John Fogarty: GPA a step ahead in call to scrap provinces but it may take time

There is a simple formula to defining the split season: what is taken from the clubs in the month of April and given to counties is exchanged for the month of August.

When it’s put like that, how could clubs say no? But the trade-off is not so cut and dried and it will be the eighth month of the year before the vast majority of clubs begin their championships.

That trade-off for exclusive access to players and certainty of fixtures seems reasonable to many clubs, especially in the context of some of the best championships experienced in recent times (Cork, Tipperary, Tyrone, and Wexford to name but a few). Besides, leagues and other auxiliary competitions can be played throughout the summer.

The question for both clubs and counties now is how to optimise the time they have. 

Coupled with a meaningful league, knockout championship has worked a treat for Tyrone whereas the new group format has been a revelation in Cork. 

One size certainly won’t fit all but groups is favoured by several GAA bodies such as the Munster Council.

Where there must be consensus among counties is how the inter-county period, expected to run from late January or early February to the end of July, is to be filled. Transplanting the current inter-county season of 27 weeks is obviously doable since you’re taking one month away and replacing with another but is it right? 

Besides, it cuts the gap between league and championship and how keen would some counties be to reach a league final if their opening provincial game were a couple of weeks later?

No, at this stage it’s just as obvious that the status quo won’t do — the powers-that-be accept that too, as much as it was one of the proposals on the table before the pandemic, albeit on a slightly shorter timeframe. 

Merely cramming what went before into a tighter schedule won’t wash, hence there is believed to be variety in the versions presented by GAA director of player, club, and games administration Feargal McGill to the GAA fixtures taskforce last Wednesday.

The Gaelic Players Association’s (GPA) draft plan as detailed in Saturday’s Irish Examiner and distributed at that convening last week is interesting for a variety of reasons. Scrapping the provinces obviously grabbed the headlines and they should have GAA president John Horan as an ally given he views the provincial championships as a stumbling block to meaningful fixture calendar reform. “One of the big challenges is to tackle the monster that is the traditional feature of the GAA that is the provincial championships,” he said back in June.

Credit to Horan, he has reengaged the taskforce and his successor Larry McCarthy has also been party to their discussions these last couple of weeks. But unlike the GPA, Horan’s position dictates that he has to be more diplomatic and getting rid of the provincial championships entirely is something he knows will be a hard sell. Even four provincial conferences of eight teams (do two Ulster teams play off to decide who joins Connacht?) and staging the provincial championships prior to a league-style All-Ireland SFC will be difficult as much as there is appetite for change. So it would be surprising if the GAA’s own proposals stray too far from having a provincial element.

At the same time, McCarthy may share Horan’s dim view of provincial championships. McCarthy was a member of the Towards 2034 committee which proposed the end of the competitions. Connacht Council secretary John Prenty was also part of that committee as he is now involved with the fixtures review taskforce.

“While the committee recognised the allegiance that county boards have towards the provincial championships, it deems the current imbalance structure to be unfair and unsustainable on players, coaches, and officials in many counties,” the 2034 report read.

It was the late Eugene McGee who as chair of the Football Review Committee chose not to recommend getting rid of the provinces as much as he wanted to because he knew it wouldn’t fly at Congress. Besides, many would be loath to do anything right now to undermine provincial councils when they are among the best run units in the association and their accounts make impressive reading.

Changes like August All-Ireland finals take time and require incremental amendments such as repurposing provincial championships as early season leagues or reformatting them as conferences of eight counties.

Like the 2034 body whose report was spiked by the GAA’s leadership two years ago, the GPA may be guilty of being one step ahead in dismissing provinces. That’s not to say their plan is wrong — calling for a football championship that takes just 10 weeks is not the hallmark of an organisation that has been castigated as one that always wants more.

Like their call for the split season, the GPA’s plan is prescient but the reality may ask to take things slower.

Weekend takeaways

• Numbers matter. Monaghan’s squad number policy should be extended to inter-county level for a variety of reasons..
• Facts get in the way of facts. Seamus Callanan had six second-half wides for Drom and Inch on Sunday but half of them were attempts to set up goals.
• Class wins out. Ballyhale Shamrocks and Crossmaglen Rangers’ starts to the club window left so much to be desired but they look unstoppable right now.
• Competitive in Cork. Excluding Castlehaven’s drubbing of Ilen Rovers, the average winning margin was just over three points in the final round of Cork’s PSFC group games. The new format has been a veritable success.
• One-armed bandit. Domhnall Nugent’s three goals for Antrim club St John’s while suffering an arm injury was a la Seanie McMahon 2005 Munster semi-final.

  One-armed hurler scores THREE goals! See incredible courage by Domnhall Nugent for St John's despite suffering an arm injury when diving to block, from our Live Stream coverage by @MQ_Video pic.twitter.com/56HqNxxucx

  — Antrim GAA (@AontroimGAA) September 6, 2020

• Best dual club in the country? Slaughtneil, Ballyboden St Enda’s, and Cratloe have to figure but on form Loughmore-Castleiney must be contenders given they rely on some many of the same players.
• History beckons. The prospect of Breaffy winning a first senior county title or Knockmore their first in 23 years, Kiladangan claiming their first in Tipperary or Loughmore-Castleiney possibly completing the first half of a double is appetising.
• Family ties. What about father and son duo John Paul and Blake Murphy guiding St Vincent’s in Cork’s PIFC? A club season that keeps on giving.
• Was it legal? With half a hurley, Cáit Devane picked up a sliotar for Clonoulty-Rossmore on Sunday and with a remarkable touch of deftness exchanged it in play for a new one from her maor camán before striking it. But in camogie players are only permitted to drop the hurley when playing the ball away. [#embed2]
• Opportunity knockout. It’s a model Tyrone won’t be switching soon but are the stakes too high?

Killoe Emmet Óg’s suspension furore provides a cautionary tale

“A clear misapplication of the rule” is how a Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA) panel adjudged Longford’s decision to punish Killoe Emmet Óg’s failure to pay a fine for not fulfilling an U16 fixture with a 48-week suspension.

To think that the heavy-handedness of the county board’s competitions control committee and hearings committee might have jeopardised the future of several players, such as Michael Quinn, is astonishing but hopefully it will serve as a lesson.

“Longford HC did not have the jurisdiction to decide, at the time of imposing a fine on a unit that, in the event of failure to pay any fine imposed for loss of revenue within such period as may be stipulated, a suspension as provided for in Rule 6.24(c) T.O. 2019 shall apply,” the DRA concluded.

“Subsequently, Longford CCC erred in its decision to invoke Rule 6.24(c) to suspend the Club for 48 weeks on the basis that the Club had not paid the fine imposed for loss of revenue ‘before the requested deadline’.

“Leinster HC erred in upholding the decision of Longford CCC for the reasons outlined above and, in addition, erred in upholding the decision to impose a 48-week suspension in circumstances where, by the time Leinster HC heard and determined the appeal made to it, the fine had, in fact, been paid by the Club.”

Where there are so many anecdotal stories of fines not being paid in the GAA and no punishment resulting, this is a highly unusual and cautionary tale.

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