Paddy Kelly supports CPA plan to address ‘too long’ inter-county season

Recently retired Cork footballer Paddy Kelly is supporting the CPA’s demand for a more condensed inter-county season, saying the current one is “far too long” and “draining” for players.

The 2010 All Ireland winner favours the All-Ireland senior football final being played as early as the August bank holiday weekend to accommodate a better club fixtures programme. And another reason the Ballincollig clubman believes a separate season for the club championship would work best is currently a county like Cork is at a competitive disadvantage trying to accommodate club games throughout the summer while opponents like Donegal and Dublin virtually shut down their club championships.

“I would say that from a players’ point of view, the season is far too long. Say your team’s involvement in the championship finishes in early August. You’re probably meeting again in November, maybe even October if you’ve a new management, trying to put things in place. By the time it comes to July, August, you’re maybe 10 months on the go. And for what? Three or four championship games over four months? For the county player it’s just draining.

“The season is still interesting at times. The league is a great time of the year; you’re playing games, there’s no danger of over-training. But while you’re playing games every week, the club player has probably been back since January, with a four-month build up to their first round.

“Then they play it in early May, and the whole thing is up in the air for the rest of the summer. I think it’s an easy fix. The league doesn’t have to change much, have it finished before the end of April. Start the inter-provincials straight away then. Condense everything. No four-week gaps. Two weeks, max.”

Part of the rationale for having four-week gaps within the provinces is so that counties can run a round or two of club games during the intervening period, but Kelly maintains that too few counties practise that.

“We all know that’s not the reality. I remember in 2012 we beat Kildare in the All-Ireland quarter-final and the following week I played a club championship game, a fortnight out from us playing Donegal in the semi-final. In the meantime, Donegal had nothing on.

“To be fair to the Cork County Board, as much as I’d be critical of them, they’re doing the right thing in getting club games played when they can.Other counties shut down. They know there’s no club championship once the county team is still going, so for the Cork county team, they’re actually at a disadvantage.

“I think it’s a broken system when a player just dips in and out of his club for a week here and there, or in most other counties, they just shut down the club championship until the county team loses and then players land back to their club five days out from championship and then it’s just bang, bang, bang.

“I think county players would be happier if they were told the inter-county season was finished by say, the August bank holiday weekend. Every club team then could prepare for championship starting in August, or if you were a lower-tier team, maybe for the middle of July. They could roll out a pre-plan, maybe coming back together in April instead of January, and playing league throughout May, June, July.”

n Kelly is the subject of tomorrow’s Examiner Sport Big Interview, in which he reflects on his career and expands on why he would “be critical” of the Cork County Board.