GAA must look at split season again
While the Waterford senior hurlers bowed out of the 2024 hurling championship in Limerick last Sunday, the club championship in this county won't start till August. Photo: Inpho.
We probably would not be having this conversation if Waterford had qualified for the final stages of the All-Ireland Hurling Championship but the fact is that the inter county season has ended for Waterford, Tipperary and Galway two months ahead of the All-Ireland final and the start of the club championship season.
At the same time the football season ambles on with the provincial championships completed and a farcical four groups of four teams, from which only one team in each group will be eliminated, preceding a 12-team knockout championship.
With a further round of games to be played this coming weekend it is almost clear who will be eliminated and who will progress to the ‘super eight’ playoffs. While the Munster Hurling Championships attracted ‘full houses’ to the smaller venues of Walsh Park and Cusack Park, generating big game atmospheres, and crowds of over 30,000 and 40,000 to Limerick, Cork and Thurles, football attendances in Croke Park plummeted to below 20,000 despite Dublin’s involvement.
Meanwhile the Tailteann Cup proceeds and if two big football counties like Kildare and Down get to the final there might be as many as 10,000 in Croke Park for the big event.
The structure of the football championship is proving a disaster and while the hurling championship, under the Round Robin system continues to attract in Munster but the games start far too early after the end of the league and should be spread over the months of May and June, giving amateur players ample time for recovery with the All-Ireland finals reverting to September dates as before.
This coming weekend Waterford will play Longford in a meaningless Tailteann Cup game and then the Déise footballers will join their hurling counterparts in trying to fill in the next two months either preparing for the start of the club hurling championships in August or waiting for the club football championships in mid-September.
There will, of course, be the invitations for teachers or students to head to the big American cities of New York, Boston or Chicago until the knockout stages of the championships commence.
The whole set up now needs to be reviewed at not only national but local level. With Waterford out of all inter county competitions there is no reason why the county championships should not start in early July giving teams breathing space between games and building interest. Playing games week in week out does not give players any chance of recovering from injuries. There is no obligation on county boards to delay championships until after the All-Ireland finals as counties such as Wexford showed last year while others continued to ignore the split season at club level.
Waterford’s defeat by Galway in the All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship last Saturday was a big disappointment following on the failure of our U-20 team to win a game under the Round Robin system in Munster. The respective managements put a lot of work into preparing for the championships and results in pre championship outings gave grounds for optimism in both cases. Things did not go according to plan with the U -20 team failing to win a game while the minors beat Limerick in their final outing to make it into a preliminary quarter-final against Galway.
Having fared well against Leinster teams in their championship preparations Waterford were quietly confident facing a Galway side they had beaten earlier in a challenge game but the Tribesmen proved a different proposition on Saturday and were full value for their 13-point victory. What was even more surprising was Wexford’s big win over a Cork side that had 15-points to spare over Waterford in the championship. Waterford had also beaten that Wexford side twice in challenge games.
Both underage managements are expected to remain on next year with many of the same players available. Hopefully this year’s experience will stand to them.
The only bright spot came in the performance of the minor footballers who were most unlucky not to come through the Phase 1 stage of the championship to face Cork or Kerry. They were the better side when losing by a single point as a result of a last minute goal away to a Clare side that went on to lose a semi-final to Cork. They followed up with a win over Limerick that saw them into a tier 2 away game against Offaly which they won and were narrowly beaten during the week by Laois.
In his post game interviews on Sunday last Davy Fitzgerald made no secret of his disappointment at failing to qualify for the All-Ireland series and even the Munster Final. He had no doubt but that Waterford are one of the top three teams in Munster and on their form in the three Round Robin games deserved to progress to the knockout stages of the championship. The manager was full of praise for his players, stressing how he and they got on together and how he enjoyed his two years with them. Whether that two years evolves into a third is unclear but what is clear is that the players would want the manager back for one more go at the championship with Clare and Limerick coming to Walsh Park next year. Only time will tell.
