Great championship doesn’t cure all ills and away from glamour the clubs are very frustrated
A weekend every month of the summer that’s free of inter-county activity would help to quell grassroots anger
BEAMING faces are always in plentiful supply at Killarney races at this time of year but they usually belong to Kerry people full of big football ambitions.
It was different this week. Limerick hurling supporters were everywhere, still high on last Sunday’s great achievement and keen to make the lovely feeling last. They needn’t worry. The fun is only beginning and will go on for the rest of the year. Naturally, as a Galway man, I’m disappointed that the two-in-arow hasn’t come west but, when that wasn’t the case, it’s great to see it go to Limerick.
Forty-five years is a mighty long time to wait for an AllIreland so the benefits for hurling in Limerick will be enormous. Well done to John Kiely and all the squad.
As for Galway, one defeat in two seasons doesn’t make them a bad team. They didn’t perform at anything like their best last Sunday, so all they can do is accept that they didn’t deserve to win and vow to come back stronger than ever next year.
They will be a major force over the coming seasons and with the underage scene going so well, Galway hurling is in a very good place, albeit a disappointed one at present.
The overall championship was brilliant from an entertainment viewpoint, showing just how much the game has to offer when the top counties get to play each other on a regular basis.
The Leinster and Munster championships were a great success from that viewpoint and the All-Ireland series took on a life of its own, providing games that will long be remembered.
However, it would be wrong to think that a good championship cures all ills. I presume the GAA bosses will review the overall scene in the coming months and make some adjustments, based on experiences this year.
Leaving April free of intercounty activity (except for finishing the league which was delayed by the bad weather) and bringing forward the AllIreland finals was supposed to work wonders for the club game, which has come under increasing pressure over the years.
We’ll have to wait and see if the earlier finals bring much benefit but, even if they do, it will be at the expense of promotion. September was always AllIreland final month – hurling early on, football two weeks later – but, in their wisdom, the GAA have decided to complete the championships in August.
Okay, so the football final goes into September this year but, from 2019 on, it will be on the last Sunday in August. I consider it a terrible waste of promotional opportunities to finish the championships off in August.
And before people start screaming ‘what about the clubs’, let me say I’m as concerned as anyone by the difficulties in which they find themselves.
In fact, I fear that unless something is done to streamline the club scene, hurling and football will be like rugby in a few years’ time, with the top players not playing anything but intercounty except maybe for a few games.
There’s no easy solution, but clearing April of inter-county activity and squeezing the All-Ireland championships into a tighter timescale is not the answer.
Check what happened this year. Few enough club games were played in April so in many ways, it was a waste of a month. Since then, there has been little enough important club action in
most counties. I travel around the country a lot and early in the summer I saw more grass-cutters than players on pitches. Later on, the grass-cutters weren’t needed because of the drought and the players weren’t back either because championships had been suspended.
With no guarantee of games, lads (especially students) head for America and the lure of the dollar and the craic. Who can blame them, when there are no games to encourage them to stay at home?
Obviously, some lads would head on their travels even if club championships were being played, but there’s nothing that can be done about that. We have to cater for the vast majority who are here all the time and are left idle during the best months of the year.
Here’s my suggestion to tackle the club v county issue. Start the provincial championship earlier, maybe even in April and revert to September dates for the finals.
Now for the radical bit. Designate one weekend per month in May, June, July and possibly August for club championship games only. Ban county training in the week before that so that all players were with their clubs.
That would keep club championships ticking along so that they were all fairly well advanced by late summer. Counties would also return to full club programmes once they were eliminated from the All-Ireland race.
The only way to have one guaranteed club weekend per month (obviously there could be others too if they suited a particular county) is for Croke Park to issue an edict to that effect. It would apply in every county so there could be no slippage.
Something has to give. There has been no improvement for the clubs this summer so it needs to be reassessed because this just cannot continue to go on as it is.