Not much thought for player welfare

Back in harness after two weeks off, you’d have thought I’d be full of the joys of life, particularly with Leitrim teams, men's and women, opening their 2023 League campaigns in such impression fashion but, as I’ve said before and I’m sure you realise by now, there is a contrary streak in me!

It is not as if there is a shortage of subjects to get my teeth into right now - the entire Kilmacud Crokes Glen 17 man debacle could span about ten columns on the rights and wrongs of the entire imbroglio but I’m not going to wade into that right now except to say it should never have happened.

I will make one observation and it is that Croke Park’s hands were tied in not acting sooner and that comes down to what might happen on the fields of Drumreilly or Pairc Sean or Boggaun or a million fields up and down the country. The minute a committee, national or local, decides to intervene off their own bat in the result of a game based on their interpretation of a controversial incident, that sets a precedent and hey presto,  the floodgates open up all the way down to U13.

Reading the tea-leaves from The Dome

by John Connolly, Sports Editor

Granted the Club Final mess comes down to a pretty clear incident of too many players on the field but if a committee can unilaterally decide to intervene on the foot of a perceived injustice, where do you draw the line? There have been two County Senior Finals in Leitrim in the past five years that featured game altering moments that were clearly wrong so where do you draw the line.

All I know about the Club Final controversy is that there will be no winners in this one, no matter where the Andy Merrigan Cup ends up.

A column on the wonderful success of the 50 Miles in January Challenge would be an easy write with over €118,000 raised on Tuesday morning when I pen this column. A remarkable achievement although the campaign is not over yet with an event in London next weekend for the League clash with the Exiles bringing yet another successful fundraising campaign to a conclusion.

It’d be easy to write about the men's and ladies teams winning last Sunday in the League, even easier to write about the plainly bizarre timing of both games that saw the men’s game against Waterford still going on all while the sound of the whistle from the Ladies’ crushing victory over Kilkenny clearly audible from Pairc Naomh Mhuire.

A double header would have been a sensible solution but with the lack of a top class all-weather pitch that could take two games at this time of the year scuppered that idea but it would have been even more sensible to leave a little bit of time between the games so that fans might just have the chance to take both games in - it is not too much to ask!

Everton, a painful subject for me right now, could have easily flowed from the keyboard of this Toffees fan but I’m realistic enough to know that is the definition of a “niche” column. Another opus on the madness of Transfer Deadline Day would have been an easy write but been here, done that.

Fixture congestion and the onerous workload being placed on college students is topical with our own Donal Casey and Galway’s Rob Finnerty suffering injuries in Allianz League action last weekend that will knock them out of Sigerson Cup action and quite a bit of League to boot.

We’re supposed to be more enlightened about training loads and the demands of matches on young players but what Sigerson players are going through right now is simply cruel and so outdated as to defy belief. I fully understand why county managers want to have full access to their most talented players but, for the sake of a few weeks, compromises have got to be made.

Reflecting on an amazing 2022

Leitrim Observer Sports Review of the Year

Casey and Finnerty will miss out on their Sigerson Quarter Finals this week and probably a lot more - I don’t know how long both have left in college but they could quite conceivably have at least ten years in their County colours and they mightn’t have that many opportunities to win the prestigious college competition.

Of course, a better thought out calendar might alleviate those demands and that actually coincides with what has been grinding my teeth all week - the decision of Leitrim clubs to do away with Finish on the Day protocols in the championship, a decision I believe shows absolute disregard for their club’s players.

Opposition to the Finish on the Day protocols seem rooted in old fashioned ideas of “foreign” sports or horror at the thought of losing a penalty shootout but I simply don’t understand why losing to a last minute point or enduring a hammering is regarded as better than losing a penalty shootout?

What “Finish on the Day” gave players, and we’re always told that the players are at the heart of the GAA, is certainty -  a certainty of when they would be playing and a chance to organise their lives and their time around their commitment to gaelic games.

Those making the decision last week aren’t the ones struggling to find the time to fit in training sessions or matches  and after years of high profile campaigns from the now defunct Club Players Association, one that convulsed the Association and had plenty of support in this county, denying players a clearly defined calendar of events just beggars belief.

I was talking to one club player last week who simply couldn’t believe the decision that was made - he loved the Finish on the Day format and  can't understand why his club supported the motion.

Extra-time and penalties are cruel, I  acknowledge that, but if we take the sole replay in last year's Leitrim club championships, the chances are that a replay of the St Mary’s Kiltoghert and Fenagh St Caillins Senior semi-final would have ensured, in all probability, a Mohill victory in the final given that St Mary’s or Fenagh would have come through two gruelling, strength sapping encounters on a heavy pitch with just a scant week to recover and prepare.

Chances are that Fenagh’s hopes in the replay were already hit below the waterline with the injury sustained by Ryan O’Rourke, an injury he soldiered through in extra-time, and which would have knocked him out of the replay.

Simply pushing back the Final an extra week to give the replay winners a chance to recover would have wreaked havoc with the fixtures schedule, pitch availability  and the plans of clubs in other competitions and that is not fair to anyone either.

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Some will say Connolly is losing his mind over something that only happened once in the three years of “Finish on the Day” protocols but, fate being what it is, watch out for a lot of replays later this year.

Also, on a point of order, the successful St Mary’s motion to do away with “Finish on the Day” protocols is a little vague as it simply refers to all Senior, Intermediate and Junior championship games. You  could make the case that the motion applies to all group games with replays on the docket for group games that end level!

Now, I’ll agree that is a pedantic point to make and there is an understanding there that the motion applies only to knockout games but as we’re discovering with the Glen Kilmacud controversy, rules are rules and sometimes, things need to be clearly spelt out!

But I suppose the message to players is that when your plans get thrown up in the air, you have to rearrange work or holidays or anything of a hundred different things  that goes into modern day life by an unexpected replay next Autumn, maybe chat with your club officials and have your voices heard. Clubs are entitled to vote whatever way they see fit but maybe, just maybe, they might start thinking about the welfare of their players when making these decisions.