The end of the season is not the end of the world

FINALLY a player says what the participants in this year’s Championship are thinking. There has been so much carping from the sidelines about the split season and the earlier inter-county wrap date involving July All-Ireland finals that it took Westmeath senior hurler Tommy Doyle to remind the GAA world what it was all about.

No, he wasn’t depressed about being out of the Championship ‘and it only May’. In fact, a group of the players are looking forward to a trip to Ibiza. Letting their hair down, kicking back and enjoying the sunshine before the club championship starts in earnest.

It’s the better balance on which the whole split season was introduced.

And he explained, in an interview with the42, that he was speaking on behalf of the dressing room.

‘From our squad’s perspective, I haven’t heard anyone giving out about it. I actually get the opportunity to play a club challenge game now. We have a few lads going on holiday to Ibiza. They can enjoy their lives as an inter-county hurler and as human beings.

‘The calendar this year was intense at times but if it is managed right, it works. Players want more games. We are training since December. Do they want us playing all year round? You need a balance.

‘The split season gives us an opportunity to do that. I was asked Sunday, “Are you disappointed you’re finished now?” We won a Keogh Cup. We won our league, we stayed up. What more do you want?

‘If we finished third and went into a quarter-final that would’ve been massive but we didn’t. We enjoyed our season.’

And now a group of the players will enjoy a summer holiday. And then go at it again in summer weather for their clubs.

The true judge of whether the split season has worked in its entirety will only come at year’s end.

But then, as of now, it’s worth asking the players themselves what they think.