No regard for the welfare of players in our club fixtures

IT’S EARLY August but the clubs are already feeling the storm of the inter-county season. We have a club championship started in April, then the summer break, and now the championship proper with a fixtures schedule that professional players would not accept, let alone a group of amateurs.

Based on what has already happened this year, it seems as if the mesmerising set of fixtures is about to continue.

One can only hope that the administrators fixing games take the players and the clubs more into consideration, rather than having their eyes set on the final Sunday of October, when the G.A.A. management and the C.C.C.C. will endevour to have all finals completed in order to meet their end of year balance sheet.

Yes, finances will always have an important role to play in fixtures, even down to club level, with less and less consideration given to players.

Given that the championships are only getting up and running people are asking - why the panic? Pitches will be of the same quality in November as October, so why pile all these games on the ordinary club player in the space of a handful of months? Well, the end of year finances form an important part of the top table’s thinking.

Club players are being forced to undertake a fixtures programme that flies in the face of player welfare.

Take for instance the Oulart-The Ballagh and Ferns St. Aidan’s Pettitt’s Senior hurling championship game being allotted three different venues in the space of a few days.

The game was originally fixed for Innovate Wexford Park, then for some strange reason transferred to St. Patrick’s Park, before Monamolin was eventually decided upon. Then we have the issue of players who figured with the Wexford Under-21 team being forced to play three games in the space of seven to eight days.

During my time when covering County Board meetings, one became frustrated listening from meeting to meeting about the issue of player welfare which was subsequently highlighted through the local media.

Now that the local media are no longer allowed the privilege of keeping the public informed, player welfare has been thrown out the window.

Players will always want to play as many games as possible but it’s up to Wexford C.C.C.C., the clubs and managers to ensure that the workload is evened out. Short-term annoyance and frustration may result, but long-term benefit is surely the promise for everyone involved.

Perhaps a first possible move would be for Wexford G.A.A. to have a financial year for the end of December rather than October, which would give leeway to the clubs and players, and still have the full schedule of county finals included in their accounts.

They would still receive that little clap on the back from delegates, with the majority of those attending having little or no interest in the finances and the financial welfare of the county.

Fixtures are correctly identified as the biggest issue facing a dual county such as Wexford.

This is where the county should be focusing its energy, finding a fixtures strategy for both under-age and adult which can so easily be arrived at.

There needs to be a focus on a complete fixtures plan, reducing the timeframe between inter-county games, and utilising the available space during the peak summer months.

Fixture makers are sitting down, and piling the fixtures on clubs and players, with little or no guidelines. But given the effort required to have club players prepared for championship, clubs are already being severely hit, with absentees a particular blight on their final team selection.

With holiday schedules already planned around the inter-county fixture schedule, and the player exodus to America and beyond, clubs are being left without key players for games that could very well decide their status, let alone their title credentials.

And this is not taking into consideration players suffering from fatigue and injury returning to their clubs.

One would feel for the clubs and players. This week they are being asked to play hurling and football over a seven-day period. This is surely not the G.A.A’s way of accommodating players and clubs.

As it stands the club is being eroded, particularly the dual club.