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ridiculous assigning April to "club month" and yet here we only have 2 rounds of SHC early in the month (completed Sunday 7th April) and then nothing more until July..Joe McDonagh or not its either club month or not, and for all counties...we have is it 12 Senior Clubs, loads of games which wont do anyone any good, it will be down to the same 3/4 clubs come end of the championship on some damp October Sunday when we will 3 months or more after we are knocked out of the AI championships...if we were a bigger county hurling and club wise it would probably be worse, not better, as some claim/suggest the bigger counties have the supply of players to keep their club CS going along as much as possible...I know people are going to argue the reasons, but I am just saying, 2 rounds, done and dusted 7th April, and then nothing...not good enough...

Fairplayalways wrote:ridiculous assigning April to "club month" and yet here we only have 2 rounds of SHC early in the month (completed Sunday 7th April) and then nothing more until July..Joe McDonagh or not its either club month or not, and for all counties...we have is it 12 Senior Clubs, loads of games which wont do anyone any good, it will be down to the same 3/4 clubs come end of the championship on some damp October Sunday when we will 3 months or more after we are knocked out of the AI championships...if we were a bigger county hurling and club wise it would probably be worse, not better, as some claim/suggest the bigger counties have the supply of players to keep their club CS going along as much as possible...I know people are going to argue the reasons, but I am just saying, 2 rounds, done and dusted 7th April, and then nothing...not good enough...

You're not alone in thinking like this, but Offaly GAA people need to get away from the mindset that playing league games is "and then nothing". You can't have a system where it's all championship games, and you also have to allow for the fact that it's a dual county. There are football league games over the next couple of weekends and if clubs treat them right, they'll have their county players and they will be decent games.

Fairplayalways wrote:ridiculous assigning April to "club month" and yet here we only have 2 rounds of SHC early in the month (completed Sunday 7th April) and then nothing more until July..Joe McDonagh or not its either club month or not, and for all counties...we have is it 12 Senior Clubs, loads of games which wont do anyone any good, it will be down to the same 3/4 clubs come end of the championship on some damp October Sunday when we will 3 months or more after we are knocked out of the AI championships...if we were a bigger county hurling and club wise it would probably be worse, not better, as some claim/suggest the bigger counties have the supply of players to keep their club CS going along as much as possible...I know people are going to argue the reasons, but I am just saying, 2 rounds, done and dusted 7th April, and then nothing...not good enough...

I agree with you you FairPlay. In reality Offaly teams will probably exit the championships in June/July, yet in 4 months time, we have our Senior Finals. If you can play league games, what is the difference with championship matches.
It is just a couple of years since football and hurling championship games were played in April.
In Senior A football, 3 teams might be classed as dual clubs, the remaining 5 are football only.

SearingDrive wrote:

Fairplayalways wrote:ridiculous assigning April to "club month" and yet here we only have 2 rounds of SHC early in the month (completed Sunday 7th April) and then nothing more until July..Joe McDonagh or not its either club month or not, and for all counties...we have is it 12 Senior Clubs, loads of games which wont do anyone any good, it will be down to the same 3/4 clubs come end of the championship on some damp October Sunday when we will 3 months or more after we are knocked out of the AI championships...if we were a bigger county hurling and club wise it would probably be worse, not better, as some claim/suggest the bigger counties have the supply of players to keep their club CS going along as much as possible...I know people are going to argue the reasons, but I am just saying, 2 rounds, done and dusted 7th April, and then nothing...not good enough...

I agree with you you FairPlay. In reality Offaly teams will probably exit the championships in June/July, yet in 4 months time, we have our Senior Finals. If you can play league games, what is the difference with championship matches.
It is just a couple of years since football and hurling championship games were played in April.
In Senior A football, 3 teams might be classed as dual clubs, the remaining 5 are football only.

in senior A football, Clara, Tullamore, Ferbane, Shamrocks and Gracefield all play hurling and have a serious crossover of players playing both. So maybe check your facts!

not surprised so many agree with my view, these League games do appear to be part of the problem, in all honestly when you look at some of the fixtures (league) and wonder who the hell bothers or will even remember these games by years end, and these are played yet a round of the championship cannot be played!!!..appreciate the football dilemma and while it shouldn't be impossible it appears to be due to tough stances taken by managements, any club that falls out with any player for choosing one code over the other, well need I say anymore, that player might be better off if its taken like that... they should be accommodated or else choose a code and stick with it, most panels have upto 25 to 30 players and might be even bigger on county final day as happens, so we are a small county, with a small amount of clubs, get the hell on with it and play the championship, this lulling around is doing no one any good and is certainly not sending out a good message to fringe an players on panels which is more or less telling them they are not good enough to play a big game as player X isn't available (we will get game postponed) while training with the county, is it any wonder lads pack it in(club) after a couple of years..we all know many of them..anyways, everyone has their views and appreciate the debate..thats all it is by the way..debate...

by the way, playing your fringe/panel in these league games is not a solution to weaker players not getting games..easy to trust them to fulfill a fixture to keep the county board happy but NOT trust them in a round of the championship...that line does be trotted out by the powers that be "oh league games are a chance for lads to get a game etc"...not good enough.

lovelyhurling wrote:

SearingDrive wrote:

Fairplayalways wrote:ridiculous assigning April to "club month" and yet here we only have 2 rounds of SHC early in the month (completed Sunday 7th April) and then nothing more until July..Joe McDonagh or not its either club month or not, and for all counties...we have is it 12 Senior Clubs, loads of games which wont do anyone any good, it will be down to the same 3/4 clubs come end of the championship on some damp October Sunday when we will 3 months or more after we are knocked out of the AI championships...if we were a bigger county hurling and club wise it would probably be worse, not better, as some claim/suggest the bigger counties have the supply of players to keep their club CS going along as much as possible...I know people are going to argue the reasons, but I am just saying, 2 rounds, done and dusted 7th April, and then nothing...not good enough...

I agree with you you FairPlay. In reality Offaly teams will probably exit the championships in June/July, yet in 4 months time, we have our Senior Finals. If you can play league games, what is the difference with championship matches.
It is just a couple of years since football and hurling championship games were played in April.
In Senior A football, 3 teams might be classed as dual clubs, the remaining 5 are football only.

in senior A football, Clara, Tullamore, Ferbane, Shamrocks and Gracefield all play hurling and have a serious crossover of players playing both. So maybe check your facts!

I had included Ferbane, Tullamore and Shamrocks as SF clubs with dual players. The others are intermediate and junior clubs. A little more thought, less smart replies would help. You haven't disagreed with the point re length of championship, October finals.

Fairplayalways wrote:not surprised so many agree with my view, these League games do appear to be part of the problem, in all honestly when you look at some of the fixtures (league) and wonder who the hell bothers or will even remember these games by years end, and these are played yet a round of the championship cannot be played!!!..appreciate the football dilemma and while it shouldn't be impossible it appears to be due to tough stances taken by managements, any club that falls out with any player for choosing one code over the other, well need I say anymore, that player might be better off if its taken like that... they should be accommodated or else choose a code and stick with it, most panels have upto 25 to 30 players and might be even bigger on county final day as happens, so we are a small county, with a small amount of clubs, get the hell on with it and play the championship, this lulling around is doing no one any good and is certainly not sending out a good message to fringe an players on panels which is more or less telling them they are not good enough to play a big game as player X isn't available (we will get game postponed) while training with the county, is it any wonder lads pack it in(club) after a couple of years..we all know many of them..anyways, everyone has their views and appreciate the debate..thats all it is by the way..debate...

There are a lot think like yourself. I thought it was just me. This issue will have to be addressed by Co. Board delegates and executive together Club delegates have the power to accept/ reject proposals, and I accept fixtures committee have a thankless job.

not sure who is being referred to about the "smart replies" above, anyway, I am just making a point a lot of people seem to be in agreement with, our championships should be progressing, at the very least in the month of April as assigned, 2 rounds of SHC is not good enough, keeping the system "ticking over" with Senior League games is not doing anyone anygood long term...God fobid if we were a big county we wouldn't get through the games at all if applying the current system...anyway no harm to be having the debate, I was talking to a hurling man during the week and was saying players were making plans for summer(now this break is here) and his own son was heading off for summer, wanted to stay and hurl but wasn't going to hang around either...

You need to have a good solid league in place for clubs. Player fall off is a lack of meaningful games. A lot of counties only play 2 rounds of championship. Dublin and tipp for example. Both counties have a good league system in place. Dublin in particular have a excellant league. Promotion and relegation needs to happen. Maybe even a link from the league into championship.

Looking at the calendar, and that the Offaly Senior hurlers and footballers begin their campaigns on the weekend of 12th/13th June, perhaps another round of hurling championship could have been fitted in, or the football league played last weekend and the hurling championship’s second round been played this weekend. It’s splitting hairs really. Last year, two rounds of football championship were played in addition to two hurling rounds, but the clubs voted to defer the football championship until July his year.

I don’t know what you mean by “loads of games which won’t do anyone any good”. Whether the championship is a straight knockout or a round-robin format followed by a knockout series, any team can only be knocked out once.

As for the same 3 / 4 clubs at the end of the year, well, no one expected Coolderry to win the Senior hurling last year, and Belmont (twice semi-finalists now) wouldn’t be seen as ‘the same 3 / 4 clubs’.

All Offaly Senior hurling finals since 2003 have been played in October, and since then only 2003, 2006 and 2014 have been wet days. You’re as likely to have a wet day in summer as in October. You’re probably more likely to have a tail end of a hurricane in September too. And while it might be great to play to county final in August or September, the winners would face an extremely long gap before Leinster competition.

Fairplayalways wrote:ridiculous assigning April to "club month" and yet here we only have 2 rounds of SHC early in the month (completed Sunday 7th April) and then nothing more until July..Joe McDonagh or not its either club month or not, and for all counties...we have is it 12 Senior Clubs, loads of games which wont do anyone any good, it will be down to the same 3/4 clubs come end of the championship on some damp October Sunday when we will 3 months or more after we are knocked out of the AI championships...if we were a bigger county hurling and club wise it would probably be worse, not better, as some claim/suggest the bigger counties have the supply of players to keep their club CS going along as much as possible...I know people are going to argue the reasons, but I am just saying, 2 rounds, done and dusted 7th April, and then nothing...not good enough...

For the Coolderry v MLR match programme, I did a schedule of Coolderry’s matches during the year. Coolderry Seniors played 19 matches (between League, championship and Leinster league) between February 10th and October 7th. That’s a span of 34 weeks, so roughly a match every two weeks, and there was one four-week gap and one three-week gap. Coolderrry won the domestic league, gaining momentum along the way, and reached the semi-final of the Leinster league. So maybe the league does carry some value.

Let’s be logical here. With the inter-county schedule as it is now, with four Joe McDonagh games over six weekends, with Leinster football in tandem, football qualifiers during late June, the possibility of a McDonagh cup final and an All-Ireland eighth-final, there isn’t a hope in hell of playing club championship before the scheduled resumption. Not a hope. The only hope is that the intercounty hurling returns to a straight knockout. And while I wouldn’t like to see it introduced, a tiered football championship would only add to the already crowded inter-county schedule.

It could be worse – we could have a straight knockout championship like they do in many Ulster counties. One strike and you’re out.

Fairplayalways wrote:not surprised so many agree with my view, these League games do appear to be part of the problem, in all honestly when you look at some of the fixtures (league) and wonder who the hell bothers or will even remember these games by years end, and these are played yet a round of the championship cannot be played!!!..appreciate the football dilemma and while it shouldn't be impossible it appears to be due to tough stances taken by managements, any club that falls out with any player for choosing one code over the other, well need I say anymore, that player might be better off if its taken like that... they should be accommodated or else choose a code and stick with it, most panels have upto 25 to 30 players and might be even bigger on county final day as happens, so we are a small county, with a small amount of clubs, get the hell on with it and play the championship, this lulling around is doing no one any good and is certainly not sending out a good message to fringe an players on panels which is more or less telling them they are not good enough to play a big game as player X isn't available (we will get game postponed) while training with the county, is it any wonder lads pack it in(club) after a couple of years..we all know many of them..anyways, everyone has their views and appreciate the debate..thats all it is by the way..debate...

I'm only after seeing that clubs are to have their county players available for the two rounds of the football league being played this weekend and on next Thursday. That being the case, it wouldn't have been possible to play any further rounds of the hurling championship before the break.

Fairplayalways wrote:not sure who is being referred to about the "smart replies" above, anyway, I am just making a point a lot of people seem to be in agreement with, our championships should be progressing, at the very least in the month of April as assigned, 2 rounds of SHC is not good enough, keeping the system "ticking over" with Senior League games is not doing anyone anygood long term...God fobid if we were a big county we wouldn't get through the games at all if applying the current system...anyway no harm to be having the debate, I was talking to a hurling man during the week and was saying players were making plans for summer(now this break is here) and his own son was heading off for summer, wanted to stay and hurl but wasn't going to hang around either...

FairPlay. I am not referring to you re 'smart replies'. You raise valid points about tne time frame to compete the championships, 6 months to October is too long in my view. Other people have a different view, that is their right.

it is, and no one is being smart or need to check their facts, we know the facts as they are, whether we agree or not is our perogitive, but we can make the view, I would say the issue of Coolderry playing all those games as outline by other contributor is very valid, but the bulk of those games were league games I think he said, I stand corrected, and playing all those league games and not playing championship, in my view, defeats the purpose somewhat of not playing actual championship matches but do play league matches..I do think the League should be tied into the championship if we are to stick to this route..form gained in maybe winning 2 straight rounds of the championship, unless you are a top team, doesn't necessarily stay with you for 12/15 weeks while waiting for the championship to resume, its the same as anything, the intensity profile will drop if the game at the end of the day is only a league game..the issue of players not being available for either code because of the other is code is clashing, is an issue I have raised also, no easy solution but you either pick your code, stick with it, OR management agree to that player will be available for both codes, if he/she gets injured so be it, it can happen to any player even in a training match...in effect we have 2 leagues running, one serious (championship) and the other, well its a league...