Wrestling with the clubs in the battle for another September
It became the staple July story in the sports pages. County championships and club players nudged to one side in the pursuit of September glory. With more and more games at the elite levels in football and hurling, the pressure is becoming more and more intense on the grassroots of the games.
Cork, acclaimed for putting the club interest first, hasn’t had a senior hurling championship tie since St Finbarr’s and Douglas meet on June 23. And the chairman of the Cork Fixtures Committee Jerry O’Sullivan insists their hands are tied.
He explained: “It is a most unsatisfactory situation to find ourselves in. But there is little we can do about it. To be fair the county board has always endeavoured to keep it’s championships moving along in tandem with the inter-county scene. But this year we have five teams still chasing All-Ireland honours and that brings problems for us.
“This is the first year we found our hurlers involved in a Round Robin series of games. Thankfully there is no Round Robin next year and counties will bow out after losing two championship matches.
“For this year we have to live with the situation. I sympathise with the clubs, I know how difficult it is for them to keep players interested. But our hands are tied.”
Prior to 2004, the provincial winners in Munster and Leinster went directly to the All-Ireland semi-finals. But then GAA chiefs created four quarter-finals — creating a knock on effect for the championships in the eight competing counties.
Cork are one county suffering the ill effects of such cold storage of their domestic action. Take the Fr O’Neills club. They have gone 11 weeks since their last IHC championship tie — though they received a bye into the quarter-finals after their victory over Cobh in round one after two replays.
Such situations are well known in Clare. During the Ger Loughnane and Anthony Daly eras at the helm, the Banner SHC was frozen while the county side remained in contention for September glories. But the clubs opted to change that stance. PRO Des Crowe explained the clubs agreed to a master fixtures programme at the start of the year and want to stick to it rigidly.
Said Crowe: “As a result there will be a round of the senior hurling championship played on the weekend of August 18/19 even if Clare have qualified for the All-Ireland final. I know that is only two weeks to the All-Ireland final but it’s what the clubs want.”
In Limerick only two rounds of the senior hurling championship have been played. Naturally their Munster semi-final replay saga against Tipperary caused unexpected complications but PRO Denis O’Carroll admits that the club action is dependent on how far Richie Bennis’s side go in the All-Ireland campaign: “Depending on the progress our senior hurlers make in the All-Ireland series will determine when we next play our county championship.”
Tipperary county secretary Tim Floyd admitted that their three-game saga with the Shannonsiders caused chaos for their club schedule.
“A number of our clubs like Mullinahone and Dromin Inch are way behind and we’ll have to wait and see how we progress in the All-Ireland series before we can hope to make progress on the club front.”
The Kilkenny championship is played on a league system initially with each club getting five matches.
According to their PRO Ned Buggy it’s now down to the knockout stages: “Nothing more will be played as long as the county team stays in the All-Ireland title race.”
But there is some light at the end of the tunnel. There will be no Round Robin series in next year’s inter-county championship while both the Munster and Leinster hurling winners will go straight into the All-Ireland semi-finals. That will free up a couple of extra weekends for club activity.
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