Fogarty Forum: Smooth out the season by staging All-Ireland hurling final after football

The claustrophobic nature of the inter-county season has plenty to do with the misalignment of fixtures

Demoting football from the final game of the season would cause outrage but it also makes a lot of sense. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Like cows let out to pasture, Armagh and Tyrone folk turned up in their droves on Friday evening for their first taste of inter-county action in almost six months.

Over 7,000 were in the Box-It Athletic Grounds – and you wonder why the Ulster Council were so delighted to see the return of pre-season competitions. If Munster GAA weren’t so flaithiúlach, they wouldn’t have put a capacity cap on their hurling league matches.