It would be a wonderful problem to have for most of us
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In the old system a club would wins Provincial title in early December and then it would take 3.5 months to play another 2 games? Its a busy calendar so having this sort of gap between games made no sense and as @myboyblue would say āit had to goā. Great excitement at the Christmas is nice and all but itās for a tiny proportion of clubs every year. The rest of the clubs have a tremendous pain in the hoop from training for months of the year with no meaningful matches. Change can be painful but in this case itās most certainly for the greater good.
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But sure when the All-Ireland series is played only affects the 24 teams in it, has no impact on every other club in the country surely? The change is to the benefit of clubs like Corofin who wouldnt celebrate a provincial title these days, itās not to the benefit of the smaller club who would be dreaming of just 1 provincial title. Tis in now anyway and there will be no going back.
Are you really looking for the GAA to allow time in the calendar for clubs to drink the shit out of it after they win something?
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God forbid lads would want to spend a few days celebrating a provincial title, is the calendar to serve the players or should the players serve the calendar?
Itās more than that though, you will never raise as much money for a club as you will between winning a provincial title and playing an All-Ireland semifinal. And for smaller clubs playing 3 games in a month in December almost guarantees injuries and fellas missing an All-Ireland final with an injury that could be sorted with a few weeks rest. Lots of clubs only get to one All-Ireland final, they should be given a chance to field the best team they can.
I donāt think we are going to agree on this but sure what harm I suppose. Training a club team in the depths of winter for 14 weeks is hugely expensive. Pitch rentals, equipment , physio and coaching expenses 
etc. If it was all over in 6 weeks the expense would be halved.
Sure a lad from a small club might get injured but the club they are playing might have 2 lads injured. Thatās sport.
It is, but if your club get to an All-Ireland final it would be good to think that you would be given a reasonable chance to field your best team. A break of 3 or 4 weeks between games gives you a much better chance of that, simply saying tough shit we had to sort out the calendar to help the biggest clubs seems to me to be the wrong way to go.
As for it being expensive to train teams in the depths of winter, sure most clubs start back in January now anyway.
The calendar is all about getting the balance right, Iād be of the view this is a change that is to the benefit of a handful of big clubs and shafts the smaller clubs and dual clubs like Slaughtneil.
The weather helped keep the score down for ye against Limerick this year
Thatās part of the problem when youāre still training in October, and only four or five matches played in the previous few months
I often wonder why they donāt bring in another club competition in Clare to be played over the summer months without the intercounty panelist. Make it open to all first teams in the county, be it senior, inter and junior A. Would give a few more meaningful matches to club players and give lads further down the panel game time rather than just playing challenge matches. Good opportunity for some of the smaller clubs too and the opportunity for some silverware.
Is there no county league?
There is the league in hurling, the Clare Cup. But there are huge gaps in it as clubs donāt want to field without their county players.
The football has the OāGorman Cup (ran by Doonbeg) which is for non-county panelists, but not everyone enters it; and you still have teams putting off games for dual players etc
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Ah spare me the small club schtick. All clubs wanted a split season. Big ones, small ones and inbetween ones. The CPA have disbanded, the clubs won for once and youāre worrying about drinking sessions and raffles in December. Some bigger picture thinking required here.
The CPA stumbled on this, their first idea was the April club month which was absolutely stupid. I can appreciate how a lad involved in Dublin would be clueless about small clubs working with small numbers but the majority of clubs are small clubs.
Twas @peddlerscross post I originally replied to here when he suggested clubs were happy with the traditional Patrickās Day finals and it was intercounty managers who wanted it changed, I was just highlighting there were some very big clubs looking for the change as well and why they wanted it. Ballyhale to be fair to them were not one of them, they know well that the day will come when provincial titles wonāt be the norm for them.
The all Ireland finals should be on in September itās an absolute disgrace they are moving them.
Move with the times old man.
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This is all down to these utter spoofers that have influxed the gaa with ear pieces and their bull shit.
They needed to introduce a rule six days before an inter county game a player can play with his club.
Theyāll destroy the game given the chance.
The CPA did get lucky on this no question.
It feels like we are going around in circles here so Iāll leave with this. There are numerous benefits in the split season for all clubs regardless of their size. A defined season, increased access to their county players, decreased costs, playing in better weather and increased media exposure being just some of them. If a proportionally tiny number of clubs each year are disappointed with a shortened provincial and all ireland club campaign, well thatās a small price to pay in my opinion.
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I wonder will clubs still train in January? March be plenty time for an August championship start.