Paul Rouse: Why the rush to condemn the split season before it has even been completed?

Change has come and more will come in the immediate future; there is no perfect solution here. Only the hope that whatever vision for the future holds is one that is rooted in evidence and in the airing of both sides of the argument.

CLUB ACTION: Cork stars - St. Finbarr's Ian Maguire tackles Eire Og's John Cooper. Pic: Denis Boyle

On the night after the All-Ireland hurling final, Dónal Óg Cusack gave an extended speech on the Sunday Game decrying the inter-county season finishing in the middle of July.

The core of his argument appears to be that in fixing its All-Ireland finals for July, the GAA was denying people the chance to see top players playing the game on television for much of the year and that players were being rushed through championships. His related point was that hurling was being squeezed in the newspapers and on TV by other sports, at least partly because it was clashing with other major sporting events. The overall point was that there was a need for more “oxygen” to be given to hurling as a sport.