Club V County Debate

[TheManFromFerbane]

Following on from another thread I was wondering what people thought about this problem and any ideas on solving it. It is a huge problem for all the clubs as your best players and most influential players are never with you when you are training and when they do come back for championship matches they are used to playing a different way. On top of that the fixtures situation means that players drift along not knowing when championship is coming and then all of a sudden you are told you have championship in two weeks which is no time to get prepared. Something has to be done but to be honest with you I can't think what. Ideas?

[Lone Shark]

This is a conundrum all right, and to be honest I think in order for it to be resolved properly, it has to be dealt with on a national level. The best solution for it as far as I can tell is to run off the inter county Championships over a shorter space of time, and set aside later for the clubs. I’ve always held the belief that there is too long of a delay between senior inter county games at the best of times, in particular in the latter stages of championship. The likes of last year’s All Ireland final being a prime example – a delay of three or four weeks before the final suited Kerry down to the ground, because this was two extremes. Kerry is the one county in Ireland where the build up to an All Ireland final is almost routine, like just another game. The people are used to this occasion, and don’t get overwhelmed by it too much, and as a result players can get on with preparation. Meanwhile in Mayo the county is gone loopy, and the players have to deal with four weeks of hype.

To be honest I can understand a team needing two weeks after you lose a game, but even that is more than you should need after a win. Winning breeds momentum, so players should be only delighted to go out and play again the week after a championship win.

The longest provincial championships – Leinster and Ulster Football – could be run off between early may and mid June, with the qualifiers running concurrently, concluding with round four in the last weekend in June or first weekend in July. The AI stages would be every two weeks from there – 2nd Sunday in July for the quarters, 3rd and 4th (or 4th and 5th if there are five) Sundays for the semis, and 2nd Sunday in August for the final.

Club championships can then prepare to start in early August, and for all but two counties they’ll be off on time. This leaves August, September and October for the clubs. This might be a little tight for unwieldy championships like Meath’s 8 team group stage, or Dublin’s 34 team straight knockout, but it could be made work.

It would also be an end to club players having to go back training before Christmas – which I think is lunacy. None of this carry on of having to peak in both April and September. The clubs would still be running off their leagues etc throughout the summer, but I think in almost all counties Leagues are just championship preparation anyway.

A few other modifications would have to be made – all suspensions would have to be match based, because four weeks would be very harsh in this set up. Likewise we’d have to shed our traditional attachment to the September final, but I don’t think this is a big thing. It shouldn’t be anyway.

Form what I can tell, the benefits are:

(1) Greater continuity through the Championship
(2) A fixed club season for teams to plan for.
(3) Club attendances would benefit since people would be hyped from a summer’s action, and now here is the local version on your doorstep.
(4) Both county and club players can gear towards a different season and not try to be at or near peak for 8 months of the year.
(5) County managers would have undisputed first call on their players during the relevant time.
(6) The enthusiasm from watching their county during the summer might encourage a lot of lads to go and go back playing with the junior B’s for the championship, and both club participation and the general health of the nation would benefit.

I’m sure I’ve missed a few key things here, but offhand it makes sense to me. Thoughts?

[Flatcap]

wouldnt suit the hurlers at all. theyve to play at at least five games if they have a bad year. that would be very tricky to fit with this.

[Kevin]

Elimination of the possibility of a draw is one way to curb the championship. Extra time then 'golden score' if needed. Replays are a waste of time