Fogarty Forum: Loaded August All-Ireland final motion is in jeopardy
General Director of the GAA Tom Ryan. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
Credit to GAA president Jarlath Burns, he grasped the nettle. He acknowledged the playing season wasnât sitting quite right and formed a committee headed up by his mentor, former GAA director general PĂĄraic Duffy.
It was 13 years ago at Annual Congress in Derry when Duffy made a rare debate intervention to speak against Corkâs motion, via Derek Kavanaghâs Nemo Rangers, to bring forward the All-Ireland finals by a week.
But along the way, Duffy had a road to Damascus moment. âThereâs a problem for clubs because the season drags on too long at inter-county level and clubs are not happy about it and we need to make some efforts to change that,â he said in January 2017. âSo, weâre proposing bringing back the All-Ireland finals into August â both of them.âÂ
Both finals actually never made it to August. They were due to take place in the month in 2020 only for Covid to strike (the last August senior football final occurred in 1903 and that was the delayed â01 decider).
Duffyâs workgroup has now recommended one of the finals be moved two weeks from July to August. The problem is the motion is unlikely to pass at Congress in Croke Park this Saturday. It may even be withdrawn.
The proposal is attempting to do too much all at once. A final in the second weekend of August was always going to draw the ire of dual counties but calling for the end of pre-season competitions at the same time has strong opposition in Connacht and Ulster.
After GAA director general Tom Ryan declared his support for the regular inter-county season extending by two weeks, we put that point to him last week. âThe most important people in that perspective are the players and we have to make sure that players get a break,â he said. âSo, we'll just ask people to assess that in the round. Which works better for the association? What we have in January or what we could have in August? I think it's August.âÂ
Run as two separate motions, one, if not two of them might have been voted into rule, but the plan is facing a perfect storm. The Gaelic Players Associationâs motion to confirm the inter-county season as lasting 30 weeks appears to stand a better chance.
The decision by Cork clubs last week to oppose the August All-Ireland final all but sounded the death knell for it. Cork chief executive Kevin OâDonovan was on Duffyâs committee and possibly a dissenting voice, but he and the county leadership were prepared to back the proposal with conditions.
The split season has presented a host of challenges but in principle it is a construct this column supported from the off. âIf the inter-county season is too long, which it is, then the club season leaves players waiting around too long,â read this column in August 2020. âIf the pandemic has offered up a positive, it has hopefully made GAA authorities appreciate that keeping club players occupied and delivering them certainty is essential.âÂ
Claims that the media are opposed to the split season and are the only people who care about an August All-Ireland final are strange. Two of this weekendâs three GAA presidential candidates have spoken about a review of the playing calendar. As well as Burns and Ryan, other leading officials in the association have recognised the season can be scheduled better.
Certainly, we have championed a small extension of the inter-county season from a promotional perspective, but it is no skin off our nose if it doesnât happen. We are fortunate to work for a publication that cares about the club scene. We have enjoyed our two weeks of annual leave in August these last four years, thank you very much. That wouldnât have been possible pre-split season.
Unless there is change, the same issues that afflict the inter-county season will continue, though. So much football and so much hurling being staged at the same time is pitting them against one another. This weekend is the second of back-to-back double league weekends of which there are five in total. It is bloated.
Galway football captain John Maherâs comments last week about having fewer league games should be considered. With 16 less fixtures between the Sam Maguire and Tailteann Cups, this yearâs championship is a leaner, meaner format and fairer to players as much as supporters. âHaving that one less round would certainly be beneficial, just even the mental toll it takes to kind of get on a bus and go to some part of the country and play, not just the physical toll,â Maher said last June.
If one thing survives this weekend, letâs hope it is the possibility of a two-week gap between All-Ireland finals in the near future. The self-harming back-to-back final Sundays only became a thing because supporters werenât permitted to attend games because of the pandemic. It was merely a convenience.
The GAA can stop eating itself now.
Rightfully, All-Ireland champions are rarely pitied but spare a thought for Tipperaryâs hurlers who had to turn up to a âNight At The Dogsâ fundraiser across the road at the Thurles Greyhound Stadium following Saturdayâs 15-point defeat to Limerick.
Who could blame them for wanting the ground to swallow them whole, but then they have been here before in 2024 and as Liam Cahill pointed out, better that scoldings like that are taken in February rather than April or May.
One of Cahillâs predecessors, Liam Sheedy, suggested on RTĂ on Sunday that as champions Tipp would have returned to training later than others. As mentioned before, Tipperaryâs team holiday and medal presentation were done and dusted by November. They had two challenge games in December. If they are behind, itâs not by much.
Lip reading is not a forte but there seemed to be plenty of intent in match captain William OâDonoghueâs address to his team-mates before the throw-in. Their attitude was exemplary. Even if they did give away too many frees and Dan Morrissey was fortunate not to pick up a black card in conceding the penalty, it hardly mattered. They lured Tipperary into playing their game.
Their edge over Tipperary hasnât been so much a thing as a cold, hard fact, cemented over the guts of seven seasons. Saturday increased their average winning margin in this 13-game unbeaten run (11 wins, two draws) against their neighbours to 5.8 points. And, yes, Tipperary lost a 17th consecutive second half against them.
If a league final is out of the question, the pair will next meet again in the final round of the Munster SHC in TUS Gaelic Grounds on May 24. The closest Tipperary have come to Limerick on the Ennis Road in championship in the John Kiely era is a six-point loss in 2018.
You canât soften up that record.
Cork footballers have journalists flicking back in the archives like Bully used to do as he spelt out words on âBullseyeâ.
In their 100% Division 3 season of 2020, they obviously won their first four matches but the last time they did it in either Division 1 or 2? That came in Division 1 in 2014 when Brian Cuthbertâs side beat Westmeath, Kildare, Dublin and Derry before Mayo stopped their march.
Maintaining a winning or at least an unbeaten run is far more essential in Omagh this weekend than it was in Castlebar 12 years ago. But not even in 2009 when they last jumped up from Division 2 with five wins and a draw from their seven games did they boast such a convincing start.
Other Division 2 renewals would present reasons for Cork to be optimistic about returning to the top-flight for the first time since 2016. Their 100% return to date hasnât often been done. In 2023, Dublin and Derry were the last teams to pick up eight points from eight in the second tier and both were promoted.
Galway did the same the season previous, although Derry too were victorious in the opening four outings but ended up missing out on the top two spots by a point.
Tyrone backed up their strong early half of the 2016 Division 2 to finished top as they did when they finished the round stages with a 100% record in â12.
