Phony wars particularly grim at this time of year

THE GAA is screaming for people’s attention right now and, even within that, hurling is making a far greater racket than football.

Usually, the Championships would be just getting going at this time of year and while an overlap with the closing weeks of the rugby and soccer seasons was tolerable, we’re now heading towards the provincial finals and the football Championship is being swamped.

It’s probably just as well there are no big football games on this weekend as the Premier League finale would overshadow them, along with the hurling.

And does anyone expect that the Munster and Leinster football finals will distract a great many people from the Champions League and Heineken Champions Cup finals next Saturday?

It’s just as well for the GAA that FIFA, in its wisdom, opted for a winter World Cup in Qatar this year.

Otherwise the peak weeks of the Championship would be competing with the world’s biggest sporting event – and that’s a problem that will raise its head again in the future.

An earlier start is something we’re probably just going to have to get used to – but I would advocate moving the All-ireland finals back into August to give them more breathing space.

Of course, the earlier start to the Championship hasn’t solved any of the historical issues that have dogged the early stages of the competition for years. In fact, it has probably only added to the phoney war feel to proceedings as we wait for the real stuff to kick in.

With the exception of the Ulster Championship, it’s been pretty poor fare so far.

The Mayo-galway game didn’t live up to its billing in Connacht, the Leinster Championship has been as boring as we feared it would be and while Limerick have brought some much-needed variety to the Munster Championship, the quality hasn’t been great overall.

By the time the provincial finals kick in next weekend we’ll be six weeks into the competition and only eight from the end – nearly halfway.

Yet it feels as if little of note has happened as yet, Derry and Limerick’s breakthroughs notwithstanding.

Compare that to the hurling where we’ll have serious Championship contenders dropping out this weekend after a round robin series that has engaged the public despite heavy competition from other codes.

Hurling has dominated the television coverage while football has been marginalised.

The provincial finals may change that as you’d expect that at least two of them will be competitive, with plenty of drama and quality.

Then you’ll have the qualifiers getting underway with lots of big hitters in a streamlined draw as the bottom 16 head for the Tailteann Cup. But there will have been a lot of dross endured just to get to that point.

And while there is a new football structure coming next year, it doesn’t address the wider issues that have haunted the competition for too long – the provincial Championships..

They need to be scrapped to allow for a better balanced competition and the sooner this happens, the better.