Calls for Cork GAA to consider home and away championship fixtures

At present, all three rounds of the Cork county championship group phase are played at neutral grounds.

Thu, 14 Dec, 2023 - 07:05

Eoghan Cormican

Beara secretary and Cork’s Munster Council delegate Joseph Blake says the county should consider home and away fixtures for club championship group games.

At present, all three rounds of the Cork county championship group phase are played at neutral grounds. Blake’s suggestion is that Rounds 1 and 2 are played home and away, with Round 3 games staged at neutral venues.

Home and away exists for the opening two rounds of the neighbouring Kerry SFC, with the final round of group fare in the Kingdom run off at neutral venues.

Blake said home games would further increase the profile of the county championship group phase, and asked that the county board executive consider the proposal.

“From Garnish to Youghal, and from Goleen to Mitchelstown, it would bring championship games to all corners of the county and would take the county championship group stages to a higher level,” Blake began.

“It would also allow great publicity within each club, knowing many months in advance that a home game would be held later in the year.” Due to its geographical location, no adult county championship games were played in Beara in 2023.

This is in spite of there being five club teams from the division competing across the various county championship tiers.

For an adult county championship game to be fixed within the peninsula, it would require two teams from that neck of the woods to be of the same grade and to run into one another at some point in the competition. A home and away schedule would change all that.

“Would it not be of great benefit to the GAA in Beara to be guaranteed five championship games in the division and allow us to showcase county championship games in the division,” Blake, Beara secretary, continued.

“While there would probably be a long journey to an away championship game in either Round 1 or 2, I think the benefits of home and away games would be more beneficial than travelling to a neutral venue twice.

“If teams are allowed to play in their home grounds in the Munster club championships, then I feel clubs should be allowed to play a home game in the county championship.”

Elsewhere, at this week’s Cork GAA convention, the Rathpeacon club argued that Cork’s divisional structure is no longer fit for purpose.

Rathpeacon delegate Eamonn Hawe told convention that the divisions in their current form are not serving the best interests of junior hurlers and footballers in the county.

“We feel the current structures are failing these players,” Hawe insisted.

“The biggest issue of all is that junior players are not getting an appropriate games schedule. The split season has seen many changes to GAA calendars, and while some changes have been positive, changes to the junior schedule are not working.

“Divisional leagues start in March, but now they end in June. For Junior B and C clubs, like Rathpeacon, we also must play our county championships within this same March-June period. That results in potentially 20 games in under four months.

“In several divisions, there are no organised games from the end of June to the start of the divisional championships in August. Having had a crazy games schedule from March to June, we reached the middle of the summer, with the best weather, and we had no games.

“Our season, along with many other clubs, ended in August. In the absence of any organised competitions, Rathpeacon organised our own football and hurling tournaments to try and provide games for players.

“That a club felt a need to do this surely demonstrates that the current system is not working. The current eight divisional boards were set up between 1924 and 1933. A lot has changed in the world since 1933. We feel it is time the divisions changed as well.”

Meanwhile, Dohenys secretary Eddie Moloney was highly critical of how the club was blindsided by the Cork executive’s decision to push back the date of their county senior A football final against Newcestown from November 5 to November 11.

“We were never consulted. The first we heard of it was on the Monday evening (October 23) when the players got texts to say the game was refixed. That is no way to treat the club.”