EXCLUSIVE
A few weeks back in this space, mention was made of the fact that one had been accosted in an online forum for, once again, pointing out the link between the odious split season and player loss due to emigration. Whether temporary or permenant.
Those rebuking my support for the proposal to extend the inter county season into August sighting the fact that players themselves were overwhelmingly in favour of the current setup. Therein lies the problem. Let players play and let those in charge of governance do that. When those lines get blurred, everybody and everything loses out.
In the interest of honesty and to save from being labelled a hypocrite, I will say that (a) I was wholly in favour of the GPA at the time of its inception under the direction of Dessie Farrell and Donal O’Neill and with Donal Og Cusack and Sean Og O’hAilpin prominent in its leadership. And (b), back then, circa 1999/2000, the plight of inter county players was in drastic need of highlighting and remedy.
However, nobody – not least the founding members – would have envisaged, it would be ventured – the Association becoming the sh** stirring rabble it now is. Not to mention that it would spawn the even more maddening Club Players Association. Nuclear developers of the dastardly split season.
Mind you, if anybody thought the current status quo regarding the current season structure was going well, consider that, over the past weekend, one of the biggest and most well known clubs in Westmeath saw their first team having to a concede a match because they only had 11 players available.
A bunch of Westmeath Bachelors with a difference, in that they were short of four more partners to make up a team! A referee based in the Lake County and on the rise through the ranks of whistlers in the county told this website “I was asked to umpire a match over the weekend where the neighbouring club (to his own) were due to play *** but about ten minutes before throw in time the latter’s mentors informed us that they were conceding due to lack of numbers. It has to be worrying when clubs’ first teams are struggling to field, especially some of the bigger clubs”
Just for clarity and lest anyone think yours truly was aiming cheap shots at anybody, The official in question contacted me independently, knowing of my scepticism at best with regard to the split season and to illustrate things on the ground are already putting entities under pressure thanks to the so called ‘better’ regime.
Now, if a club’s first team is finding difficulty in or even failing to field at all as early in the year as March, one shudders to think of what it will be like for clubs around the country when J1-mania takes off in May, June and July.
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