Ryan’s clear thinking dismisses clash row
It sounded as if the outbreak of hostilities was imminent – “speculation” was rife that the county football final was either going to be brought forward to Saturday or postponed altogether.
It wasn’t until Eamon Ryan, that great and sensible coach of the Cork Ladies football team, was interviewed on Friday evening that we got it straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.
Eamon answered the question about the “major controversy” straight up. He said obviously it would be better, in an ideal world, if there was no clash, as many people would love to attend both the county final and the ladies football final.
But Cork was a big county with huge activity every week. What’s more, Cork were in the unique position of having teams playing in major All-Ireland finals three Sundays in a row – senior camogie, senior football and senior ladies football finals. The county couldn’t close down for internal competitions for the entire month of September.
So unfortunately, while they would prefer if there was no clash, his team understood the reasons. Well spoken, by a fair-minded man.
As for the suggestion that the county final be brought forward to Saturday, well, that was hardly feasible either. All counties want to play their county final on a Sunday as with traffic and work commitments it would be chaotic to try and play it on the busiest shopping day of the week.
Besides, the Cork football final – and indeed hurling semi-final – will attract people from all over Cork and beyond, rural and urban. Trying to get to Páirc Uí Chaoimh on a Saturday afternoon would be impossible for many from a travel, farming and work point of view.
It was unfortunate there had to be a clash but in a county like Cork, a clash of fixtures is inevitable. They call it the price of success! Wouldn’t it be far worse if Cork went out in the first round of everything, as happens in many counties?
Incidentally, it’s a great achievement by the Cork County Board to play its football and hurling championships right throughout the summer despite the onward march of its county teams.
How often have we seen in recent years county championships being postponed indefinitely while the county senior team progresses through the All-Ireland championships?
Some counties hadn’t their championships finished on time to be represented in the provincial club championships, which is not a very satisfactory situation.
The ideal balance hasn’t yet been found between the interests of club and county, but the easy option of putting everything on hold while the county team is involved certainly isn’t acceptable.
Playing club and county together is a delicate balancing act that will inevitably lead to clashes of fixtures and conflicts of interest.
It is a situation that is easier to condemn than solve but with sensible people like Eamon Ryan around it can be done.
