John Fogarty: Ten pointers for the CPA
If they are to keep their promise and deliver “a concrete” fixtures plan inside 100 days they have until mid-April to do so.
Meeting that deadline has become ever more urgent after they gave the thumbs-down to GAA director general Páraic Duffy’s football championship proposal.
Duffy made a stout defence of the format in the face of the CPA’s criticism but the CPA couldn’t be nodding dogs.
Understandably, they want to gauge the opinion of their members but feedback from club players has already been flowing towards the GAA’s central fixtures planning committee and the previous one and the message is clear – players want to be involved in their county championships for as long as possible.
That means those few county boards who run knock-out championships must be persuaded by players via their clubs the structures must change.
How that can be reconciled with a calendar season, which the CPA seem to want as much as Duffy, will be difficult but such is the truth of the matter.
. The All-Ireland finals could be bound for August from next year on but the championship start date is also in stone. Rule 6.29 (i) states provincial championships can’t begin “earlier than the third weekend in May”.
Between the start of February and the third Sunday in September, there are 32 weeks. For prominent inter-county football teams, nine to 10 weekends will be taken up.
Senior, U21 and minor inter-county championship activity can take up another 15 weekends. As things stand, time is truly of the essence.
If the calendar year is to be implemented, the Leinster club football championship, the longest provincial club competition, would have to begin in late September or early October. At the rate they are going, Dublin’s representatives would likely have to receive a bye into the semi- finals.
Some counties don’t make life easier for themselves with bloated championship structures but the qualifiers have caused havoc for them on several occasions, particularly for dual counties.
Replays are being addressed but the backdoor has not. The best-laid plans will remain that way if more certainty is brought to the All-Ireland senior inter-county competitions.
To satisfy the calendar year season idea, clubs may have to be eliminated from their respective championships by mid-May. Unless some counties decide to go rogue and spurn the provincial club championships, choosing instead to complete their competitions in their own time.
Valuable playing time for club players is obviously key but valuable break time must be provided to them too. The points raised by Waterford manager Derek McGrath in this newspaper last Saturday week about holidays especially for students will have to be taken into account.
The dual county provide the ultimate stress test for any prospective fixtures schedule. They are the worst case scencario. Munster club champions Ballyea currently have five players on both of Clare’s football and hurling panels.
“We’d be fairly dependent on Clare hurlers and footballers getting knocked out early in the championship to be able to get a decent run going with the club,” said Ballyea’s Niall Deasy yesterday.
“I think that’s the same everywhere.”
Many rural clubs are doing their best to restrict amalgamations to under-age level but that is becoming increasingly difficult.
For fixture planners, less teams doesn’t necessarily mean less headaches as in counties like Meath football clubs have formed hurling sides and Tipperary where the opposite has happened. Arranging matches that don’t impact on the other code is next to impossible.
It was more wishful thinking than anything else on Munster secretary Simon Moroney’s part in his report when he called on counties to uniformise their championship structures. Try telling Cork what to do or instructing them they should follow Kerry or Tipperary’s example or vice-versa.
Rules are very much there to be broken and whatever the CPA brings forward must be treated in a similar vein. Would there be as much angst and disenchantment if the 13-day rule for senior inter-county and seven-day rule for minor, U20 and U21 was applied consistently?
Last week, Duffy wrote in his report: “If we leave the football championship unchanged, we are effectively burying our heads in the sand.”
Club players are obviously concerned about elements of Duffy’s SFC system but if Congress are to adopt his proposals to reduce the number of potential replays and bring forward the All-Ireland finals then at least there is an improved, condensed, more predictable inter-county championship framework.
From that basis, in the event Duffy’s structure doesn’t receive two-third majority support, the GAA’s national fixtures and games development committees, the CPA or the GPA might be able to provide an amenable alternative plan. Don’t forget Seán Kelly’s ignored but excellent blueprint either or Carlow’s, which was received well last year.
A Special Congress by year’s end may just be the ticket.
Change must come in 2018. That’s something Duffy and the CPA do agree on.
