The referee issue is huge at the moment but its a separate issue.
Iām not on a wind up at all, but like you said when August Bank Holiday weekend is a traditional walkover weekend, why fix a load of Championship games for it?
25% of clubs in Tipp will be finished on August 20th this year, thatāll grow to 75% gone on September 11th. Its going to be a long winter in a lot of places. For context, last year (which i would regard as the best, smoothest run Championship of all) the first clubs were knocked out on September 25th and most were still playing into the second weekend in October. Everyone loved it.
Itās the exact same scenario in Carlow as Kerry. Senior hurling final on 7 August and thatās the hurling done in the county for the year. I never saw a smaller crowd at the semi finals than there was yesterday in Netwatch Dr Cullen Park. This is the reality of the split season in its current guise at the coalface.
People just arenāt ready for it now. Farmers and agri contractors are trying to get second cuts in at the moment. Thereās straw bales to be made too.
Friday night games in Semple Stadium last Autumn were getting good crowds but the first fixture this year had no one at it and i dont expect it to change much this coming Friday.
Itās absolutely fascinating that the GAA have driven a few here demented. They have spent days at this stage paraphrasing themselves and rehashing the same old tropes.
But its very hard to change the mindset of rural people over 50 who would be stone mad to go to games in October but you couldnt pay them to go in August. Farmers in particular are just too busy at the minute.
Weāre lucky to have a poster going around conducting a census of crowds at any game he goes to. To be fair, if anywhere had somebody like that, you knew it would it would be here.
