So you donât think children will be looking in tonight?
If you think Cluxton, the Brogans, Connolly, McMahon, McCaffrey, McCarthy, Fenton, Kilkenny and OâCallaghan arenât household names with children in Dublin, think away.
In fairness you can be certain the likes of Fenton and Howard will go down to the Davin End with the Cup tonight and get a picture with the Raheny Under 10âs.
Anyone who doesnt get the significance of something like that is deluding themselves.
I havenât read all this thread but The Dows article on RTĂ Sport this week goes into his suggested layout of the season in fair detail. If I didnât know him Iâd probably have stopped reading after the third paragraph. Itâs fairly technical, so be warned.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2022/0526/1301443-my-calendar-plan-club-first-and-scrap-allianz-league/
Shane is a great fella
Nearly as much time devoted to the All Ireland Club championship, which is generally for the elites, as he has for the county championship.
That plan is something he did in 5 minutes. Bizarre that someone could think it might be a solution.
Early spring is a miserable time for hurling. And it pre supposed that every club has all weather pitches and floodlights.
And suggests that dual clubs play Friday and Sunday.
Itâs actually daft.
Scrap the AI club championship or cut the link between this years county championship and this years AI club.
Qualify this year for next year. Whatever.
Itâs a massive issue and itâs now pushing the entire thing forward.
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Why is anyone trying to keep them interested for 7 months??
It doesnât take 7 months training to get a team right for the premier league, let alone a county championship.
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That simply wouldnât work in any dual county
A lot of county boards seem to have started their club leagues way too early this year
It wouldnât work because pitches are not good enough in March. You need a lot of pitches to run club championships. Starting them at the start of May is feasible.
May 1 Club Football 1
May 8 Club Hurling 1
May 15 Club Football 2
May 22 Club Hurling 2
May 29 Football Provincial Prelims
June 5 Hurling Round Robin 1
June 12 Football Provincial Quarter-Finals/ Hurling Round Robin 2
June 19 Club Football 3
June 26 Club Hurling 3
July 3 Football Provincial Semis/Hurling Round Robin 3
July 10 Football Provincial Semis/ Hurling Round Robin 4
July 17 Hurling Round Robin 5/Football Provincial Finals
July 24 Football Provincial Finals
July 31 Hurling Provincial Finals
August 7 Football Round 4 Qualifiers
August 14 Hurling Quarter-Finals
August 21 Football Quarter-Finals
August 28 Hurling Semi-Finals
September 4 Football Semi-Finals
September 11 Hurling Final
September 18 Football Final
Club championship dates are compulsory in every county.
Knockout stages of any county championship cannot begin before the second weekend in August.
Counties who reach the All-Ireland finals have six weeks to finish off their club championships (from quarter-final stages onwards) before the end of October.
Sorted.
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The power of the inter county manager puts paid to any hope of that. Players would be pressurised not to line out for their club, a la Fergie and Roy Keane when it came to Ireland Internationals and some bullshit injury magically appeared
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Thatâs much worse than the current system
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So if Tipp get to an All Ireland you are giving 7 weeks to complete a 13 round championship?
County managers will not work with the above.
How?
Cub Championships get played on good pitches in good months of the year and you keep the prime dates for the showpiece competitions, the All-Ireland championships.
Players who show up well in the first couple of rounds of the club championships get to stake a claim to play for the county.
What on earth is the problem?
The 2/3 month break in the middle would be the major issue. Its a nonsense. Move the season on about 3 weeks and i think everybody would be happy. Thereâs no need to complicate it
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A 13 round championship? Wha?
The maximum you need to complete senior championships in hurling and football should be 12 weekends.
Six weekend in May and June, have the All-Ireland football on September 18th, you then have pucks of time to finish off the club championships.
County managers can go shit in a hat. Either they work with the system, which has to be compulsory, or go do something else.
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How is it an issue? Is a two and a half month break in the Champions League an issue?
Is a four month break in international football an issue?
Normal sports are able to work with designated windows?
Why canât the GAA? Incompetence? What else?
Theyâre still playing important games every weekend
All those players are still playing important games every week.
What sports? Both your examples above are of teams which will still be playing important games every week.
What other important games do club players play apart from championship? None is the answer you have given.
So what is the problem with spacing them out a bit in designated windows?
So if youâre a club hurler, you know your round robin dates are May 8th, May 22nd and June 26th.
That seems fine to me.
You know your knockout matches, if you get that far, will start no earlier than August 14th - if your county gets knocked out.
In the break, you play league.
Again all this comes back to the lie that players want a regular diet of games.
Club league is a regular diet of games.
Now the goalposts have been moved to âimportant gamesâ.
What is the problem with spacing out the important games?
If what club players want is âa regular diet of important gamesâ, sure why run leagues at all?
If spacing is apparently so much of a problem, just play off every county championship from May 1st to June 30th and have no club activity for the other 10 months of the year for the vast majority.
If what club players want is a regular diet of important games, what they thus want is a 15 game league which is the championship. That isnât going to happen for all sorts of reasons.
Why donât we play the intercounty league in the middle of the championship?
All Ireland club should not be a problem. Easy solution is 32 team open draw in football and 16 team open draw in hurling. All Ireland club starts October bank holiday, finals on 19th of December. Even with gap weeks in there it is easily achievable.