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I take it you mean county and intercounty football and hurling leagues on alternate weekends when you say "in parallel". If you run county and club Leagues that way then you won't have a split season any more. And being as in many counties players play both hurling and football for their clubs, you would need 2 club weekends for every county weekend, so you would probably have only enough weekends for 3 or 4 county league games. Would there be any point running the NFL and NHL at all then? And you wouldn't have enough weekends for your club football and hurling Leagues either. Intercounty players who play both hurling and football for their clubs would be at greater risk of burnout also, as they wouldn't be getting any break weekends at all, which they currently get in both hurling and football during the league part of the intercounty season. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18553 - 23/02/2026 09:32:52 2658008 Link 0 |
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Thats one of the reasons why the split season was brought in in the first place. So that clubs and players have certainty. Counties don't have priority over the players during the club window. If some counties don't arrange enough games for clubs during that club window thats a county by county problem, affecting just those counties, not a national one. Counties like Tyrone and Kilkenny even run their Leagues in the club window, before their championships. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18553 - 23/02/2026 10:08:48 2658018 Link 0 |
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I don't want to get too caught up in the overall solution as it will depend on decisions by individual county boards if an 8 game club requirement did come in. The national leagues are included in the intercounty split season. County leagues are not really included in the club split season, with a few exceptions. When looking at if an 8 game club requirement is possible - there needs to be a shared 3 months of national league and county league. Then intercounty championship season, followed by club championship season. I take your point on dual players but if the intention is intercounty footballers available for county football leagues and intercounty hurlers available for county hurling leagues - the likely reality is intercounty footballers NOT available for county hurling leagues and intercounty hurlers NOT available for county football leagues. Not ideal granted but the more likely reality. legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9482 - 23/02/2026 12:06:47 2658083 Link 0 |
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If you have a shared 3 month county and club league season starting at the end of January you will only get 6 rounds of club league and 6 rounds of county league by the end of April. And thats with no break weeks at all. Bad for burnout, and makes huge assumptions about club pitch conditions and availability at that time of year. And 6 weeks isnt enough to run them off if we keep club and county league structures the same as they are, and also we are ignoring dual players, which would cause uproar by itself. Plus also its not allowing for weather at all. And County Championship will have to start and finish later, and club championship will thereforw have to start and finish later. It just won't be possible. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18553 - 23/02/2026 12:36:45 2658095 Link 0 |
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On the back of a pack of cigarettes: a) 14 weeks: 7 rounds of national league and 7 rounds of county league - Jan 25 to Apr 26. b) 6 weeks of provincial football: May 03 to Jun 07. c) Provincial hurling: May 10 to Jun 28. d) Hurling championship: Jul 05 to Aug 09. e) Football championship: Jun 14 to Aug 16. f) 12 weeks of club hurling and football: Aug 23 to Nov 08. g) 5 weeks for provincial hurling and football: Nov 15 to Dec 13. h) All Ireland club hurling and football semi finals: Jan 02 & 03. i) All Ireland club hurling and football finals: Jan 16 & 17. Fine tuning etc. by the powers that be. legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9482 - 23/02/2026 13:12:56 2658120 Link 0 |
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Have had a look at that Colm O'Rourke article you're putting so much faith in. Not for the first time, he's arguing with himself. He argues on the one hand that the motion is necessary. But then with the other hand, points out that Kerry (for example) have no problem in providing copious club games for players, even when they reach an All-Ireland and even without having to meet a quota, and that other counties should be able to do the same. He's also wrong on something. He claims that the motion seeks to compel players to play four Club League matches and four Club Championship matches. It doesn't. Where he's right is that achieving what the motion is calling for would require a fixtures realignment. But here's the nub: it's already open to all counties to do that, even without this motion. And before we tease that out further, consider this fundamental fact too: all inter-county players become available for all club matches as soon as the inter-county side exits their championship. So, if a county feels that their inter-county players don't line out enough with their clubs, the simple solution is to provide more club matches after the inter-county team goes out. Now take Dublin as an example, and consider the imbalance they've created for themselves . They run a Club League that gives a whopping 15 matches to each club, primarily during the inter-county part of the split season. But their club championship structure (four groups of four) only guarantees three matches for each club afterwards. Clear to see how somebody there might see this as an issue. "We only have Paddy for three matches out of 18. Terrible how inter-county players don't get to play for their clubs more often." Now contrast that with Wexford. Five matches in each code in the Club League, rising to six or seven if you make a semi-final and possibly final. A guaranteed five matches in our football championship, and most get six or more. A guaranteed six matches in our hurling championship, and most get at least seven. "We have Paddy for at least half of our matches, and for all the important ones." And we're not alone. Kilkenny do much the same. A guaranteed five matches in their Club League that runs after the county team goes out, and which determines your starting place in their championship. A further League match or two if you make a semi-final, and then your championship matches too. So again....it's already open to counties to themselves provide sufficient club games for their inter-county players. It doesn't need a national rule re. a quota to make this happen. And to slightly re-jig what I've said all along - if this is an issue in Dublin, then the Dublin solution to that issue in Dublin already lies with Dublin themselves, and doesn't need this motion to resolve it. Same goes for any other county. The motion is both unnecessary and unworkable. Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3363 - 23/02/2026 13:32:33 2658128 Link 0 |
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You can give all the weeks you want to club championships in a calendar like that, but if a county has a structure that only guarantees three or four championship matches, and if the motion for a quota of eight is passed, then a single code player has to make up another four or five matches during the County League between January and April. Which means they could be playing 11 or 12 weeks out of 14, swapping back and forth between their county team and club team during that time. I daresay the GPA would have something to say about that. Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3363 - 23/02/2026 13:50:04 2658132 Link 0 |
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With those dates I think you only have 13 weekends for your section a, not 14. And no break weekends for players and fixtures people all year. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18553 - 23/02/2026 14:02:32 2658138 Link 0 |
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With those dates I think you only have 13 weekends for your section a, not 14. And no break weekends for players and fixtures people all year. And no allowance for dual players. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18553 - 23/02/2026 14:02:53 2658139 Link 0 |
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With those dates I think you only have 13 weekends for your section a, not 14. And no break weekends for players and fixtures people all year. And no allowance for dual players. And also many pitches around here arent playable now, never mind a month ago. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18553 - 23/02/2026 14:17:34 2658146 Link 0 |
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1. Jan 25 to Apr 26 is 14 weekends. 2. 7 weekends for county league but 5 of the 7 would be required for the Clontarf motion if players are guaranteed 3 club championship games. 3. Not for county league. Explained already. Realism v idealism. Just offering a general outline anyway. It is a bad state of affairs that intercounty players are not available more for their clubs. It must be solved. 10 intercounty to 3 club games is a terribly imbalanced ratio. legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9482 - 23/02/2026 15:16:38 2658169 Link 0 |
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You keep missing the point. If a lads county only provides 3 club games for that lad to play in 16 weeks of the club window thats a failing of the county concerned, not of the split season, or Congress. As I pointed out a couple of times already some of the lads on our Senior intercounty hurling team played 20 club championship games during the intercounty off season. And some of our intercounty Football team played up around 15 club games. If you averaged out the number of club championship games all our intercounty players, from both panels, played during the intercounty off season it would likely be around 10, probably more, taking into consideration that some of them arent dual players and only played half the games on average that the dual lads played. So if some of your lads only got to play 3 games with their club, and if thats an issue for them, they need to get onto their clubs to put in motions at their county convention to change your championship format/structure. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18553 - 23/02/2026 16:07:20 2658194 Link 0 |
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You keep missing the point. If a lads county only provides 3 club games for that lad to play in 16 weeks of the club window thats a failing of the county concerned, not of the split season, or Congress. As I pointed out a couple of times already some of the lads on our Senior intercounty hurling team played 20 club championship games during the intercounty off season. And some of our intercounty Football team played up around 15 club games. If you averaged out the number of club championship games all our intercounty players, from both panels, played during the intercounty off season it would likely be around 10, probably more, taking into consideration that some of them arent dual players and only played half the games on average that the dual lads played. So if some of your lads only got to play 3 games with their club, and if thats an issue for them, they need to get onto their clubs to put in motions at their county convention to change your championship format/structure. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18553 - 23/02/2026 16:33:41 2658204 Link 0 |
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You miscalculated 14 weekends and accuse my humble self as missing the point! The club championships are supposed to be limited to 16 teams. Like the new All Ireland football championship format - club championships should be completed over 6 weekends. That equates to 12 weekends to complete dual championships. With knockout championship from county quarter finals or semi finals onwards for the majority, 5 of the 8 game requirement needs to be achieved prior to county championships. legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9482 - 24/02/2026 01:07:02 2658284 Link 0 |
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My mistake on the counting, but you havent factored any break weeks into your League weekends, players won't be happy playing so many weekends in a row, and your proposal would also need the NFL to be restructured with less teams per division. You also havent answered the question of where all these early club league games are going to be played. In Kerry you don't have 16 teams per grade. Here in Wexford we don't either. Like many other counties. If the motion does pass, which I don't think it will, it will be up to counties to get the 8 games a year for players in the club window, just as it is now up to them how many games club players get. The split season isnt up for discussion at this time. Most of the stakeholders, players, spectators and administrators acknowledge that its the best compromise. The only real workable alternative is go back to less intercounty games, the way it used to be. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18553 - 24/02/2026 07:27:15 2658289 Link 0 |
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On a point of order: there is no requirement in any Rule or Code for club championships to be limited to 16 teams, or for them to be completed over six weekends. It's open to each county to structure them any way they want, and to play them over whatever number of weekends they choose to use in the timeframe they have available. Nor is there a requirement to wait until the designated "Club" part of the split season to begin your county championships. You can start them soon as you want after your county teams are finished. 24 of the 32 counties will be finished hurling by the end of May this year (all of Ring, Rackard and Meagher Cups, four from Joe McDonagh, two from Munster SHC, and three from Leinster SHC). By weekend of June 20/21, four more will be gone. 22 counties will be finished football by that same weekend of June 20/21. All that will be left will the All-Ireland quarter-finalists, and the Tailteann finalists. If you're one of the counties that will be out of both by then, there's nothing to stop you starting your club championships on or before the weekend of July 4/5. And that gives you a minimum 16 weekends for club games before the provincial club championships are due to start. Now consider how many of these counties need only three or four weekends to run their club hurling championship, because they have only a handful of hurling teams. That leaves them with up to 12 weekends for club football. If they choose to operate a structure that guarantees only three or four matches out of 12 weekends available, then that's on them, and them alone. Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3363 - 24/02/2026 10:24:24 2658308 Link 0 |
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'I've never seen a game go out on such a horrendous pitch' - HoganStand https://share.google/jCaTJsqE0TYPgjgCv An article on Hoganstand. Check out the videos of the Meelick GAA pitch. And this is the end of February. Imagine what pitches would be like if you insisted on club Leagues starting on January. Also the Clontarf motion thats going to Congress doesn't say anything about 4 League games this year like it did last year, just 8 club games, can be either code, and can be League or Championship. . Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18553 - 24/02/2026 10:31:17 2658311 Link 0 |
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'I've never seen a game go out on such a horrendous pitch' - HoganStand https://share.google/jCaTJsqE0TYPgjgCv An article on Hoganstand. Check out the videos of the Meelick GAA pitch. And this is the end of February. Imagine what pitches would be like if you insisted on club Leagues starting on January. Also the Clontarf motion thats going to Congress doesn't say anything about 4 League games this year like it did last year, just 8 club games, can be either code, and can be League or Championship. So theres no reason they cant be played in the existing club window. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18553 - 24/02/2026 10:32:43 2658313 Link 0 |
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BREAK WEEKS 2 of 7 weekends listed. Re-read previous comments. National league should not mean inter county players being unavailable for a few county league rounds. That part of the season needs to be re-evaluated. Clontarf are honing in on an area that has to be addressed. Clubs have been too passive in accepting a flawed arrangement. legendzxix (Kerry) - Posts: 9482 - 24/02/2026 10:38:50 2658317 Link 0 |
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Clontarfs motion this year doesn't say anything specifically about League games. Also where are you going to play all these League games in January and February? There definitely arent enough pitches playable down here even now at the end of February. Our League starts the weekend coming, and there are going to be plenty of postponements. And what structure are you proposing for the NFL now? Its the best overall, and best structured, Football competition in the country and you want to go ruin it so intercounty and club players can play together in slop in January and February. And run the risk of injuries etc. No players, club or county, want what you are proposing. Absolute madness. And all because the odd county can't provide a decent games programme in a 16 week period. 3 games? In 16 weeks? Our club is happy with the current arrangement, as are most around here. Our players are guaranteed a minimum 11 championship games a year at a time of year when pitches arent too bad, and any county players we have in a given year are guaranteed to play in all of these games. Any players not away with the county can play a further minimum 10 League games as is also. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 18553 - 24/02/2026 11:30:32 2658324 Link 0 |