My playing days at a decent club level finished 10 years ago. Iād much prefer the current season as a club player.
Back then there really was no county league (Tipp). Championship would start in April after the inter county league but then would be stopped once the championship began. Your next game was at the behest of how Tipp went. It was very hard to keep momentum. Players basically had two pre seasons. One for the first tranche of April gamrs and another for later in the year. Planning a social life months ahead was impossible.
A move away from the obsession over championship would be a help in this regard. Summer leagues which go ahead every Friday would be good for rurals clubs and help connecting new people in parishes to their clubs.
You said they were all playing them. The league is taken seriously in Dublin. First match was in late February and more or less fortnightly since. 2 x league matches this week. There is absolutely no time for lads to head off playing other sports unless yhey do it in November or December
Ooft, 60 odd posts while i was above at the field tonight.
Iāve only skimmed through so far but it reads like the split season zealots have a new lease of life and have been rejuvenated thanks to two relatively decent occasions in Thurles and Ennis at the weekend and the fact the Munster Hurling Championship hasnt been a complete disaster this year.
The tone of the club season so far is lads still playing soccer and rugby or else Busy studying for exams or away on holidays. Numbers way down in training.
Football Championship starts in August then. Even Oulart and Rathnure have taken up a bit of football recently. It encourages more dual players at club level really. Same format in neighbouring Carlow, St Mullins founded a football team in 2021 and have already won Junior C and B titles in succession. Spreading football to primarily hurling only areas.
Quite a few of the older core of the Ferns county senior championship winning team would play soccer for their 2nd team. Recent Wexford hurler Seamus Casey was leading the line for their A team this season. Sure even Hego togged out for Annacotty over the winter. Lads were monitoring Aaron Gillaneās soccer appearance too when he was AWOL for Limerick during the league.
Ah well all those clubs I mentioned are still very much hurling clubs to the core. They just play a little bit of football now to keep fit. The new format benefitted plenty of traditional football strongholds too. Horeswood won the Intermediate A title and Castletown/Liam Mellows gave it a good rattle too before losing to them in the final. Theyāve even created a hurling team again in Kildavin /Clonegal @ChairmanDan. Plenty of time for both codes now.
Clubs are playing more games now than ever before. In Tipp when I first started out it was all divisional and to get to county series you had to win or finish runners up to qualify for county quarter finals. You might have had 1 championship fixture in both codes and maybe a losers group then. Now there are all county leagues and all county championships and division ( link broken with county series). It is disingenuous to say clubs are suffering or lack of interest because of split season. The real problems are emmigration or rural urban migration. Post Covid landscape has changed and young people are trying to reclaim a few lost years so commitment levels to play GAA with some is not as enticing.
I cant recall a more appetising and captivating hurling championship like this in years. It is quality and not quantity. Limerick may have to win 5 more games to do 4 in a row. If they were to do so it might be the hardest All Ireland ever won. Everyone is talking about these games and the watercooler talk or the whatsapps flying were all about the 2 hurling games that were on Sunday. Its like the rugby, golf, EPL or whatever else was on hardly registered. No sport can really come close to the tension levels in those last few minutes in Thurles on Sunday.
I will come back tomorrow in more detail on some of the other points raised but i do see a lot of talk about the Dublin Club scene.
I saw a club hurling double header on Youtube one random Wednesday night last July (throw in times of 6.00 and 7.45 i think ) in front of about 15 people at Parnell Park. The affable co commentary duo of Oisin Langan and Joe Fortune spent the two games bemoaning all the players missing on the various teams as they were all on holidays or in America. One of the teams Plunketts conceded about 8 goals to Ballyboden. It was a total non event.
Then on the Football side you had poor @Bandageās beloved Raheny missing talismanic midfielder Brian Fenton for the entire Club Championship as he was driving a camper van across Northern Italy . Their other main man Brian Howard missed a crucial League Play off game as he was in Thailand or somewhere. Barely any of the Ballymun county men featured much either as they were all broke up from the Inter County campaign. Itāll be even worse this year with all those Super 16 games. King Con was broke up too and missed Cualaās key Hurling semi final. The Cuala lads seem to have given up on it all and have moved en mass to Melbourne.
This was the reality of the situation on the ground in Dublin last year but the split season zealots want to paint a picture of a land full of milk, honey and contentment.
) in front of about 15 people at Parnell Park. The affable co commentary duo of Oisin Langan and Joe Fortune spent the two games bemoaning all the players missing on the various teams as they were all on holidays or in America. One of the teams Plunketts conceded about 8 goals to Ballyboden. It was a total non event.