Iâd say the crowds at the hurling semi-finals arenât going to be great. Partly to do with Kilkenny and Clare not being big crowd pullers at the best of times, partly to do with Limerick v Galway seeming a fait accompli, partly to do with both teams having had six matches in a short time frame already, partly to do with lack of media attention compared to before with attention split between two semi-finals, and the weirdness of having an All-Ireland semi-final on July 2nd and July 3rd.
I think even that may stop. Up to now the population in countryside has been aging, and Dublin sucking up all the young people. But with more WFH opportunities, families priced out of Dublin moving home etc. I think it may save some rural clubs.
But ya nothing to do with a split season. The split season can only help really. The old way was killing clubs.
Even the idea of âparishesâ is dying out quickly. Thereâll be less schools too so the next generation will not care for local rivalries or the importance of them. Theyâll just want to play with their friends from school which is perfectly understandable.
Even if any of that was true, it has literally nothing to do with a split season you mad yoke
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I know of two inter county season players who are nursing injuries to play until the end of the
Inter county season whoâll be rehabbing for the club season.
Lads donât get the can of worms theyâve opened with this absolute rubbish.
You think itâs ever been any different?
All they had to do was get rid of the league and theyâd create three months of space.
Instead letâs destroy the whole calendar and absolutely shaft the clubs in the long term.
A couple of weeks ago it was widely noted that in a normal World Cup year the World Cup would have started on Friday June 10th.
It was lamented that an integral part of a World Cup and the whole experience surrounding it is its timing in June and July, and that in 2022 we have been cheated of that in favour of a competition run off in the depths of winter, and that the whole thing will feel weird.
But at least itâs only for one tournament.
This GAA championship feels plain weird, it feels rushed, it feels all out of kilter, and it has been decided that this is to be the case forever more. Eejitry.
Sure itâs a really smart idea to run the bulk of the inter county championship during final exams in colleges at time when so many players are in third level education.
The whole thing actually looks to have been set up to fail.
Are either of these chaps the same fella who told you Walsh Park pitch was the same size as Cusack Park?
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There are a few things at play here.
The split season in theory = Good
The timing of it = Bad
The Round Robin nonsense/Tailteann Cup - Awful
Dumbing down of Minor/Under 21 = Awful
Youâd really have to question what was so bad in 2017 that lead to this current sorry mess. The 2017 Championships were excellent.
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They should tell the inter county managers to fuck off. The club and inter county seasons can run side by side if they put manors on the inter county managers.
Plus if youâre a county like Mayo, with many or most of the players living outside the county, most of them in Dublin, the summer is really the only time when you can start getting together on a regular basis and doing proper football training as youâd like. By August youâre coming to the boil and in a position where you can produce the sort of form Mayo did in the latter stages of the 2017 championship.
Can Mayo do that this year? Probably not, because they havenât been allowed to build things up to the same level over the summer as in previous years.
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Thatâs a fair point too but I guess itâs sort of a separate issue. I read before a lot of Mayo players were taking breaks from their jobs in august or going to a three day week.
We will never again see a standard like 2017.
It wont.
Maybe in extremely rural areas but the Irish population is at its highest since the 1840âs. Thereâs a rise in the population of school going children if anything. There will be less and less mass though as parishes merge together but the pre-existing rivalries will continue Iâm sure.
This is why the internet is bad.
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Itâs only Limerick who can afford to do that.
Have to disagree with this. The double header of hurling semi finals on the same weekend has been a great success. Clare vs Galway and Limerick vs Cork in 2018. Limerick vs Kk and Tipp vs Wexford in 2019. Four very memorable games.
Covid put a stop to it in 20 and there were only limited attendances in 21. I look forward to that weekend but agree wholeheartedly with sentiments about the date.
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