAA calendar as it feels right now.
The Allianz Hurling League semi-finals are on this weekend. In any normal week, there should be a promotional event around the box office sequel or latest edition in the Limerick-Kilkenny franchise that sees the reigning League and All-Ireland champions face off against a county that stands at the summit of hurling’s roll of honour.
Instead, nothing on the GAA’s second national competition but a feast of talk about the flagship summer competitions.
Except, it’s not technically summer anymore. Munster and All-Ireland champions Limerick start their title defences on Sunday, April 21 away to Clare, the team who beat them in last year’s group and who have pushed them to the brink more than anyone. Seven days later, Kiely’s side entertain Tipperary in Limerick, knowing a second defeat could effectively threaten their entire year.
Even if they find their best selves, the group campaign concludes for four of the five teams in the space of five weeks.
For Cork, it’s four. The idea that one of the game’s traditional Big Three could be gone by May 19 just feels out of whack. That’s before accounting that Cork bring arguably the biggest support base of any hurling county. A blood and bandage bandwagon that is a revenue and atmosphere generator.
Now to be clear, this column has been a staunch advocate of the split season. The GAA deserves immense credit for recognising the simmering discontent at grassroots and club level and giving club players a proper, deserved share of the calendar with an expanded club window. Which meant bringing the AllIreland finals forward.
Now it’s only 2017 that the hurling and football finals took place in September.
If moving first to August finals felt seismic, there is no getting away from how July feels like a culture shock. As a dual county like Cork will say, the added window is vital in allowing for a meaningful fixture list for club players where championship is played in a good part of the summer and not rushed off like a blitz in bad weather at the fagend of the year.
But clearly, there is still a balance to be struck.
Hurling’s championship format is near perfect. If the Munster SHC regards itself as the jewel in the crown, it has to be treated like that.
A slightly later start would save us from this surreal scene of a Championship love-in before the League semis have even taken place. A player shouldn’t be a torn hamstring away from missing an entire provincial group stage.
A slightly later finish would allow another fortnight’s breathing space for the provincial campaigns, both in Munster and Leinster. Is there any good reason why the hurling and football finals can’t be flipped so that the hurling final comes after? It is a summer game after all, more than Gaelic football.
The Club Players Association was an important, vocal group in advocating to ‘fix the fixtures’ and give club players a working calendar – with the introduction of the split season, they wound down, feeling the big decisions had been made. One of its leaders though, All-Ireland winning manager Liam Griffin, said even they would have entertained All-Ireland final dates in early August. Tied in to a promotional blitz, and fan zones and more.
WHERE the season needs tightening up is in the provincial and All-Ireland club series. That’s where the pyramid narrows.
Clubs and county championships need to be ongoing as deep into the autumn as possible – that’s where the wide base is.
The chorus of those railing against the split season as an idea don’t tend to value the club scene much. The GAA has taken the important step in recognising the value of the 100 per cent of players who need a viable fixtures calendar — not just the two per cent of inter-county.
But that’s not to say a tweak is still needed.
I asked Pat Ryan yesterday if hurling could benefit from such a quick fix in terms of allowing some more breathing space.
‘It would be brilliant if we got a week between every game,’ by which he means a week’s break.
‘That would be brilliant for everyone. You’d be able to build the competition better, everybody would be looking forward to it.
‘Everyone would be able to go to all the matches. You’d be able to plan a bit more for spectators, for yourselves working, for all of us. There’s no second guessing that, it’s very hard on players. It’s really, really competitive and you have to be flat out for it. Look, it would be better but the calendar is the calendar.’
Time for a tweak.