Fr McNamara: Club needs must be met

THE biggest challenge facing the GAA on the games front over the next few years will be to tailor the inter-county programme to meet the needs of clubs, according to Fr Michael McNamara.

The Clare County Board chairman also fears a continuation of the qualifier systems in hurling and football could have a negative effect on the provincial championships.

More immediately, however, he relishes the second chance afforded the Clare hurlers after their May 19 defeat by Tipperary which sees them contest next Sunday's All-Ireland final.

He says: "The system has served us well this year. If you look back to last year, there was a point between Clare and Tipp in the Munster championship in the very first round and the championship was maybe the loser later on in that Clare hadn't got some more matches.

"But, certainly the idea of everyone getting a second chance makes for a far better championship. And, you are getting far more high-profile matches.

"We had the chance this year to play Dublin, who we hadn't played before and we played Wexford. There was a tremendous novelty about that too.

"We got away from Munster because it's very difficult at the moment with any of the five teams capable of winning, as Waterford proved this year.''

However, he fears it's almost inevitable that the system will interfere with the provincial championships: "There's something special about the Munster championships in hurling and football. It has its own attraction as a competition and you'd hate to see the new system interfering with it in any way.

"The situation is evolving all the time. There was certainly a need to improve the situation where a team could have prepared all through the winter, through the spring and into the summer and be finished with competitive hurling or football at the end of May. That had to be rectified.

"Inevitably, no matter what system you are going to bring in, it's going to have negative side-effects. I think there will eventually be a negative impact on the provincial championships, especially if more and more people come through the qualifier and win it.

"I firmly believe the best system is the knock-out system whether you introduce it from the first round or at the quarter-final stage I don't know. But once you get away from the direct knock-out system, whatever kind of league system or qualifier system you bring in you'll have to review it after a couple of years ... or it will go stale."

Within Clare, one round of the club SHC was played earlier on in the summer. Three of the SFC quarter-finals were played at the weekend with the fourth held up because of the involvement of Colin Lynch (who plays with Lissycasey) with the hurlers. Fr McNamara believes the competition will be finalised by the beginning of October, whereas the hurling clubs decided two weeks ago not to restart the championship until after the All-Ireland final.

"The trouble about having two (inter-county) teams and the possibility of the All-Ireland qualifier means it's just impossible in the month of March or April to plan a championship programme for the clubs. It's just not on."