Gaa split season,killing Meath football since 2011

Getting rid of the league would presumably bring the championship even earlier into the year?

County finals in mid November and all ireland club finals in mid February i would totally disagree with. Nearly the same as old calendar. All Ireland club finals mid January at latest.

The black card and both marks can fuck off as well.

Have you done much research on this across a broad range of counties or is that just a Tipperary hurling I’m alright jack view of the world and you’re taking a flyer in throwing out a glib comment like that?

I’ve highlighted the situation that has pertained in the Carlow hurling championship this year and @kerry1891 has referred to similar difficulties in the Kerry Hurling Championship.

When I referred to difficulties in Waterford and that there was a farcical 10 week wait between Waterford exiting the championship on 22 May and the start of the club championship on the August Bank Holiday weekend, you hailed this as a great state of affairs that the clubs had unfettered access to players across late May, June and July. That is players that were actually still around.

Over the past two weekends we have seen four finals of the All County Leagues, two in hurling and two in football, and next weekend will see three more football finals and one in hurling. Those remaining will take place over the following two weeks and while the clubs involved have enthusiastically engaged and will do so it would be wrong to presume that the leagues have been an outstanding success.

Competitive finals tend to divert attention from what has preceded them for throughout the leagues the number of walkovers, or games conceded in both hurling and football, exceeded acceptable levels. Clubs should not enter teams in league competitions unless they are certain to have the numbers to fulfil their obligations.

For example, last weekend saw the final rounds of league fixtures in most divisions of the hurling leagues but of the 22 games listed only eleven took place across the divisions with games conceded by teams who were out of contention for final places. In two cases we had concessions which allowed the last weekend’s Division 9 and Division 10 finals to take place with Ballygunner defeating Lismore in the former and Dunhill beating Tramore in the other. That Ballygunner’s third string won a league title by playing just one game, the final, is farcical in itself as they had received walk overs in all of their league games.

Last Friday’s final round game in Division 1 of the hurling league between Lismore and Dungarvan saw Lismore conceding for the second time in the competition and, following on, Dungarvan have conceded tomorrow’s re-fixed clash with Ballygunner, a decision which, depending on last evening’s result of the game between Passage and Roanmore, could decide Mount Sion’s opponents in the Division 1 final.

It is a fact that where championship preparations are concerned most senior clubs play in the leagues because they have to and there are no penalties set out for clubs who give walk overs. Few senior clubs take the competition seriously and would prefer to go their own way in preparing for the championship with games against opposition from outside the county.

Incorporated in the Waterford Rising strategic Plan is a section covering Competition Structures which, we are told, is the remit of a Task Force, “Set up to realise the unique opportunity in scheduling that would be available from 2022 with the split inter-county and club seasons”.

As a matter of priority, the said Task Force should undertake an immediate review of all competition structures in the county and if All County Leagues are to continue they must be made attractive to clubs with meaningful rewards for the victors. At present there is a trophy for the league winners in each division but no medals for the winning teams.

That there are no sponsors for the leagues is unacceptable and serves only to downplay the product. There should be some tangible reward for clubs winning the leagues such as a set of jerseys, hurleys or playing gear of some kind. All sponsorship seems to be directed towards the county teams while clubs face huge expenditure in providing hurleys and sliotars.

The said ‘Task Force’ should now be sitting down with County and Divisional Board officers seeking to come up with meaningful proposals for next year’s competitive club season.

You continually place problems with individual county boards as the problems of the split season. Go to your club’s next AGMs in Waterford and Carlow and raise these as issues

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The scheduling of the All Ireland Championships from mid April to mid July in this new split season model is inevitably going to cause these types of problems within county championships. The dominant code in the county will possibly be okay but the lesser code within the county will be disproportionately affected.

You still standing over this comment or are you retracting it?

Carlow :joy:

I’m standing over the statement because it is the case. You haven’t given any evidence to refute it

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All this time and effort just because 2 (two) lads in Carlow went to America for the summer

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Vintage TFK

Theres a primarily Football club in Tipp playing championship tonight minus five lads in Santa Ponsa.

Fair play to the lads, living not existing

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What club?

It was known in February that the first round of the Tipperary Senior Football Championship was this weekend. How can you have any sympathy for those lads missing a game?

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Exactly. I would say far more lads have missed matches over the years when fixtures were shunted around at the last minute to suit inter county

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According to @the_man_himself, the split season is not leading to the fielding of depleted club teams.

It’s the August Bank Holiday weekend. It’s peak holiday season so lads will go on holidays regardless of whether or not club matches are scheduled.

I know your solution is that club players go on holidays in June, regardless of whether they are locked into builders holidays in August or whether they have to take children out of school in June to go on holidays.

Arravale.

I dont have much sympathy either as this was well known but rightly or wrongly these couple of weeks up until around August 14th are peak holiday season (coinciding with builders holidays) and there’s a far higher chance of lads being away.

Pushing everything back just 4 weeks would solve pretty much everything.

Builders holidays is probably actually the best reasoning I’ve heard so far in fairness. A few weeks would fix that

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It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the split season is elitist and class driven. It’s grand for the likes of @the_man_himself to say that club players should now take their holidays in June. Fine if you’ve an office job or working in financial services. June holidays don’t work though if you’re a blue collar worker or a brickie tied into builders holidays in early August, or if you’re an agricultural contractor cutting silage in June.

Is it the split season or the timing of the split season you have the issue with?