The GAA officials at the coalface of implementing provincial championships in the new split season remain largely in favour of the new calendar footprint.
Although early conclusion of the intercounty All-Irelands in July has created more time for county championships, there has been little alteration to the running time of the competitions.
Most county finals continue to take place in October but provincial councils still have to complete their club championships in time for All-Ireland semi-finals, which take place in hurling before Christmas.
There are two interlinking issues: the compression of the football season in particular and the overall calendar pressures.
The GAA is set to address the first by eliminating the All-Ireland group stages with their generous survival rates in favour of knockout rounds, but the concept of July All-Irelands and expanded club schedules is not certain to be changed, as there is significant support for the now status quo.
The CEOs of the four provincial councils are by and large happy with the new calendar’s rebalancing of club and county schedules. Only Brian McEvoy in Ulster would adjust the season to allow additional weeks in August.
Munster’s Kieran Leddy is forthright in his support.
“The split season was brought in to give clubs a proper, uninterrupted season. It’s one of the most club-centred decisions the GAA has ever made and although I am only speaking from a Munster perspective, that intention has definitely delivered.”
His Connacht counterpart John Prenty says that the focus on the running of county championships is misleading.
“The benefit is not running county championships off more quickly. In my opinion it’s that clubs have everyone back and rested and not wrecked after the intercounty season. I’m involved with my own club, Ballyhaunis and we’re very happy with how it’s worked out. We get both club players and county players for a few league games and then for championship preparation.”
McEvoy believes that there have been arguments on both sides.
“It’s a curate’s egg – good in parts. The big thing is the certainty. You know when your league games and championship games are, in advance.”
He says that the downsides are pressure on volunteers, match stewards et cetera, who go from a high-intensity intercounty schedule, more or less immediately into their local club activity.
“Another downside is that nobody goes to league games anymore because no county players are playing, as it runs parallel with the end of the intercounty championship. That’s a loss of revenue.”
Leinster’s Michael Reynolds says that whereas many see the benefit in an extra week or two for the intercounty season, few are bringing forward suggestions as to how that can be accommodated.
“Everyone talks about it being too condensed but nobody’s coming up with alternatives. The biggest problem for me is that we all want change but none of us is willing to make any concessions to facilitate that change.
“It’s the same at club level. They all want round robins, back door, front door, side door despite the climate getting wetter and there still being only 52 weeks in the year.
“Overall, the big winners in this are the players. There are no rows with county managers over whether you’re available to your club or not. That to me is very important.”
Brian McEvoy is keen to restore the replay function for provincial finals and to be fair, the province’s last three finals would have gone to replays with the consequent financial benefit had old protocols applied.
“To be honest – and I know a dual county would disagree – I do think we could extend the intercounty season by another three weeks, which would free up a bit more space without impacting too much,” he says.
Leddy however is of the view that any slippage in August would create havoc in Munster, which shares with Leinster a large dual profile amongst its clubs.
“The problem with October is that the evening light has gone and there aren’t the floodlit venues because a lot of clubs don’t have lights capable of playing matches. Pitches get softer – all that kind of stuff. So, you have to play the majority of your championship games in that August-September window. By October you really need to be down to the knockout parts, quarter-finals and on. That’s the way it is in Munster.”
He also argues that the split season accommodates what makes the GAA unique.
“Take Armagh. All of those players are back now, playing club football and the same with the Cork and Clare hurlers and so on. So, we have fixture constraints that other sports just don’t have because they separate the elite from the grass roots.
“We don’t do that and I don’t think anyone wants to see that ever happen. Why have we ended up here? We’ve ended up here because what we had wasn’t working and it certainly wouldn’t work now with the expansion of the games programme on both sides.”
