Two-week extension to inter-county would be 'detrimental' to Tipp club scene

Central Council, at their September meeting, referred to next year's Congress the proposal of a high-powered sub-committee to move the All-Ireland finals to either side of the August Bank Holiday weekend from 2027 onward.

Wed, 26 Nov, 2025 - 13:48

Eoghan Cormican

Former Tipperary County Board chairman Joe Kennedy has expressed opposition to the proposed two-week extension to the inter-county season, insisting that the calendar tweak will spell the end of divisional championships in Tipp.

As has been the case since 2022, and as will be the case again next year, the All-Ireland finals are staged one week apart on the final two Sundays of July.

Kennedy believes extending the inter-county season by two weeks would be “detrimental” to the club championships in Tipperary, his opposition chiming with that of neighbours Galway.

In 2022, ‘23, and ‘24, the Tipperary county hurling championship threw in on the same July weekend as the All-Ireland football final.

That was again the plan for 2025, but the run of Liam Cahill’s side to the concluding Sunday of Liam MacCarthy fare on July 20 left no room for the divisional championships between the conclusion of Tipp’s inter-county season and the scheduled commencement of the county championship proper a week later.

The saving grace was Tipp’s All-Ireland success buying them an extra fortnight on the club scene by virtue of their local championship winners receiving Munster quarter-final byes, and so the additional two weeks was used to push back the start of the county championship until the second weekend of August and squeeze in the divisions before that.

The divisional competitions are tied to the county championship in that if a divisional winner fails to emerge from their county championship group, they are given a second chance in the form of a preliminary quarter-final against a group runner-up.

Kennedy, Tipp chairman from 2021-23 and current Munster Council delegate, doesn’t see space in the calendar for the North, West, Mid, or South Tipp championships, if the inter-county season is given permission at Congress to encroach into August.

“What happened this year was that divisional championships were run off in the space of a week. Several clubs ended up playing three games over seven or eight days. My own club played on a Saturday, Tuesday, and the following Sunday,” Kennedy began.

“That's fine for this year because we're on the crest of a wave in Tipperary and winning the All-Ireland has brought such euphoria. There was no one prepared to start giving out about club championships being squeezed as a consequence of something good.

“But if the inter-county season goes back two weeks, we’re going to be faced with what we faced this year any time we go as far as an All-Ireland semi-final even.

"Some might say I am getting ahead of myself given we hadn’t been to an All-Ireland semi-final since 2019 before this year, but if we were lucky enough to get on a run and more often get to All-Ireland semi-finals, it becomes a problem then as there is nowhere to go really with the divisional championships.

“I think [the proposed two-week extension] would be very detrimental to the club championships in Tipperary. Maybe other counties aren't as badly caught, but we’d be very badly caught.

“It would really spell the end of divisional championships because clubs aren't going to play those games mid-week in between the county championship.”

Kennedy also envisages another negative knock-on to allowing the inter-county year take two weeks from its club counterpart.

“I'd fear then for football in the county. Some clubs are predominantly hurling even though they do play football as well, but if football is seen as a threat to their performances in hurling when the calendar squeeze comes on, they'll stop fielding teams.”

Where Cork have changed their stance on leaving the calendar as it is, Galway are holding firm, with chairman Paul Bellew telling the Examiner earlier this month that the approach of backing the two-week extension simply to put the calendar debate to bed is “not a sufficient argument”.

“I’d have been talking to Paul Bellew about this, and I’d be in full agreement with him. We have spent 10 years in Tipperary trying to get our championships right, we have them right now. I don’t think club players should be made to wait eight months of the year to play three matches in a tight sequence, and that could be their year.”