Football has always held the whip hand in Carlow. That was clearly evident by the fixture shambles of 3 years ago which saw Ballinkillen kicked out of the Senior Hurling Championship. Rescheduling an intermediate football match at 5 days notice for 7.30 on a Saturday night, on what was supposedly a designated hurling weekend with the senior hurling semi finals on the Sunday, tells its own tale.
Rangers felt very strongly last year that a 10-11 week lay off between county final and facing Ballyhale possibly cost them the game. They were very sluggish after such a long lay off, 8-9 points down within 15 minutes, yet nearly pulled it off. Rangers have also been about the worst affected by absentees this summer, most notably Chris Nolan.
Rapps in Wexford had the same issue. 10/11 week
lay off and surprisingly beaten them by Clough/Ballacolla.
A split championship within a split season is not conducive to prospects beyond the county if you’ve gone first. As @Cheasty has said, you should be playing off both championships on alternate weekend.
I think there needs to be an acceptance that the provincial and All-Ireland club championships are winter competitions which sustain quality action and high profile television slots for the GAA in November, December and January, perhaps into the first weekend of February.
Really, the GAA had an ideal scenario going on where they had something for everybody in all months of the year. Each month had its place. It was the rhythm of Irish life.
November to January: Provincial and All-Ireland club championship.
January: The Most Rev. Dr. McKenna Cup.
February to April: Inter-County leagues.
May to September: Inter-county championships. Club championships tipping away in the background all the while.
October: County finals, a few stragglers of county finals drifting into November to complete the circle, like revellers drifting into the Gigs Place at 4am for a bottle of white wine and a fry up.
When you think of the club scene you think of Carlow. I know I do. 1990s winters were never complete without a trip down to Newbridge to see the Dublin champions get their holes opened by the Carlow champions.
That was down to flooding to such an extent that the tunnel in Dr. Cullen Park transformed into Venice. That and a ludicrous situation where Carlow could be out of both codes in June 2019 but still under pressure to have their football championships finished in time for Leinster at Halloween. That’s a county board issue. Intermediate football champions O’ Hanrahans won the championship on a Friday night and played in Leinster on the Sunday iirc.
All Limerick clubs will still be involved well into September. Last round for the football groups is September 24th. Using senior & intermediate as a reference, half the clubs will progress to the knock out stages, and the bottom side from each group will have a relegation battle to look forward to. So only 4 teams, or 33% wont be playing football into October.
As a follow on from this, it will take time for counties to find their feet in terms of championship scheduling and structure. I’m sure the more proactive county boards will look at what did and didn’t work this year and look to adjust accordingly. Plus it’s open to all clubs to bring motions to their own county conventions if they feel something is wrong after the season has played out.
Well inter county season over a week and i haven’t missed it one iota. Loads of matches over the weekend to keep me well occupied. Obviously hurling championship which again is the case this weekend. Football championship only would be a tough watch but hopefully football only weekends are few and far between.
