TIME TO ADDRESS AWFUL IMBALANCE
I MUST admit I’m not in tip-top form for writing a column or doing pretty much anything at the moment as I’ve just returned from a week-long holiday in lovely Italy and have eyelids heavier than a set of suitcases brimful of tacky souvenirs.
Sports viewing took very much a back seat to family activities over the past seven days, although I did manage to catch up with the weekend’s G.A.A. happenings by tuning into The Sunday Game after my return to these more temperate shores.
Unsurprisingly not much has changed in the world of Gaelic games during my all too brief sojourn; the hurling championship is continuing to churn out nail-biting mini classics, while, in the main, the football is a mixture of one-sided maulings and negative bore-fests.
That said, that generalisation doesn’t always ring true, with some of the lesser lights in football going toe to toe in the good old fashioned manner and producing the odd entertaining tussle, while hurling bosses seem to be generally immune to criticism for deploying negative tactics.
There’s no doubting that the new round-robin format in hurling is producing a welter of excitement, but the system certainly needs to be tweaked for next year, with teams like Tipperary and Wexford, who were asked to play for four weekends on the trot, clearly running out of steam after a trying schedule.
Tackling the general malaise that is sucking the lifeblood out of Gaelic football at present is an altogether more difficult proposition though.
The likes of Wicklow and Waterford managed to end long barren spells by eking out victories in this year’s championship, and it’s obvious how much those rare and precious wins mean to unheralded and struggling sides.
However, a victory once in a blue moon isn’t enough to keep players interested and to get youngsters dreaming of pulling on the jersey, not to mention encouraging supporters to spend their hard-earned cash to squeeze through the turnstiles.
If teams like Waterford were playing other counties in and around their own level in the championship with more regularity they wouldn’t have to wait seven years to celebrate a single victory with the sort of gusto befitting of actually lifting silverware.
Smaller counties like Carlow and Longford may have had their days in the sun as they saw off Kildare and Meath respectively, but in reality it’s as much about how far those one-time big guns have fallen as it is about any sort of rising of the minnows.
Laois are going about their business quite nicely this summer, but we all know that they’ll be brought crashing back to earth by the Dublin juggernaut in the Leinster final.
Many die-hards will decry any mention of a tiered system, pointing to Carlow and Longford as examples of what joy a championship win can bring to supporters. What’s rare is wonderful and all that malarkey. However, there’s no denying that the frustrating and humiliating days will far outweigh the joyous ones and something has to be done as the game is dying on its feet.
As the championship comes to a climax in late July and August with more competitiveness and quality it’s easy to forget the dark days of early summer, where heartless hidings and below-par contests are commonplace.
The saddest thing is when teams are eliminated from the All-Ireland series they have to wait until next year for another inter-county outing, lying idle for months after putting in the same hard slog in training as the more successful outfits.
There is a serious imbalance between the have and have nots and that yawning crevice will continue to widen unless something is done soon to address the worrying situation.
At club level the Senior, Intermediate and Junior grades work well, just ask any team that win a county title how much they value it.
It keeps players involved for longer and gives them something to aim for. More game time at inter-county level can surely only be good for all involved.
A realistic chance of winning a lower grade competition, and with it promotion to a higher level, may help struggling counties to gradually become more competitive.
Lord knows suffering unmerciful beatings against the big boys is doing nobody any favours.
The heavy defeats and generally poor football on display at the moment is certainly no use to anyone; a bit like some of the tat lurking at the bottom of my unpacked suitcase.
Jamie Kelly (St. Peter’s FC), Evan Moran (Newtown United), Nathan Watters (Glencormac United), Danny Byrne (Ashford Rovers).
Overall Manager of the Year: Gary Kelly/Trevor O’Brien (Newtown United), Clifton Conyard/
Leon Murphy (Ashford Rovers), Ryan Cahill/Daragh Keenan (Avonmore FC), Sammy Roche (Arklow United).