Theyāll be grand
Sure that happens regardless
The CPA has disbanded. Their work is done.
A few of the Congress alickadoos get a few raps here.
In fairness it was a serious fluke that it worked out and itās very weird that they have just disbanded the whole thing
1 Like
All Ireland Finals in mid July mean most of the heavy lifting in inter-county season will be done across the months of April, May and June. Big demographic of inter-county players now are students. Thatās mostly exam time.
Counties like Mayo that have so many players living outside the county and a lot in Dublin, have always prospered by getting players home for summer months of July, August and into early September.
Darragh OāSe used to make the same point in his column in the Irish Times over the years that with Kerry such a large county with players spread everywhere both in and out of the county, a lot of the intense training in Kerry was only done from late July on.
I donāt believe itās a good move. Most young club players head abroad for the summer months anyway. All Ireland Finals should have been left on their traditional dates of 1st and 3rd Sunday in September. Maybe start the Championship later in June and streamline it. Too many pointless round robin/league type matches. Scrap pre-season tournaments OāByrne Cup, Dr McKenna Cup and the like.
2 Likes
Most is a massive overstatement
12 Likes
No point in any mission creep. A bit strange to pack it all in before itās even gone through a season though, Iām sure thereāll be some tweaks needed
The way some lads are going on youād think thereās nobody between the ages of 18 and 23 living in Ireland during the summer months
2 Likes
I find it very odd that theyāve just pulled up the anchor and fucked off. Thereās far more wrong with the Club Player than will be fixed by the split season. Surely it could have been kept tipping along for 12 months anyway just to see how things develop.
Massive. We had one two years ago. We lost three players one summer, that was the most I can recall, Iād say one of them was a starter.
In fairness it was the GPA who pushed for a shorter season so players must be happy.
Same. We lose one every second summer or so Iād say and only once I can remember we lost 2 of our better players but that was an anomaly
Iād say losing lads because they didnāt know when the fucking games would be on is far more damaging to clubs than losing young lads for one or two seasons while they go enjoy themselves
1 Like
Iād imagine youāll see a big drop off in younger fellows prepared to give the time and commitment to be an inter-county player with such an early inter-county season now, particularly those in college with a lot of the investment in time for heavy training moved forward a few months to earlier in the year.
Fitzgibbon and Sigerson Cup commitments there as well, which have to be fulfilled earlier in the year for those students on scholarships.
The dominance of just a few counties at inter-county level and just about every change in structure over the past 20 years stacking the deck more in their favour has already seen an increasing number of players opting out.
Silage is a much bigger issue for us than America 
11 Likes
Will the split season mean less and less GAA players are going to opt to become teachers?
What are you talking about? Championship games have always been played around college exams in May
1 Like
I remember, as a selector, trying to explain to an outside coach before a league match that we were going to be missing 6 lads cause of silage. He couldnāt understand it. He was pacing back and forth muttering āGrass! Fucking cutting grass!ā
We got hammered.
3 Likes