So much for April being a month for club fixtures only

THE STAKES have never been higher in the club versus inter-county player dilemma. This became even more evident as I watched the genuine club players walk off O’Kennedy Park, New Ross, on Sunday evening, like other grounds around the county, having completed their one hurling round, coupled with two football rounds of championship action, thinking we will no longer be thought of until late July at the earliest.

After witnessing the excitement of the Ferns St. Aidan’s Junior players after their amazing late, late scoring surge secured a dramatic victory over Horeswood, and the disappointment etched on the face of the losing players, one felt for the fact they will not be given a further opportunity to build or relaunch their respective campaigns until late July at the earliest.

The ordinary club player will not know when he will resume championship action again, as the Wexford C.C.C.C. will be unable to have a positive fixtures plan until the inter-county season is at an end. But having said, that the so-called month of April designated for clubs was an unmitigated disaster from a club perspective.

When it came to rolling out fixtures, getting the mix right was disastrous, with clubs being hauled all over the county.

There was changes of dates, changes of venues, and important opening round Senior hurling games being played under lights, despite there being no Senior fixtures alotted for the following Sunday.

I also witnessed championship action without umpires and linesmen, more prevalent in the lower grades, it must be said, but then again these players deserve the same professional approach as those in the higher levels.

The fixtures were a crumbling monument to a month that Croke Park allotted for the clubs. From an early stage it was quite evident this was a token gesture to appease those at grassroots level.

It’s hard to blame the players and the clubs for thinking this was a plan to keep the CPA in particular quiet. They were publicly promised the month of April, but given the state of the club game they deserve more serious consideration.

The basic problem is that Croke Park have failed to address the club issue, and they are being helped by local G.A.A. management committees in papering over the cracks, as there is now little link betwen headquarters and the clubs.

Wexford is a typical example. Links between clubs and the respective County Boards are only hanging by a thread or have disappeared almost completely. Two rounds of football, played off in what was a bizarre sequence of arrangements, and just one round of hurling. That’s what has been handed the club players in an effort to appease them as one enters the best months of the year for both hurling and football.

What we have in Wexford is frustrated clubs not knowing what to offer their players through the summer months. We have clubs who have played second round football fixtures with their first round games still outstanding.

We have had those first round games re-scheduled for this Friday night, but now three of those games have already being postponed just days after being scheduled.

Take one game in the Intermediate football championship for instance, Ballyhogue and Adamstown. Their first round game was fixed for Cushinstown on opening weekend, and then switched to the Ferns Centre of Excellence, later to be postponed, although a Senior game was played on the Cushinstown pitch two days later.

Then, as the clubs prepared for the re-fixture scheduled for this Friday evening, they were informed on Sunday evening of a further postponement, apparently to facilitate the inter-county Senior footballers in a challenge game with the Under-20s.

Both clubs are left totally frustrated and rightly annoyed. So much for the month of April being a club-designated month.

Players are being lost to clubs. Few can dispute this as the participation rates are dropping, particularly in the urban areas. Players now, given the mess that is the championship structure in Wexford, are losing their connection with the club, and gradually drifting away.

Only last Sunday I witnessed players making their way to a Junior hurling championship game having earlier played in soccer cup games.

That is now the dilemma facing clubs, but does anyone care?