IT’S HEARTY FAIR Paul: Croke Park’s club call is reasonable and will hopefully satisfy our hunger

CROSSMAGLEN legend Paul Hearty reluctantly accepts the GAA’S call to bin the club championships.

The decision to conclude club activity for the season at the county final stage means that the provincial and All-ireland championships are the biggest casualties of the revised fixtures schedule, with no All-ireland club champions being crowned for the first time in more than 50 years.

Hearty is the most decorated club player of them all, having won a staggering 19 county titles, 11 Ulsters and six All-irelands with Cross between 1996 and 2015.

Yet while there may be pressure for the GAA to row back on their position when county finals are taking place in the coming months, he doesn’t think they’ll budge.

The ex-armagh keeper said: “You can see what the GAA is trying to do, but it’s sad.

“The junior, intermediate and senior championship, a lot of guys would love a chance to play on with their club into the provincial series.

“The Sigerson and the college competitions will kick off in January and you’ll probably go back to what a normal season is in the calendar year.

“Are you going to have lads that maybe want to train for six weeks without any competitive action, to wait until the county players are finished and then start up the provincial championships in January? I don’t know.

“I think a lot of the boys will be happy enough to finish up at a county final and then start afresh next year.

“It is a pity that it’s only going as far as the county but, in another aspect, you have to weigh it all up and a few weeks ago there was nothing going to happen so maybe we have to appreciate what we have at the minute.”

With Cross having won 21 of the last 24 Armagh titles, another one this year may not sate their appetite.

“A county championship is nearly expected about the town,” admitted Hearty, now the club’s goalkeeping coach. “That’s where we’re at.

“We could have done a bit of damage in Ulster and maybe gone a wee bit further but, to get any standard of football, it’ll keep us going until next year.

“We can only do what the authorities in the GAA and the medical people tell us what’s fit to be done.

“That’s the proper way to go about it this year because, at the end of the day, sport doesn’t bring lives back either.”