Pa Ranahan blasts scheduling of Limerick championship

Limerick footballer Pa Ranahan has criticised the scheduling of the county’s senior football championship.

Ranahan took to Twitter to vent his frustration against the format of the competition, which will see a significant gap between the first and second round.

He posted: “1 Limk SF cship game between May 1st & Aug 25th. Really?!? #117DaysLater Why not just start Cship in Sept altogether & save lads the bother”

On Tuesday, the Dublin senior and intermediate football championships were drawn but are unlikely to be played until late September or early October depending on how the counties’ senior teams fare in the Sam Maguire and Liam MacCarthy Cups.

Dublin chairman Sean Shanley last week admitted the decision by the Leinster Council to bring forward their senior hurlers’ Leinster quarter-final against Wexford by a week because of the Bruce Springsteen concerts in May means they are likely to be forced to postpone their championship until the autumn.

“It looks like our championship is going to be squeezed into the end of year again,” said Shanley.

“The bad thing about that was they brought out the master fixtures plan and everybody planned holidays and everything else around that and then they go and change it. They should have given a warning that there was a possibility of it changing. Very poor.

“To try and get teams for the Leinster club will be difficult. Leinster have been reasonable in that they’re going to move out the dates but you’re up at Christmas again.”