CPA - Club Players Association

They recognised that they needed 14 weeks to play club championships. They would get 10 from August 1st to mid October, but needed to get 4 more so just decided they should be in April. Its brainless stuff and has made things far worse for clubs and players.

I doubt April was their idea. Its a compromise, and a poor enough one.
What should happen is the the ccccc should mandate that the club championships are run off in their entirety in the calender year (id have the all Ireland club finals at Halloween), and that senior IC managers can not, at any time, stop a player from playing for his club.
They should get rid of the layge at IC level completely, and restructure the championship to run fairly seamlessly June July and August.
Thatā€™s what I think anyway.
Clubs have forgotten the enjoyment of taking part, and too many IC managers have become dictators, fearful for their position.

Realistically I get the feeling that the club month will probably be done away with and the calendar almost split in two with the Intercounty season wrapped up by the August bank holiday weekend and clubs getting the second half of the year with club month of April being done away with.

No it was their idea alright, along with playing all competitions in the calendar year (happening this year I think) and a 2 tier intercounty championship (happening this year). They have a suitably awful website with the documents if you want to read more on it


The fact it includes a section where you can ā€œShare your Horror Storyā€ shows they have a well-balanced approach to sport and the problems within the GAA!
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The solution is to stop IC players playing with their clubs, but no one wants that. All other solutions are imperfect unfortunately

I think the days of IC players playing duel codes for their club while the county side are still in the championship is something which may well have to be looked at.

As tough as that is on the clubs involved it is a constraint which can be easily enough removed. A football championship should not be held up due to a county hurler and vise versa.

Ya the problem then though is do fellas playing with weaker codes in counties or weaker counties in general just not bother.

Say you were a Wicklow hurler and a decent senior club footballer. Would you be quicker to give up the club football or the Wicklow Hurling?

In fairness, the tiered hurling championship isnā€™t a huge issue given that most sides are out of the championship by early June.

Thatā€™s just life though. I donā€™t think senior IC players should be stopped playing club. I think some self centred ego maniac dissuading them. In any way from playing club should be stopped.
I havenā€™t the energy to wade through the CPA docs, but their intentions are good Imo, and they should be supported far more than the GPA, which is an exclusive and selfish organisation.

Itā€™s dual mate, except in East County galway and Laois.

jewel in Laois.

All competitions should absolutely be played in the calendar year. Itā€™s just stupid any other way. Itā€™s not the epl (thank God)

I wasnā€™t referring to the pronunciation

Duel suggests some honour in the showdown.

True enough :joy:

Iā€™m not sure they should, the only way to do it is by playing games every weekend or every 2nd weekend, with no opportunity for lads to overcome small injuries or even celebrate success. I guarantee there will be lads playing in All-Ireland finals next weekend, the biggest game of their lives, with sprains and strains picked up last weekend that would be fully cleared up with a week or 2 more rest and all just to beat a calendar deadline. Gweedore won Ulster last year and went on a massive rip over the Christmas to celebrate it knowing they had a few weeks then to prepare for an All-Ireland semifinal. The alternative is to win your province and hit the icebaths in preparation for another game the following week.
Its only a very tiny number of players who play in November and December. I went to see Antrim footballers play last night, I can confirm that as a squad they are at far greater risk of gout than burnout.

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Itā€™s a calender deadline anyway. By that token, you might as well have the championship every other year. Iā€™d wager more injuries happen in training, which is dragged out endlessly instead of a defined season.
Iā€™d also add that if they played it off before Christmas, everyone could relax and enjoy three months off including Christmas.
Have you ever trained for high ish level sport? Itā€™s hard. The matches are a welcome break sometimes

As long as TFK is in existence then @Big_Dan_Campbell will call it duel and Iā€™m fine with that

You rarely get tired or injured standing on the sideline

*calendar
The problem with giving clubs like Slaughtneil 3 months off is that you are then giving Derry clubs knocked out in the first round of the championship 6 months off. After winning their county finals in 2017 Slaughtneil played a further 9 games between hurling and football. Some clubs in Derry were finished 5 weeks before Slaughtneil even played the county final. There is no clean solution to this, and any solution there may be is to be found at local level rather than national level. As you pointed out the main problem is county managers but itā€™s the clubs themselves who appoint these fellas.