Wilson kicks off strongly
Secretary’s opening address
NEW CCC fixtures committee secretary Paul Wilson made a strong opening address to club delegates in Ballinakill at the fixtures meeting last week.
After going through the recommendations from the fixtures forum meeting late last year and giving an outline of when leagues and championships will be getting underway, Wilson said that when the fixtures list was finalised there would be very little room for manoevre.
‘First off, our strategic goal is to maximise the number of games for players, meaningful games for players, so we’re trying to get as many games for as many players as possible, no matter what the grade,’ he began.
‘The fixtures forum, the big points that came out of that was that everybody liked the fact that there was certainty of dates for league and championship. The league finishing before championship was a big plus, and dual players having alternative weeks worked well.
‘What could have worked better? Get rid of the cup competition. Double round of the league (football) for Division 1 and 1A. If we go to the same one as last year, that you keep your points at the split point. Communication from the CCC, getting responses was difficult last year.
‘More flexibility around changing games during the year. This completely contradicts the certainty on dates.
‘All championship finals and semi-finals to be played at the weekend – that is the case. I have put that into the fixtures programme; if you’re Junior ‘C’ you’ll be playing your semi-final on a weekend and Senior, no matter what grade.
‘Two rounds of hurling for the league, that hasn’t been possible to accommodate.
‘Division 4 to start earlier – that’s not possible because we don’t have the light. We have to wait for mid-April and even at that we’re under pressure to start at 7pm.
‘Some key facts: When did the adult league start? 2017: March, 2018: February. We’re proposing February 10 and we’re proposing home and away for Division 1 and 1A. February 10 is when Division 1 and 1A will start, February 17 is when Division 2 and 3 will start.
‘Why are we starting that early? There’s a number of reasons for staring that early. Number one is that we have a massive fixtures programme to fit in. We don’t have a single free weekend between February 7 until October 20, it’s a full fixtures list. We need to start early.
‘Last year it ended in July, the football league. It’s going to end in June this year. The plan is that the league will be done and dusted by, the last match I think is around the 19th, the final is on the 25th, and then championship starts in football on 6th and 7th of July.
‘The hurling league is starting in March this year and we’re aiming to have it finished in June again. When you look at the meaningful games in football.
‘With what we’ve scheduled here, we’re looking at 19 games for the Senior football teams, that they’re guaranteed that, that’s 14 league matches and five championship. Intermediate is 16, Junior ‘A’ 16, Junior ‘B’ looking like 15, Junior ‘C‘, I’ll have to come back to you on that, we’ve had a number of teams who have affiliated that we weren’t expected so it’s up in the air whether we are going to have a double round or not.
‘Worst case scenario we’re still looking at 15 matches for a Junior ‘C’ team, so it’s still a very full fixtures programme for everybody.
‘Key considerations: Division 1 and 1A. We’re recommending as per the fixtures review that we go with home and away and we star on the weekend of February 9/10. League final, extra-time will result on the night.
‘We need that to be in place, it’s not something that we need to keep going on forever and ever. We want to get it done and dusted and played.
The Division 4 structure has changed slightly. There was a Junior sub-committee that came with proposals and we tried to take on as many of those proposals as possible. So, theres now two Division 4s, a north east and south west division, and you have a Division 5 which is almost exclusively Junior ‘C’ teams. We’ll talk about that in more details later.
‘One of the big things is that approved postponements will be as per regulation. What we’re proposing is that if there is an unfortunate death or something that is beyond the control of anybody, it (the game) must be played by the following Tuesday night, or, with the consent of the two clubs, you can play before that date, but I must receive it in writing that the two clubs have agreed to that.
‘Now, I’m going to be sending out a detailed fixture list to people. You’ll have one week to go through that. It is so, so important, because I don’t think last year that enough attention was paid to that and people realised the repercussions if they didn’t pay attention to that.
‘I’ll be sending out a ful fixtures programme to everyone within the next 10 days, you’ll have a week to come back to observations, and we’ll have another meeting then to nail down all the fixtures.
That will be it. After that there will be very few changes. Why? Because people want certainty.
‘People are going to work their holidays around them, their work schedules, their family life, they don’t want changes. So, unless it’s a proper, genuine reason, it will not be facilitated, I’m telling you here and now, make no bones about it, telling you straight up.
Paul Wilson then explained to delegates what had been discussed with the hurling clubs prior to the football clubs arriving in Ballinakill.
He informed them that they would have to play some league games without county players but that the CCC had tried their best to get as many games in the timeframe where they would have access to those county players. He said that any replays would have to be played mid-week as there was no room in the schedule.
‘Division 4 and 5 start on April 18.
‘May starts to really get busy. June is a full schedule.
‘July, championship stars, football, July 6 and 7, the football starts. I’ve tried to keep Division 4 and 5 playing consistently, and then give them a two-week break until the championship. So, they’re championship starts on July 25 for Junior ‘C’, Junior ‘B’ starts in the first weekend of August.
‘Intermediate football starts the same weekend as the Senior.
‘Junior ‘A’ is scheduled to start around the first weekend in July.