The split season

Ah look I've no problem with players going to concerts or holidays or whatever they want. It's that some commentators seem to think they are more important than the traditions the gaa have built up over a century. To just discard them is something that majority of gaa people don't agree with.

I'm not calling for a return to September all irelands. Mid August would be a fair compromise imo. Most people agree July is too early.

I actually attend far more club matches than inter County but that doesn't mean I can't see the big picture that the all ireland championships are the biggest show in all of Irish sports. If a county who ate not used to success gets on a run that's what attracts kids to the game, down to the pitch and the cúl camps

And sur if we push it out a few weeks why not push it out further. The issue is the structure of the championship not the time alotted

Lots of students go on J1 visas too, and are away for the summer. Isn't it 90 day sanction to go to north America? But petty to cut off that avenue to youngsters IMHO.

Not the armchair fans you mean...

I'm guessing you've never sat on or been closely associated with a County CCC (i.e. fixtures committee)?

Main reason a club championship might not start until August even if the county side is knocked out in June is because by and large, they're scheduled according to when the county champions are due to enter provincial club championship action.

In Leinster this year, for example, first round of the Senior Football Club Championship will be on the weekend of November 1st/2nd. Now let's say your club championship is based on groups of four (i.e. three group games per team), followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final. You want to play your county final two weeks before the Leinster Championship match, and space all other games out an even two weeks apart. So, here's how it would go:

• Leinster 1st Round: November 1st/2nd
• County Final: October 18th/19th
• County semi-finals: October 4th/5th
• County quarter-finals: September 20th/21st
• Round 3 group game: September 6th/7th
• Round 2 group game: August 23rd/24th
• Round 1 group game: August 9th/10th

Why would you rush to start your club championship in late June or early July, instead of allowing club players the option of a holiday during those months, like "normal" people get to do?

How about swapping the season around?

Club runs from Feb to May. Month of June off. Inter county runs from July to October.

Proper winter break for all.

It is a massive problem if club players knowing that month is free book their holidays in that time only to have their lives interrupted because the county team were knocked out.

And are you going to run the provincial and All-Ireland club championships in that window of February to May? If not, when are you going to run them?

Either way, you'd have the majority of club players out of their championships by April, and nothing substantial to look forward to later in the year. Yes, you could continue to run secondary club competitions (where clubs play without their county players) during the inter-county season later in the year, but who's going to take those competitions any way seriously when the main club action for the year - i.e. the club championships - is already over?

County Leagues like we have in Wexford at this time of year are not exactly ideal and brimming over with competitiveness, but at least the clubs can treat them as warm-ups for the championships to follow, and players can use those games as opportunities to stake a claim for a place on the championship team. Reverse the order in which you run things, and all that changes.

Our club championship structure in Wexford is a different issue from the club calendar.

We operate on a basis of two groups of six in each code and at each grade. So yes, it means clubs are in action for a minimum of 10 weeks in a row if they're a dual (which about 90% of them are). And it could be up to 17 weeks in a row if they get a run to a final in both codes.

But here's the thing. The clubs - guided by their players - consistently and overwhelmingly vote that system back in, year after year. Any motions to move to an alternative system - e.g. four groups of three, or three groups of four - never receive any significant level of support.

I've no issue in general with playing the U20 matches midweek, but in each of the past few years, the All-Ireland Final was still played on a Saturday.

Wonder if playing on a Wednesday night this year is due to the 60-hour rule? Have to admit I'm not familiar with the Louth & Tyrone U20 squads. Do either or both of them include players who could also be playing for the senior sides at the weekends?

Nothing wrong with playing regular round Robin games midweek but an all Ireland final on a Wednesday evening is a disgrace and demeans the prestige of the competition. Why couldn't it have been played as the curtain raiser for one of the all ireland senior championship matches at the weekend?

U20 is now ran as a development grade rather than a high profile competitive grade. For better or worse, that's the way with it and U17 now. In fairness, the GAA are paying for it in gate receipts as these were popular grades back in the day, but that's the direction they have chosen. Hardly fits into the Grab All Association as commonly expounded to us, but midweek games etc. allow for more games for the lads which is what it's really about

I guess the question is, what Sunday's are available to play these games?

I too miss going to a few underage games every year, but nowadays 17 year old lads have several chances through the round Robin games to play for their county, learn the ropes, and peak for the knock out games. Before, minor lads apjld train for months, maybe play a first round championship game, get knocked out and that's it. Same with U20/21. It's better for players, better for their development, and fans, especially armchair fans, lose out a bit.

How many Sundays are available to play these games? We haven't enough weekends to fit in the Senior football and hurling championships, let alone go back to the old minor systems. Most of these lads are now able to play woth their clubs more then a few years ago, when talented kids were training with county panels for months and playing no games at all.

System is not perfect, but I think it's still better then before. We can't be afraid of change and keep harking back to the good old days.

Whenever I hear anyone harp on about the split season, my immediate thought is that they only care for the senior inter-county scene and simply don't give a damn about the clubs.

What's even more impressive is that not one of them complaining about the split season has actually put forward anything resembling a working alternative that means the club access to their players won't be at the whims of the county managers. Not one complainant has put forward anything resembling a viable alternative. They don't have one.

Simply screaming you want things to back to the way they were without offering anything remotely like a plan to do so is just mouthing for the sake of mouthing. And that's all they have, mouthing about nostalgia.

Any statement about extending the inter-county scene into the summer makes no mention of sacrificing time elsewhere in the inter-county season. It's essentially a call to tell the clubs to "fcuk off, we're more important than you so you give up what little you have so we can have more". It's a rotten self-entitled attitude.

And if the inter-county scene wants September All-Ireland's, then let's go back to straight knockout so the clubs have times to play their games. If the inter-county scene isn't willing to make sacrifices, then why should the clubs? At the end of the day its the clubs who facilitate and allow the inter-county scene, not the other way around.

Besides, as is there's January, February, March, April, May, June and half of July, never mind the prep work started in November onwards in most county panels. And unlike the club scene, hurling and football at inter-county doesn't have to facilitate dual players.

If you cant run a season with 5-8 weeks prep work and 6.5 months of playing time allocated to you where hurling and football can be played alongside each other bar 4/5 weekends at the end of the season, while counties balance running hurling and football championships that can't be played on the same weekend due to dual players in around 3/4 months, it says a lot about the mismanagement and set up of the inter-county season.

And even more so about the enormous sense of entitlement of it.