I appreciate its because of a convoluted Divisional structure, but there is absolutely no certainty in Tipp this year as to when Club Championshipâs start. All depends on how far Tipp go.
A certain cohort of Club Players like the split season alright, particularly older ones who are married and have children.
They are usually answerable to their Life Partners (cc @Bandage), who are keen to plan Holidays/Weekends away etc. These players are also under pressure to spend a certain quota of Sundays each year at playgrounds or looking at Camels/Giraffes with the kids in Fota Island or somewhere. Having a âdefined Club Windowâ from Mid July onwards kind of suits these players as they build up their brownie points early in the year but theyâll still end up missing one important game anyway in July/early August because of a wedding or something.
A lot of younger club players would prefer to be in America/Ibiza/Lollapooza/Galway in late July/early August instead of being at home so theyâd rather the old system of a few games in late April/early May and be back for the serious business from approx Aug 25th onwards.
Lookit - all fine and dandy for you as you pursue the Holy Grail - weâre struggling to keep clubs and clubmen interested - the current intercounty system/panacea is a crock of shite.
These current competitions are a load of bollocks - a multiplicity of meaningless games to eliminate the misfortunate lowest three - all with the goal of giving teams a few extra meaningful games.
Championship football/hurling should be what it says - Championship - Knockout - Kill or be Killed.
Thereâs a plethora of scuttery Spring competitions to test out the inevitable intercounty aspirants that crop up via websites and forum boards. Championship should mean what it says - the short road to No.1.
It makes no sense to have clubs back training in January for a game or two in April that could define their season.
There was huge differences in how each county used the April for clubs. Some counties completely took the biscuit and played zero or one championship game then headed off for a 4 week pre season consisting of gym, challenge games and 4 days in Portugal on warm weather training camps.
5 weekends and 24 matches devoted exclusively from mid May to mid June to the process of reducing 16 to 12 in the Football Championship, most likely the elimination of Clare, Louth, Westmeath and Sligo. Youâre having lottery penalty shoot outs in the Ulster Football Final and split season zealots bleating on about fixture congestion and not enough weekends in the calendar to accommodate a crock of shit like that.
The FORMAT and the SPLIT SEASON do go hand in hand. You couldnt justify a split season without populating it with endless round robins.
You couldnt have County teams lying idle for more than a fortnight in a split season without massive calls for them to be released back to their clubs. The reason there used to be three or four week gaps between games was so club activity could proceed.