Hard to know if we’re coming or going with fixtures chaos

THE realities of managing at club level are being brought home to me on a weekly basis.

We won our first round intermediate championship match last weekend and, you can call this arrogance if you wish, we had scratched next weekend as a likely date for our second outing because we expected Kerry’s Under 21s to be involved in the All-Ireland final.

It was back on after Galway cleared that matter up for us, but as we were set to go, it was off again because a number of the Ardfert players tog out with the Kerry hurlers in the round robin phase of the Leinster Championship.

But the real fun will only begin if we can find a way past Ardfert – refixed for the Monday of the May bank holiday weekend – when we will have no idea when our next championship match will take place.

It will depend on whether Kerry go through the front door in the Championship or take the back one. It will also depend on how our divisional team – West Kerry – progress in the county championship as well as how the divisional representatives of whatever team we’re drawn against also fare.

Confused? I’m the joint manager and my head is already reeling, while fielding queries from players as to what would be a ‘safe time’ to go on holidays.

I have no answer for that and the players are left in the dark.

Meanwhile, it becomes impossible to taper your team’s preparations for a championship game when you have no idea what deadline you are aiming for.

I read a statement from the Club Players’ Association this week saying they had completely ‘underestimated’ the fixtures crisis.

I get where they are coming from, which is why we need to have a defined programme in place as soon as possible – one which also included a defined mid-summer closed window for players – to bring order to the chaos.