John Fogarty
ULSTER GAA officials voted with their feet against Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Croke Park. Although they were always going to be more sensitive to the monarch’s trip to Headquarters than anyone else, it did nothing to dissuade the long-held viewpoint they’re a stubborn bunch.
Their opposition to Rule 21 being eradicated, their lobby against the amendment of Rule 42... they are by far the most traditional of the four provinces and yet the most forward-thinking. The sophisticated structures and incredible work ethic of the Ulster Council are the envy of everyone else.
But they remain steadfast on a number of issues, the date of their provincial senior football final being one of them. It has to be, it must be the third weekend in July.
Croke Park have asked them a number of times about bringing it forward so as to ensure the losers get at least a 13 day break, as used to be the rule, before their All-Ireland qualifier.
But Ulster have not relented and so there is the unfortunate situation of their second best team having to play six or seven days after losing their provincial final.
Not since 2007 have the Ulster runners-up won through to the All-Ireland quarter-finals and even then Monaghan had the guts of two weeks to recover because the Division 4 teams didn’t play in the qualifiers.
In an interview with the Irish Examiner, Seamus Woods, a Tyrone man, has raised the issue of the All-Ireland championship being condensed.
“Does it really take 19 weekends from the third weekend in May to the penultimate Sunday in September to conduct 2 parallel championships, each with 34 competing teams and a maximum of 1,000 players?” he asks.
“Does this take sufficient account of our 2,500 clubs which cater for about 100,000 adult players?”
Rhetorical questions don’t come much sharper than those. But will anybody listen?
Ulster, like the other three provinces, are so protective about their competition that any suggestion to alter it would be fought off vigorously.
But Woods’ remarks are spot-on and have to be seriously considered. The ridiculous length of the Connacht championship, the smallest football campaign which starts on May 1 and finishes on July 17 (11 weeks for six games), sticks out like a sore thumb.
Connacht secretary John Prenty recently defended the early start to the competition so as for the New York trip not to clash with students’ examinations but surely it could be moved forward a few weeks.
This weekend, we have Munster football quarter-finals. The semis will be staged in two weeks’ time but then there is a four-week break to the final. If, as expected, it is a Kerry v Cork final the game will well worth a build-up but having to wait a month is too long – for the teams as much as the supporters. A lot of momentum, both for the competition and the players, is lost.
And that’s not to mention a repeated four-week break for the winners ahead of an All-Ireland quarter-final. Kerry last year failed to bridge that gap and were caught out by Down but if they’re looking to point the blame at anyone aside from themselves it’s the provinces and their insistence on the current time frames.
As the championship is the main event for us in the GAA media, we often think it is the be-all and end-all. The more of it, the better, we say. But we can neglect the impact it has on the club scene. While it may be the money-maker it is but the icing on the cake.
Asking the provinces to tighten up their championships for the benefit of the clubs – and everyone else come to think of it – is a considerably more rational and reasonable than suggesting they do away with them altogether.
It’s not going to hit the councils in the pocket. The one thing sports fans prefer is predictability and regularity in their fixtures. It’s one of the reasons why the Champions League and Heineken Cup are so successful. Patrons can plan around their fixtures with relative ease.
If there’s a consistent “beat” of games, say an Ulster and Leinster football clash every weekend (with two weeks before the final) and a Connacht and Munster SFC match every second one, supporters would be so familiar with the scheduling and that will breed content.
The provincial championships hold a dear place in GAA hearts. As Ger Loughnane said this week, the Munster hurling championship is almost sacred. Without it, the argument could be made the GAA summer wouldn’t start.
Still, it shouldn’t take six weeks for its four games to be played. The reintroduction of replays for all provincial championships may militate against that point – and it’s all but certain to cause the CCCC a major headache over the next ten weeks – but the sooner that measure is reversed the better.
However, when Congress elects to make such mindboggling decisions as bringing them back thus potentially clogging the first half of the championship campaign (and, bizarrely, not returning the 13-day rule for provincial runners-up) one wonders just how much counties recognise what is best for their organisation as a whole.
As Woods says: “The reintroduction of replays increases the challenge for individual counties to ensure that inter-county activity does not absorb a disproportionate share of the summer months, and that a meaningful level of club activity can continue.”
Woods’ remark that self-interest is the primary motive behind suggestions the CCCC take their lead from The Sunday Game could also be applied to fixtures. The provinces will do what the provinces feel is right for themselves.
But if that is the case, can he expect anyone to heed his call?
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/aNvI3mlcj3A/post.aspx
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