Brendan O’Brien
JOB done, the Kerry boys hoovered up their post-match meal at Jury’s Croke Park Hotel last Sunday before boarding the team coach back to the Kingdom. It will be four more weeks before most of us clap eyes on them again.
Does anyone else see something wrong with that?
Four weeks between a semi-final and a final? Three weeks for the winners of the Dublin and Donegal game next Sunday? Why? What earthly reason could there be for dragging things out so long because it sure as hell isn’t the players’ idea.
The answer is simple. Territory.
Senior GAA officials have previously gone on record to reject out of hand the possibility of bringing the senior football and hurling deciders forward a few weeks the reason being that they need to ring as much publicity as possible out of the championships.
By condensing those competitions, they have argued, they would be leaving the field open for their competitors to capture hearts and minds but that policy is set to bite them on the derriere next month in what is a sport-saturated September.
The entire nation has been licking its lips in anticipation of a third successive All-Ireland meeting of Tipperary and Kilkenny but the hurling will have to vie for attention with the Republic of Ireland who play a crucial European Championship qualifier against Slovakia two days earlier.
Not just that, but Giovanni Trapattoni’s side will follow that game at the Aviva Stadium up with a trip to Moscow on the Tuesday. Beat the Slovaks and the possibility of a first appearance in a major finals in ten years will get everyone buzzing and straddle the entire weekend.
The football final faces similar competition. Ireland face Australia in what should be the pivotal game of Pool C in the Rugby World Cup on Saturday 17, less than 24 hours before Kerry take on Dublin or Donegal at Croke Park.
The All-Irelands will still demand to be seen and heard – they always are — but there are only so many pages in newspapers and only so many minutes that can be filled by broadcasters which automatically means a smaller bite of the pie for the GAA.
The calendar isn’t always so full at this juncture every year but the fact remains that the GAA aren’t doing themselves any favours by stretching their two signature competitions out to such extremes as there are other factors to consider too.
For a start, play the All-Irelands at the end of August and it leaves more time for club fixtures in the relevant counties and the scheduling of games every two weeks would surely add some badly-needed momentum to a stop-start competition.
By the time Kerry wrap up their duties this year they will have played six games – providing there is no replay – in 17 weeks. That is almost one game every three weeks which is ridiculous when compared to other sports.
Declan Kidney’s squad face five highly-attritional games of contact sport in five weeks in New Zealand while, as has already been stated, the national soccer side will compete twice inside five days.
Okay, so they are professionals and GAA players are amateur but Colm Cooper and Seamus Woods – the chairman of the CCCC which is responsible for fixtures – both agree that the championships could and should be trimmed — and at both ends.
Don’t count on that happening any time soon.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/W5--PzGs0do/post.aspx
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