Hurling’s early start

Championship game in April to avoid midweek games

THE new CCC fixtures committee and the hurling clubs of Wicklow had a frank and robust exchange at the special meeting in Ballinakill last week with news that the Senior hurling championship will have an early round in April being one of the major developments.

Opening the meeting, CCC fixtures committee Chairman Mick Hagan said that they were going to be sticking with the fixtures plan from the previous year albeit with one or two changes because it apeared to have worked so well.

‘This time last year all the clubs in the county came here and there was a recommendation from the powers that be in Leinster. What happened then was, we accepted it and it worked very well regarding rules and regulations and postponements and you name it. Every competition worked very well. Unfortunately, from a dual point of view it was helter skelter, week in, week out.

‘This year, myself and Paul (Wilson), as Chairman and secretary, and the committee of Jackie Napier, Pat Dunne, Alan Nolan, Conor Doyle and Martin Coleman, it’s our intention for the year ahead, that seeing as it worked so well last year, that we will have to implement last year’s programme, that’s what we hope to. There will be a couple of minor adjustments to it that we will outline later on.

‘Senior hurling championship, we have seven teams, and we have enough to play it on the same format as last year. And don’t forget, each club has to name their 18 players for the grade.

‘Last year we had quarter-finals, the top two teams in the championship were in the semi-finals and the other four were in the quarter-finals. Are we happy enough to stick to that format again.’ he said.

‘Slightly different this year, Mick,’ said Paul Wilson, ‘in that there are seven teams, and one team won’t make the quarter-finals,’ he added.

‘There’s one thing I want to draw your attention to,’ continued Wilson. ‘There’s two pressure points on the calendar and I just want to bring them to your attention to them. One is because there are seven teams that has brought and extra week to the fixtures programme because I need an extra week because there’s an extra team in there, which means a quarter-final will have to take place on a Wednesday night. You could have a hurling match at the weekend and a football match the following weekend. So, if there’s quarter-finals, there’s no space in the fixture calendar bar midweek for that. Clubs need to be aware of that.

‘Is there likely to be a football match the following weekend?’ asked a delegate from the floor.

‘The way it works, it dovetails, so every second week, we’ve worked back from the final and we’ve tried to allow for replays as well, so every second week it’s football, hurling, football, hurling to give dual players a fair chance,’ explained Wilson.

‘The pressure point comes in on 11th September, so, what happens is the weekend before you have Junior ‘A’, Intermediate and Senior football round 4, the weekend after you have Intermediate hurling championship quarter-final and you’ve got the Senior

‘What we’ll probably do is have the Senior hurling on the 7th to give as much of a gap between the match on the 11th, and then the following weekend, the weekend of the 14 and 15th, we’ve got the quarter-finals in the Junior ‘A’, Intermediate and the Senior football championships.

‘You can’t ask players to hurl Saturday, hurl Wednesday and then play a football quarter-final on the following Saturday,’ said a Carnew delegate.

‘That’s the only place said Wilson.

‘Well, are the quarter-finals of the football championship midweek?’

‘No.’

‘But the quarter-finals of the hurling are?’

‘There’s no weekends available, there are literally no weekends available’.

‘But the quarter-finals of the football, there are weekends for that, but not for the hurling?’

‘What’s happened is, there are more weekends given over for hurling than football because you’ve seven rounds for hurling, six rounds for football. So, let’s get it fits,’ the facts straight here. There’s an extra round of hurling there, there’s more rounds for hurling than there is football,’ added Wilson.

‘But you’re asking clubs to play three matches .... ’

‘What I proposed initially was, I proposed that was no quarter-final (of the hurling) if I’m being honest. I proposed that four clubs went to the semi-finals and there was no quarter-final. And we’ve decided that quarter-finals would be wanted within the group, so it was facilitated by putting it midweek. That’s the only time that’s available. There’s no other weekend,’ added the CCC fixtures group secretary.

A Glenealy delegate inquired as to whether there was to be an early round or two of Senior hurling championship games in April.

‘No. I’ll just start at the back end. There are two finite dates that we can’t move, which are the Leinster club championship dates. We have to have completed our games by then. I had to build in a weekend for replays in light of what happened this week.

‘The replays are in for the weekend of 19th and 20th (October). The football finals are on October 13, and the hurling final is on October 6. It then dovetails every second week is hurling then football, all the way back to, the football starts on July 7, and the hurling starts at the end of June, I have June 23 for the first match in the Senior hurling. Now, that’s providing, if we are in the Christy Ring Cup final, that takes place on June 22, so, if that happens, we’ll be playing the first round on Wednesday, June 26.

‘Could you go back to what I was asking about April,’ said the Glenealy delegate. ‘Why are we not playing a round or two rounds in April to spread this out? I thought it was decided that clubs would get involved in the championship in April. In Wexford the Senior hurling championship starts in April. I know it’s a different county, but I can’t understand why we can’t get some of these games played in April, get them off the table,’ he added.

Mick Hagan explained that that had been discussed but that the gap between April and July between championship matches would be too big.

‘I think we should be looking at this, having a round in April. That would stop all of this problem, and it gives you a little bit of space,’ said the Glenealy delegate.

‘It wouldn’t give you space. I have the full fixtures programme from February 7, just for the record, there’s not a single weekend,’ said Paul Wilson.

‘There’s not a single weekend in April to play a hurling match?’ ‘No’.

‘I don’t believe that’.

‘I’ll put it up here now and you can have a look at it. You’ve got to remember you’ve county games, you’ve under-20s.’

‘Ok, would the clubs be happy if they played one round (of championship) games in April and then maybe don’t play any more until July? I’m only saying,’ said Mick Hagan.

‘Well, they’ll still have to play in June. If you want your quarter-final on a weekend, we’ll have to start the championship in June. I can’t Tiona and Colman O’Byrne enjoying the Garden County GAA Sports Start Awards night at the Arklow Bay Hotel last Saturday. magic weekends up, lads,’ said Paul Wilson.

‘If the clubs are happy to play a round in April, we won’t have any objection,’ said Mick Hagan.

‘But you will be playing a league match midweek at some stage,’ said Wilson.

‘Playing a league match midweek is a lot different to playing a championship quarter-final,’ said a delegate from the floor.

‘The other squeeze point that I want to bring to your attention is, if both finals go to replays, and I have to present the doomsday scenario because I’m not going to sit here and spoof anyone, if both finals go to replays they are being played on the 19th and 20th (October), one day after the other, there are no other days, unless you plat under floodlights, it’s your call. The other thing you could do is play the hurling replay on the 26th, the day before the Leinster championship, but, again, there could be people involved in the Leinster championship as dual players.

‘Look, it mightn’t happen. If one of the finals is won on the day there’s no problem, but I think it’s only proper order that I bring this to everyone’s attention so nobody gets excited in October,’ he added.

A Bray delegate highlighted how in counties like Dublin they play championship games on Wednesday nights and Saturdays.

‘And that’s not an issue if you have two weeks for football and two for hurling,’ said Carnew’s Tim Balfe. ‘The Sunday to Wednesday to Sunday is not the issue, it’s the Wednesday to Sunday switching codes is the issue,’ he added.

‘In fairness, we’ve went through that as well.

‘That’s not possible. There are so many players on permission to play hurling with various clubs, it’s not possible to play two hurling matches in a row, in fairness,’ said Mick Hagan.

‘I need direction from yourselves so I can finalise the programme,’ said Paul Wilson. ‘Do you want quarter-finals? Because that’s what creates the bottleneck. If you want a quarter-final you’re going to have to have a match in April to facilitate the quarter-final. It’s either midweek or a game in April,’ he said.

A Glenealy delegate said that not have a quarter-final makes games become meaningless if a team suffers two or three defeats in the early rounds.

‘With quarter-finals, it keeps the championship alive,’ added Mick Hagan.

Paul Wilson said that the CCC fixtures committee will spread games out as much as possible so as not to overload teams.

Tim Balfe said that Carnew Emmets would not play a hurling game on a Wednesday and a football game the following Saturday. A Kiltegan delegate said that his club wouldn’t either.

‘Well, ok, that’s another day’s work when it comes to it,’ said Mick Hagan.

‘Go back to the April suggestion, play the round in April,’ said a Kiltegan delegate.

‘Some of the clubs don’t want that, you need agreement from the clubs,’ said Paul Wilson.

‘I can’t understand why we don’t play them in April,’ said the Glenealy delegate.

‘Do you want to have a vote on having one round of championship in April?’ asked Mick Hagan.

This suggestion was proposed and seconded. Bray Emmets proposed a counter proposal which was seconded by St Patrick’s. The vote was taken, and 10 delegates voted in favour and eight voted against so the Dacia Cars Senior Hurling Championship will begin on April 14.

A delegate asked: ‘Is there one of them spring hurling league yokes that never finishes going on this year?

The delegate was informed that there is and that it will start in mid-March.

Another delegate asked a short while later whether the spring hurling league would finish this year. County Chairman Martin Fitzgerald interjected and pointed out that the competition did indeed finish, when Carnew defeated Glenealy in Carnew to lift the trophy.

Following this discussion, the draw for the Senior hurling league took place. Games in this competition will begin on March 10. The draw is as follows: Glenealy v Kiltegan; St Pat’s v Avondale, Éire Óg v Carnew Emmets. Bray are not competing in the Senior hurling league as they take part in leagues in Dublin.

Intermediate hurling league to start on March 23: Arklow Rocks v Glenealy; Kilcoole v Barndarrig; Carnew Emmets v St Pat’s.

There was no decision on the Junior hurling league other than it will start on Wednesday, May 15. The reason for this was that there are doubts as to how many teams are actually going to compete in the Junior hurling championship.

Mick Hagan informed delegates that their county players would be available to the clubs on April 6, 13 and 20.

Victory O’Shaughnessy wondered about who the person was for clubs to contact in light of the difficulties clubs faced in 2018 regarding same.

Delegates were informed that Paul Wilson would be the person to contact.

Wilson said that clubs were free to ring him regarding fixtures but that there was very little wriggle room and that for many clubs it will be like running into a brick wall.

SHC: Avondale, Bray Emmets, Carnew, Éire Óg, Glenealy and St Patrick’s.

IHC: Arklow Rock Parnells, Barndarrig, Carnew, Glenealy, Kilcoole, St Patrick’s

JHC: Arklow Rocks, Avondale, Aughrim, Bray Emmets, Éire Óg, Fergal Ógs (?), Glenealy, Kiltegan, Shillelagh (?).