GAA HAS LOST ITS WAY
We’ve not yet even entered December, the last month of the year, and the Louth senior team are already up and running in preparation for the season ahead.
Under the stewardship of new manager Pete McGrath Louth enter 2018, their 61st season without a Provincial or All Ireland victory.
Maybe it’s a sign of my own advancing years, but I’ve watched the 30th, 40th, 50th and now 60th anniversaries of the 1957 win whizz by at alarming speed with the chances of ever bridging that gap growing by the decade.
Former All-Ireland winning manager with Down in ‘91 and ‘94 Pete McGrath brings great experience to the roll but what are our expectations for the Rostrevor man’s reign? Consolidation in Division Two? Promotion? Relegation?
And what about our chances in the Championship? A win or two in Leinster and possibly a ‘bit of a run’ in the Qualifiers? Most punters have already installed us as favourites for relegation in Division 2 and although we’re on the easier side of the draw in Leinster, there is little or no expectation of even making a provincial decider.
I find it very difficult to remember such an indifferent outlook among Louth supporters in advance of a season ahead.
Strangely enough, the 2018 season actually begins in 2017 with Louth kicking off their O’Byrne Cup campaign on December 30th with a home game against Longford. This is followed up four days later by an evening game away to Kildare. Assuming we don’t qualify for the knock-out stages of this competition our next competitive outing will be the first round of the league at home to Down on January 28th.
The National League will be run off over an eight-week period finishing on March 25th. Again assuming we don’t make the Division 2 final, then the county’s next competitive outing will not be for another seven weeks when we travel to Portlaoise to take on Carlow in the first round of the Leinster Championship on May 13th.
I fully expect us to get over this encounter with the Barrowsiders but if we don’t then our season could be more or less finished before we even get into the month of June. Around this time teams like Dublin, Kerry and Mayo will only be starting to ratchet up their training schedules in advance of the new-fangled Super 8 competition later in the summer.
In recent years, more and more players from counties outside the top tier of Gaelic football are asking themselves the question ‘is it all worth it’. In a worst case scenario Louth will play eleven competitive games during the 2018 season. Nine of these eleven fixtures will have been completed before the end of March.
Now I know my own playing days are quite a few years behind me at this stage, but I don’t think I’m that far removed from the psyche of an inter-county footballer. I guarantee you that not one member of the current county panel lay in bed as a child and dreamt of scoring magnificent points against Roscommon in February or soaring in the air and catching a high ball against Clare in March (no disrespect meant to either county).
On the contrary, those youthful dreams consisted of goals and points and catches on the hallowed turf of Croke Park on hot summers days with huge numbers of red and white clad supporters cheering on wildly.
The GAA have lost their way big time in their promotion of the inter county game at the moment. Almost by default an era of elitism has crept into the association.
Central Council chose to alter the latter stages of the football championship which were running quite smoothly while totally ignoring the early part of the competition which is in crisis.
The powers that be have shown no imagination or foresight in coming up with a solution to this ever-growing problem. The situation is crying out for a properly structure and marketed second tier competition which would run alongside the main competition with the final being played the same day as the All Ireland.
Prospering in Croke Park on the biggest day of the Gaelic football calendar, albeit in a secondary competition, would do wonders for players and supporters in the weaker counties. It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to work out a promotion/relegation structure between the two competitions.
As mentioned in this column on numerous occasions in the past, this divide between the haves and have-nots is growing at an alarming pace and the advent of the Super 8s will widen the gap even further.
Unless there is some urgency and joinedup thinking at the top table on Jones Road, counties like Louth will drift further and further into the GAA wilderness.