It’s high time fixture chiefs met to discuss crossover

CAN we please just get over the ‘he said, she said’ element to the current fixtures crossover in Louth and get the relevant GAA and LGFA chiefs together to avoid clashes and chaos?

It was stated at the most recent men’s committee meeting that a missive was forwarded to the ladies’ body in the hope of a sitdown – and that it was not acknowledged by the LGFA. This, it seems, has been denied by the other side.

Wherever the communication broke down is irrelevant quite frankly. A solution has to be found that ensures issues do not replicate themselves.

In the last two years, the women’s senior final has taken place at 11am on a Sunday morning in Dunleer. How is that reasonable? But it was done to fit around clubs involved having a men’s match of significance on the same day.

Possibly the biggest gate – and best occasion – for an LGFA senior final in recent memory was back in 2018 when Geraldines faced Cooley Kickhams in Stabannon on a Friday night. Nothing to interfere with it and once the weather was dry, which is was, the ‘under lights’ scenario added to the occasion.

The reason the ladies’ county final is referred to is due to the fact that the dates have already been pencilled in for the men’s deciders. The split-season allows for a schedule to be drawn up that isn’t deviated from in the case of All-Ireland involvement.

Louth LGFA have not got that luxury as a potential junior showpiece appearance at Croke Park renders any calendar space as subject to change. Club championship dates are more than loosely dependent on how long the term lasts for Paul Hanlon’s charges.

The benefit of having an LGFA final or two on a free night could boost the coffers of the county treasury, too, as neutrals may be more likely to tag along to fill an hour or two. While the claim that removing deciders from their traditional slot of a Sunday depreciates their value is nonsense. Sure don’t replays, in many cases, take place on Saturdays? Dublin GAA’s senior final has previously gone ahead on a Monday night at Parnell Park and the place was jammed.

If and when a stadium is built in Dundalk, and if and when the associations merge, a joined-up approach is going to be necessary but until such a time, it has been proven that scrambling for resolutions to fixture clashes a week before the event does not worked and given the experience which exists on the respective GAA and LGFA committees, it should not be beyond their capacity to meet in the middle – but they have to meet full stop for this to happen.

And given the state of pitches at the moment, consensus is even more important, particularly considering how there are so many dual clubs vying for the same facilities.

Sorting it out before the next major collision is of paramount importance but the onus should be on the LGFA more than the GAA as, inevitably, they are the ones who are have less certainty regarding their schedule.