Why are GPA so quiet on unfair fixture schedule?

Westmeath and Leitrim had four games in 21 days, now they face a long wait

What did Dessie Dolan say to the Westmeath players after the defeat by Wicklow last Sunday? Training next week as usual? Maybe not.

The plan was geared towards a Leinster quarter-final clash with Kildare this Sunday, but Wicklow shredded that one.

Oisín McConville’s squad now head for the Lilywhite test, hoping to improve considerably on last year when they lost by 10 points.

And Westmeath? They have either a five or six-week break before their next game. They don’t even know what competition it will be: Tailteann Cup or All-Ireland. That depends on who reaches provincial finals, specifically whether more than one Division 3 or 4 county gets there.

One of Clare or Waterford, who meet in a Munster semi-final, will definitely qualify for the Sam Maguire 16. Down have an outside chance in Ulster; the same goes for Sligo in Connacht and Kildare’s prospects of reaching the Leinster final look a lot brighter now.

If any of the latter trio – or, indeed, some other Division 3 or 4 team – reach a provincial final, Westmeath will be headed for the Tailteann Cup. They did well enough in last year’s All-Ireland round-robin and followed up by winning Division 3 this year but are now reliant on others to provide them with a top-16 place.

They stand as hapless victims of the utterly ridiculous All-Ireland format. They had their fourth game in 21 days last Sunday, a squeezed schedule which would have tightened to five in 28 days if they had beaten Wicklow.

Reflect on that. Four games between March 17 and April 7, followed by a five-week wait (if it’s Tailteann Cup) or six weeks if it’s All-Ireland.

Leitrim had the same overcrowded schedule, heading straight from three successive league weekends into Connacht action.

Outsider

Imagine trying to explain that scheduling to an outsider. Eight league games in just over two months, four games in 21 days, no idea whether their next game is five or six weeks away and no certainty as to what competition they are entering.

The other counties eliminated from the provincials last weekend know where they’re headed but still face a long wait. All will be in the Tailteann Cup except Monaghan, who won’t be in action again until the weekend of May 18/19.

How does Vinny Corey structure training for the intervening period?

Does he release the squad for a few weeks or keep them slogging on? As he contemplated that last Sunday night, Mickey Harte, Jim McGuinness and Jack O’Connor were still two weeks away from sending Derry, Donegal and Kerry out for a first championship game.

There have been suggestions to flip the season by playing the provincial championships first, followed by the league. That would leave no ambiguity about who had qualified for the Sam Maguire 16 through the provincial route, but it would also further devalue the league for many counties.

The source of the problem is obvious. Retaining the provincials as the championship’s starting point and insisting that the eight finalists qualify for the Sam Maguire 16 is utterly illogical. The imbalances – numerically and in standards – across the four provinces are so great they distort everything.

And still, they’re persisted with. Dublin haven’t had a testing Leinster game for years, but despite that, they have the benefit of playing in Croke Park almost all the time. In what other sport would the best team be given home advantage so regularly?

In Munster, Kerry’s dominance has never been as pronounced. Their only defeat since 2012 was against Cork amid the volatility of the 2020 Covid-disrupted season. Connacht have three serious contenders and Ulster even more, but that’s not enough to compensate for the dysfunction in Leinster and Munster.

And if all that wasn’t bad enough, the season is squeezed into seven months, with some counties going six weeks without a game between early April and mid-May.

Has the GPA nothing to say about all this? How can they stand by and watch Westmeath play four games in 21 days, followed by an idle five or six weeks? Or watch Monaghan heading into their long wait just as some others who had just returned from warm-weather training were two weeks out from their first provincial action.

Isn’t protecting player interests the GPA’s main duty? It should be as much about fixtures as finance, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. The silence is revealing.

‘Imbalances in the four provinces are so great that they distort everything’