THE LAST POINT: Listening to the same old song

If it seems as if we're living in a gaelic games version of Groundhog Day, I don't blame you as the topic of the condensed inter-county season has raised its head in spectacular fashion once more in  recent weeks and it seems, if you go by the noise they're making, people are not happy one little bit!

Even The Sunday Game got in on the act last weekend, throwing out a tweet asking for WhatsApp contributions after GAA President Jarlath Burns wondered about returning the All-Ireland Finals to September and you only have to look at any of the National press to see correspondents delivering hefty pronouncements on the evils of the Split Season.

The Split Season, brought in during the Covid Year of 2020, was heralded as the game changer of all game changers but, bit by little bit, we're getting push-back, led mainly by the media, county team managers who seem to feel that they don't have enough time to prepare for games,  and a group who hold a nostalgic view of September All-Ireland Finals as some sort of powerful marketing tool that will hold back the tide of the dreaded “other sports”!

Quite how that works I'll never know but before the split season, the cause celebre was the poor Club player waiting around months on end without knowing when, or if, they might get their championship underway. Club players, lest we all forget, the 99% of players who make up the GAA love the new system and that has to be the first starting point.

Does the split season overload the County player? Certainly, if you are  young enough to be lining out for college and county underage sides but that's not exactly a new problem either. It does mean a never-ending merry-go-round for these players but unless you completely divorce the County game from the club scene, no structure devised by man will alleviate that problem.

THE LAST POINT: UNDERDOGS CAN HAVE THEIR DAY

The Split Season was supposed to reduce the demands on players and give certainty for club fixtures but when you hear of County squads on strength & conditioning programmes in June and July and club teams already back in harness in early January, you realise the GAA world has lost all sense of perspective.

The fear that you might get left behind if your club or county doesn't jump on the bandwagon is understandable enough  but against everything what a sport scientist or qualified coach would tell you is right and proper. For too long, the GAA world complained that the games to training ratio was out of whack - now that we're getting to that point, we're hearing coaches don't have enough time to prepare their teams as they would wish - so which is it?

It is not a complaint confined to the GAA either - you hear of English & French rugby teams complaining of their schedule compared to the Irish players all the time while Pep Guardiola went off on a rant about Manchester City’s schedule  after their FA Cup Semi Final win over Chelsea but as one Everton fan pointed out on X, imagine the current City team trying to cope with the schedule the Toffees had in 1985.

Chasing a treble at a time when they were rarer than hen's teeth, Everton  had eight games in the month of March, another eight in April and then nine in May, including a European Cup Winners Cup Final and a FA Cup Final. Not surprisingly, they ran out of gas in the FA Cup Final  against Man United in extra-time as Norman Whiteside curled in a superb winner but  in an era when there was only one sub and squads were maybe 15 strong, that is some schedule of games!

That's in professional sports where they are full-time athletes, able to rest and recuperate so I despair when I see what players are being put through in Gaelic Games. We talk about protecting these young footballers but recently the debate has been about the unfairness of the restrictions against U20 players lining out with their Senior sides during the championship season, so try to square that circle.

I'll be honest, I was sceptical of the Split Season when it was first proposed, I even wrote a column along the lines of  “Be Careful what you wish for” but I've been converted, purely because of what it does for the Club scene. It makes my job harder with more County games squeezed into a much tighter schedule - just look at this weekend with County Minor, U20 and Hurling sides all in action, along with the Ladies - I'd love to have more time between games  but it is still the right way to go.

I haven't heard the September brigade come up with a sensible alternative  to the club and county conundrum other than more time for the Senior Inter-county  - what that does to the club game I don't know but many of the advocates in the National press of the back to September plan don't cover club games, other than a few County Finals and Provincial club championships, so that's no skin off their nose.

THE LAST POINT: Looking for reasons, not excuses

The GAA knew full well they'd take a hit when adopting the Split Season but they did it for the greater good - we're still playing club games in awful conditions at the end of the year, that might be due to climate change and a dearth of all weather pitches  as much as anything else but at least there is certainty for all involved. 

Tradition is great, it grounds us in our history but nobody cited tradition when they expanded the All-Ireland series nor when we did the same at club level. Here's a solution that would solve everything in one fell swoop - let's all jump back in time to the early 90s or even the 60s to the good old one-and-done knockout championship at club and county, get rid of Provincial club championships and then we'll have all the time in the world to enjoy All-Ireland Finals in the September sun!