Hurling greats Fenton and Keher lambast 'disaster' calendar

Kerry and Cork greats Ambrose O’Donovan and John Fenton pulling strokes on Lough Lough Leane, Killarney at the launch of the 23rd annual Circet All-Ireland GAA Golf Challenge in Killarney Golf and Fishing Club on Mahony’s Point. 

“Crazy” and “disaster” are words used by hurling legends John Fenton and Eddie Keher to lambaste the condensed scheduling of the inter-county hurling season.

Both believe there is not enough space between matches and it is damaging the game. While Kilkenny great Keher believes a return to the backdoor might be a solution, Cork’s 1984 All-Ireland SHC winning captain Fenton wants to see the current format played over a later and longer period.

Speaking at the launch of the Circet All-Ireland GAA Golf Challenge in Killarney, the Midleton man said: “Well, I would be in favour of keeping the round-robin but we have to stretch it. It’s absolutely crazy that there’s so many games compacted into such a short space of time. It’s very unfair on the players, it’s very unfair on the spectators and it’s not giving hurling the promotion that it deserves.

“For people going to games week after week after week, the cost of it is enormous. There are players now who are starting back training again in November when they should be resting up.

“The hurling season shouldn’t be starting until May and whatever system that they come up with, it should be May and push the finals back. The compacted season is certainly not working and very unfair on the players.” 

Fenton, who is chairman of his club, has a full appreciation of the pressure on dual counties like Cork to complete their championship programmes from July and August. He sees a solution in streamlined inter-county and club seasons.

“It’s a very, very difficult situation because last year Cork were out of the championship early enough, then an awful lot of Cork players just went over to the States to play their hurling, so it’s going to be difficult but it can be done.

“If it means going back to a more streamlined version of the inter-county system or maybe even the club system, maybe instead of a group system maybe have a home and away in the games, at least teams would then get two matches. You could play a team at home one weekend and away the following weekend in championship and maybe that might slim it down a little bit.” 

Keher criticised the Saturday throw-in times for last Saturday’s All-Ireland quarter-finals. “I think it’s a total disaster what is happening, they are trying to promote but they have actually downgraded it to an extraordinary level.” 

The short turnaround between games is also a bugbear of his. “Before you had time to reflect and digest and enjoy the game but as soon as it's over on Sunday they're playing somebody the following Sunday and the focus has gone off the last match.

“I think the GAA has lost a great opportunity with all these great games from a promotion point of view. Shoving them into the first part of the summer is ridiculous, it should be spread out until September as before.” 

Keher also believes the 3pm throw-in for Kilkenny’s All-Ireland semi-final against Clare on Saturday week does little for hurling. “Saturday might be okay for some people but it’s not for an awful lot of people. To travel to games on a Saturday is very difficult and even to watch on television is very difficult.

“I think they have got to condense the championship to a real championship, use the league for what the championship appears to be doing at the moment. You could go back maybe to the back door system where a team isn’t gone, but you have to have it as a real championship.” Fenton couldn’t attend Cork’s All-Ireland SHC quarter-final win over Dublin in Thurles as he was at Féile na nGael in Wexford.

“We qualified for the final of the premier, the first division, so we were in action from 11 o’clock on so I just caught glimpses of the Cork and Dublin game but from what I could hear people talking about it, it wasn’t a great game. Certainly, the atmosphere wasn’t there. 1.15 on a Saturday in Thurles is not the time to be playing a championship hurling game like that.”