Jack O'Connor: Extended season? 'Not sure it will fly'

Kerry manager Jack O'Connor and Tom O'Sullivan after the win over Dublin. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile.

Jack O’Connor senses the proposal to extend the All-Ireland senior football championship into early August from 2027 will not garner enough support.

The Kerry manager is in favour of finding more space in the inter-county calendar, but his own county will not be supporting it unless there is a guarantee of 16 exclusive weekends for club fixtures.

Dual counties such as Cork, Galway, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford are also set to vote against the motion, which is due to be discussed at Annual Congress in Croke Park this Saturday.

Because part of the recommendation includes the permanent disbandment of the pre-season competitions, some Ulster counties could also oppose it.

O’Connor sees it coming up short. “I wouldn't mind it because as a manager, particularly if you get to the closing stages, you'd like a bit of breathing space.

“But I think the vibes I'm getting is that it would really squeeze the club scene then and you know in Kerry we're a very busy club scene with three championships so I'm not too sure it'll fly.” 

O’Connor gave an extended injury and availability update following Saturday’s win over Dublin. Diarmuid O’Connor (shoulder) is “back running” and could be available in the latter half of March. Mike Breen and Seán O’Brien are also on the mend.

Tom O’Sullivan made a welcome and impactful return on Saturday and the remainder of the Dingle and An Ghaeltacht players have returned to training “but are not quite ready yet”.

Meanwhile Limerick manager John Kiely has given a tentative nod to keeping the GAA calendar as is, albeit he also understands the desire by Croke Park to push back the end of the inter-county season by a fortnight.

Congress will this weekend decide whether to retain the status quo or move the All-Ireland finals to either side of the Bank Holiday weekend from 2027 onwards.

“In Limerick, we have a very, very good club championship. Lads at club level are getting a huge amount of games, the structure is really good. They probably would like a little bit of a break in there somewhere, so taking two weeks out of that would be a challenge, no doubt,” Kiely reasoned.

Against that, however, the Treaty boss wouldn’t mind seeing the All-Ireland finalists enjoy longer than the current two-week run-in to the concluding Sunday.

“I can see the desire for the closing part of the inter-county season to move a week or so, that is only going to affect two or four counties. I could see how it could move a little bit, just to give a little bit of a build-up to the final itself. Two weeks is very tight. I hope it is a problem that we have, but at the minute it is not a concern for us. ”