Kingdom chiefs defend local championship scheduling

Kerry county board secretary Peter Twiss has rejected the suggestion the Kerry senior football championship was drawn out to maximise revenue.

The Kerry SFC final will be played on Sunday, October 28, a week later than the 2017 decider, despite Kerry exiting the All-Ireland series on August 4 and the county intermediate and junior championships having been wrapped up in early May.

The conclusion of the latter competitions ensured players from lower-tier clubs were able to give exclusive focus to their respective divisions when the senior championship commenced.

Having played the opening three rounds of the Kerry SFC across four weekends in late August and the first half of September, fixture-makers afforded the last eight a weekend off before the quarter-finals. There was also a fortnight gap to this weekend’s county semis. This will again be the case for whoever emerges from Sunday’s penultimate round clashes of East Kerry versus Dingle and Dr Crokes against Kerins O’Rahilly’s.

Rathmore delegate Donal Murphy, the father of Kerry senior footballer Paul, was critical of the top-table at Monday’s county board meeting for elongating the senior championship.

“The championship is very drawn out,” said Murphy. “The club championships were finished in April/May. Why has the county championship been elongated? I don’t know was it a case of wanting to maximise revenue.

If East Kerry gets to the county senior final [on October 28], Kilcummin, a club feeding into that divisional team, are out the following week representing Kerry in the Munster IFC. The O’Donoghue Cup [East Kerry championship], meanwhile, will be going on well into December.

Twiss said the executive built free weekends into the championship programme to allow for replays.

“It wasn’t strung out because of revenue. We left space free for replays, so we could always say with certainty that the county final was going to be on October 28. Going forward, we can squeeze it up, but if there is a draw, then, everybody is put out. If ye want games one after another, that is fine, but you must remember that if you play six games in-a-row, the guy that is in the final is exhausted.”