Much wants more but a bit is better than nothing

KERRY GAA’s Competitions Control Committee (CCC) met last night (Tuesday) to ruminate over their draft fixtures plan that will see every football and hurling club and adult player see some competitive action between now at the end of the year. In many respects that statement alone has seen us come a long way.

CAST your mind back to the start of April - which is only 12 weeks ago - and the country was a very different place. The majority of people were holed up in their homes, compelled to remain there and only venture out for the most essential of reasons: to buy food, obtain medicine, or undertake short but essential journeys. Anyone else enjoying a little more ‘freedom’ of movement was deemed an essential worker, and therefore permitted to travel more then two kilometres from their home to do work that was necessary to keep our sick population alive and the country ticking over. Sport and Gaelic games were a long way from people’s minds back then.

That we have arrived at a point where meetings are taking place to finalise and programme of Gaelic games set to start next month, at the same time that footballers and hurlers are pulling on boots and shorts again, seems nothing short of miraculous. And yet here we are. By Friday the CCC will issue the final calendar for what will be a helter-skelter packed scheduled of games in both codes over a 12week period.

Two things are being asked of all concerned within the clubs - players, mentors, officials and supporters: first, that all concerned undertake the principle of personal responsibility with regard to Covid-19, and do everything they can to keep themselves and those around them from contracting or spreading the virus; and second, that the fixtures makers are afforded a little latitude in getting played what they can get played without too much, or any, push back from those stakeholders.

In the circumstances, neither should be too much to ask.

With regard to last Monday night’s County Committee meeting - conducted online via the Zoom teleconferencing app, which is another sign of these new times - a number of requests from the clubs have been submitted to the CCC, which were to be discussed last night by that body. Committee secretary Peter Twiss outlined what these requests were, and the list is quite extensive, and includes, but is not limited to: two teams instead of one qualify from the group phase of the Club Championships; that the Club Championships be completed before the commencement of the County SFC; the resumption of the County Leagues with Round 2 and 3 played during the extra weekends now allowed by Croke Park; there be Under-21 competitions; extra Junior League

games/competitions; allow District Boards to organise extra competitions; a Christy Ring Cup format for the County SHC; provision for a Minor Hurling Championship; extra games for teams in the County IHC; extra space between competitions.

We’ll assume that every and all requests and suggestions were made in good faith and with the best interests of players involved, and we’ve no intention of belittling any of the aforementioned requests, but it’s worth reporting Peter Twiss’s words to delegates last Monday.

“About five weeks ago I’d say if you asked anyone if there was going to be club football in Kerry or anywhere else they’d have said no. We now have club football, let’s appreciate it, enjoy, but let’s not get too stressed out about things. Let’s not get carried away here and absolutely lose the run of ourselves and try to pack in everything here into thirteen weeks and finish up with nothing afterwards only confusion and nothing finished,” Twiss said.

“While it’s great that people are so enthusiastic to play, you can only do so much in thirteen weeks, and that’s all you should do. Who knows what’s going to happen, what goes wrong? Who knows if there was a spike in (Covid-19) cases that suddenly we’re told to back off, or if the weather goes crazy or something else happens, so let’s not pack it up so much that we can’t afford no breathing space.”

The Secretary promised a full review of the club fixtures calendar after Week 6, just to see how everything is moving along and if there would be any adjustments that needed to be made or could be made at that juncture.

While nothing was decided on Monday night, there was a strong sense that not much would change from the draft plan issued the previous week. While some delegates suggested the extra two weekend (in July) could surely mean either more games or tweaks in certain competition formats, Mr Twiss said the reality was that Kerry were only gaining one extra weekend. He said that Kerry’s initial fixtures plan extended over 12 weeks instead of the 11 weeks subsequently allotted by Croke park, therefore the GAA’s new allowance of 13 weekends meant just one extra for Kerry.

(No delegate picked up on the fact that if Kerry are still happy to run their club programme up to and including October 17/18, then they would, in fact, be gaining those two extra July weekends. That begs the question as to whether or not Kerry pull their whole schedule back a week to start on the weekend of July 25/26 and run 12 weeks to the weekend of October 10 and 11, thereby avoiding an overlap between club and inter-county fixtures on the third weekend of October? That would still allow clubs sufficient time up to July 25 for training and preparation.)

With regard to the many requests for extra games, competitions, etc, the sense one got was that the Secretary was wary about “overloading the system” and opting for things such as quarter-finals in the football club championships, a Christy Ring Cup format in the SHC, or a back-door system in the County SFC.

The prevailing sense from Peter Twiss was, as he said himself, to practice a bit of restraint and for cool heads to prevail.

Yes, now that our football and hurling fields are open again and hundreds of young men are back kicking and pucking ball, the instinct is to get them out as much as possible and give them games, games and more games. But, as Oscar Wilde said, ‘everything in moderation, including moderation’.

Much wants more and loses all is another truism that easily applies here.

We’ve arrived at a stage where we have football and hurling to look forward to. Let’s take our points, the goals will come in time.