Offaly Championship Football 1st Round

[Thereorthereabouts]

Any comments or odds on the first round of matches to be played next weekend folks?

[Hocker]

Shannonbridge will play Shamrocks in the first senior football championship match of the year next Wednesday evening in O'Connor park Tullamore... I'm not sure as to what other fixtures/dates that are set as of yet!!

[Lone Shark]

Is that right - a Wednesday evening, only four days after Derek Molloy would have been hurling for Offaly and Neville Coughlan would have been playing football in Wexford? Seems amazing to not start the championship on the Friday night and have a proper weekend of it really.

[Archangel]

Seems amazing to not start the championship on the Friday night and have a proper weekend of it really.

Well our County Fixtures Committee are a joke at the best of times, so don't go looking for a sane organised championship. Just ask any Junior player, who will probably get 2 days notice of their first match,.. They will start picking out matches here and there and it will be a mess for ages. Same old, same old.

[theman]

If offaly footballers win on saturday isnt the championship put back a week? When are the clubs going to be notified when the championship starts...prob 2 days before it starts. Offaly Co. Board are the WORST ever!

[club125]

Your Club was notified in January of all league fixtures dates and that the Championship would start in w/k Jul 11/12 if Offaly were out of the Championship. It was also pointed out that the if Offaly were still in the Championship it would be delayed by one week.

Breakdown in communication somewhere

[Hyper]

So where did the rumour mill gather that the start of the championship was put back a week to w/e 19 July?

[Archangel]

A week away from the start of the championship, and all we have are rumours of teams playing.
Depending on senior, inters to play first etc...it get's messy to be fair for the lower teams.
And just when heaps of lads are heading off on holidays....!!!!!

[Lone Shark]

In fairness to the county board, they did say all along that the championships were starting in July - albeit it was a ridiculous time to pick because it was the time that we were most likely to have intercounty games, but even so. I feel your pain when it comes to junior stuff, I'm hoping to make our third team so our match will probably be a Tuesday or Wednesday evening or some such (grand and handy when you live in Galway ) but in terms of holidays, I'm sorry but lads don't really have a leg to stand on - it was always laid out that June was free, while the free week for the August bank holiday is in there too - albeit that's Galway races for a lot of lads.

[club125]

In fairness to the county board, they did say all along that the championships were starting in July - albeit it was a ridiculous time to pick because it was the time that we were most likely to have intercounty games, but even so. I feel your pain when it comes to junior stuff, I'm hoping to make our third team so our match will probably be a Tuesday or Wednesday evening or some such (grand and handy when you live in Galway ) but in terms of holidays, I'm sorry but lads don't really have a leg to stand on - it was always laid out that June was free, while the free week for the August bank holiday is in there too - albeit that's Galway races for a lot of lads.

I have to have my two cents on this LS

I don't see anything wrong with commencing the championship in July, based on the following reasons and in no particular order

1. Commencing in July (at present when Offaly teams are poor) provides certainty around running off the Championship. All the inter county teams are finished and the championship may run off every 2 weeks etc

2. Ample playing time up to this point is provided by the re structured leagues. Certainly the case for teams making the knockout stages. However they could be tweaked for a later start and a condensing of the games. The problems with the Junior leagues must also be resolved.
From a clubs perspective it is fantastic to have the league finished. There is nothing worse than ending your interest in the championship in Aug. only to be asked to play the final 3 league matches in Oct/Nov. Worse still for Club officials to have to go and pull a team together. Plus players don't like it and it sends out a message of a dis-organised association.

3. The new system provides certainty for players, incl. holiday breaks. Communication could be improved to rely the schedule to the players

4. I think at present this is the best we can do. We haven't got the infrastructure i.e. ref's, officials, good all weather grounds to extend our competitions nay further.

[Lone Shark]

I have to have my two cents on this LS

I don't see anything wrong with commencing the championship in July, based on the following reasons and in no particular order

1. Commencing in July (at present when Offaly teams are poor) provides certainty around running off the Championship. All the inter county teams are finished and the championship may run off every 2 weeks etc

2. Ample playing time up to this point is provided by the re structured leagues. Certainly the case for teams making the knockout stages. However they could be tweaked for a later start and a condensing of the games. The problems with the Junior leagues must also be resolved.
From a clubs perspective it is fantastic to have the league finished. There is nothing worse than ending your interest in the championship in Aug. only to be asked to play the final 3 league matches in Oct/Nov. Worse still for Club officials to have to go and pull a team together. Plus players don't like it and it sends out a message of a dis-organised association.

3. The new system provides certainty for players, incl. holiday breaks. Communication could be improved to rely the schedule to the players

4. I think at present this is the best we can do. We haven't got the infrastructure i.e. ref's, officials, good all weather grounds to extend our competitions nay further.

By all means have two cents, have ten if you want - the more debate the better.

(1) I agree completely that it makes sense to plan our fixtures around what we expect our county teams to achieve, but then why did we leave the entire month of June free? Alternatively, why plan it for the same week as round 2 of the qualifiers, when any bookie could tell you that a division three team is odds on to be involved? Why not settle on the third or fourth week in July, run the leagues later and players would have certainty - or else play one round in June and another in July as soon as the county team is out - which is a slightly longer than ideal break, but still not a ridiculous one?

(2) As you say, the leagues were perfect for teams making the knockouts - but that was only sixteen teams out of fifty odd. Surely the aim should be to satisfy the majority rather than the minority, perhaps by only having a final if necessary? Agree completely that getting them finished before the championship is the way to go though - I'd say 90% of players would support and endorse that idea.

(3) The problem with this is that there's a degree of "boy who cried wolf" here. If players could believe that the fixture list was sacrosanct, then that would be fine, but time and bitter experience has taught them otherwise. At the risk of getting a little high and mighty, trust in fixtures has been lost, it must be re-earned, not just expected. The remedy is to have the fixture list freely available online on Offaly.gaa.ie, with a clear plan for what will happen when and as manay contingencies as possible regarding the county teams. For example, most club players still don't know what the story is regarding dual players. Will Tullamore or Shamrocks be asked to play a championship football game if Shane Dooley or Derek Molloy has a county hurling fixture in seven days time? We don't know.

(4) I don't think anyone is asking for championships to take place deep into the winter or anything like it, while club players are so used to being trod on that even if they do only get the tail end of the summer, they won't complain - as long as they have leagues to keep them going and the games are played approximately when they were supposed to be. Right now it'll probably be next weekend, but if we beat Wexford, then it's the 18th/19th - when Offaly hurlers will be playing - or will it? We simply don't know.


Any right minded individual, be they a player or just a supporter, knows that a perfect solution for all is not possible. But not unlike our current government, it would be nice to be told what ye're doing, and why it's the best possible solution. Instead, just like in politics, we have a constant feeling of not knowing what's going on and an inability to plan for the future because only God knows what's coming and when.

[Treasurer]

why did we leave the entire month of June free?

the leagues - perhaps by only having a final if necessary?

The remedy is to have the fixture list freely available online on Offaly.gaa.ie

I agree with a lot of what's being said, and I'm not suggesting for one second things are anywhere near perfect - far from it - nor am I trying to blame the clubs for the problems, but just to answer those three points to the best of my knowledge if that helps.

There have been attempts to drop the June free option, but clubs have repeatedly insisted that it stays due to Leaving Cert students.

Likewise the proposed changes for leagues and championships included league finals only, but clubs proposed and passed that semi finals be included.

The master fixture list (again not claiming it's perfect) was circulated to clubs as far back as early February, yet a lot of club players don't seem to be aware of its existence.

[club125]

It is true that the master fixture list, which has been honoured in the most part, was circulated to all clubs.

It's obvious that the players were never told. Maybe this is due to the skeptism of many officials that it would not work. However I would suggest that a similar approach next year and it would be more likely to be distributed to players.

Furthermore, the longer the system remains unchanged, players begin to associate certain weekends with key games e.g. First weekend in march signals the start of the league, the league finals will always be the 3 week of June etc.

The U21 championship is a case in point, no one wanted to play it in Jan/Feb. Games were played every week and teams had to get teams out. The Championship finished on time, however there were problems, mostly weather associated. The old chestnut that players can't get back from college to play games is a falsehood and should not be an issue. With exams and other adult competitions taking priority the only other time of year to play it is Oct/Nov. The problem with this is, from experience, the clubs adult teams are finished since Aug. You will not get an u21 to train on its own. Therefore you are just pulling a team together on the day. Whilst Jan/Feb is not ideal, at least the lads are training with the club.

Pending the outcome of the championship I believe a similar model should be followed next year with the required tweaking

[Lone Shark]

Thanks for the info - very enlightening.

Regarding the June thing first, I am absolutely stunned that clubs don't want to play a few league games or something while the Leaving Cert exams are on. It completely baffles me. No championship fair enough, but as was pointed out before, it's the gap between league and championship that's the killer here.

Again, regarding the semis, I would have thought that if it was put to the clubs that you can either (1) have semi finals to the leagues, but the clubs not involved will be finished a week earlier, or (2) have straight finals and have most of the clubs finishing at the same time, then I would have though that surely the latter would have been the preferred option. That said, if it was put to the clubs like that and they voted for what's in place, then that's democracy for you. I guess I'm just in the minority there and I would never blame a county board committee for doing their best to follow clubs' instructions.

Regarding the under 21, I do think it's unfair to say that it's a falsehood that players can't get back. They can, but it's extremely inconvenient and far from ideal. However that doesn't change the fact that there is no convenient time of year for these lads. That said, problems arise when there is a draw, or a fixture pile up, and clubs have to play three or four games in a week. Just because a lot of lads doss in college doesn't mean that it should be presumed that they all do and it's unfair to expect lads to come home two midweek nights in the one week, as happened a few times this year. (Certainly did with Wheery anyway, can't speak for others). I personally think there would be a lot to be said for holding the 2010 Under 21 football championship in October/November of THIS year, since then county selectors could look at it with a view to picking players for the county under 21's in the spring. Also, there wouldn'#t be the same pressure to get it wrapped up quickly if there was a draw or two. However that's just me thinking out loud and not something that I have any basis for - I agree that training would be an issue, but if you're not starting the adult club championships until mid July, there is a real case for saying that what are clubs doing training in January either?


I agree completely that a big part of the problem seems to be that this master fixture list is something of an enigma (ye still haven't mentioned why it isn't posted on offaly.gaa.ie?? Is there some reason why the general public should be denied access?) and that even those who have access to it are utterly sceptical. Again though, surely a little more could be done to explain what the plan is in the case of certain things happening, what are the guidelines for what games are called off on account of what county matches etc. As we all know, nature abhors a vacuum, so in the absence of any definitive information regarding what will happen in Offaly footballers and hurlers win/lose/draw, people end up having a punt on it for themselves. At least if there was something out there that said if A happens, then we plan to do B etc., then nobody would be worried about the other team/manager knowing more than you do.

This might be a lot of work, but this kind of effort to communicate rather than to issue a proclamation and then leave it subject to interpretation would earn the kind of trust in the fixtures that will grease the wheels from all sides.

[Treasurer]

Thanks for the info - very enlightening.

Regarding the June thing first, I am absolutely stunned that clubs don't want to play a few league games or something while the Leaving Cert exams are on. It completely baffles me. No championship fair enough, but as was pointed out before, it's the gap between league and championship that's the killer here.

June 8th to 25th was free from CHAMPIONSHIP. The hurling leagues went ahead as planned, but looking at the results it doesnt' look like the football did - I have no idea why not.