Replying To Viking66:  "Look Tom I don't know if the clubs will vote to change the format or not. I know many dual clubs are in favour of retaining the status quo. I also know most dual players, who are by far the majority of players in the county probably over 90%, want to retain the status quo and have gone on record saying it repeatedly over the last couple of years. Single code clubs want to change it, and some administrators, but it will harm the overall standard of both codes in the county at adult level if the status quo is changed, and therefore likely to affect the standard of our county teams. Hurling and Football are completely different sports with different skillsets. Our record in Leinster and AI club championships is poor because our champion clubs aren't as good as other champion clubs, it's nothing to do with format. For example this year Gorey were rusty looking in the first quarter but won the 2nd quarter well. They just weren't fit enough to keep it going though, as friends from Clare, Limerick and Kilkenny put it who watched the game against KK, lads who are involved in coaching and managing all the way up to intercounty, some of their top players just looked physically out of shape, as regards BMI etc. Another red herring being trotted out in support of the potential change is the promotional aspect for the finalists, but even if the format is changed there will only be 1 extra week between the semis and finals, hardly going to make any difference."

Replying To alwaysasub:  "90%??? I'd question that figure. Anyone im talking to want to return to the alternative weekends. It is probably the same as the vote was last time which was very close between those that want one code to play out and alternative weekends. I also know plenty of players including my own from dual clubs who want to go back. My own personal view hope it happens. Think the championship is a disaster the way it run off so quickly, from a spectacle and from a players point of a view, one injury and your year is nearly over. Anyways I've stated this before so only time will tell when the vote comes"

Replying To lefty:  "100 per cent of the players in my club want to go back to alternative also"

Replying To lefty:  "100 per cent of the players in my club want to go back to alternative also"

Replying To Pikeman96:  "Well, there ya go :)

A very unscientific straw poll based on a very small sample of the clubs we represent here would suggest a split of about 50% looking for alternate blocks, and 50% happy to keep the split season.

I predict that the vote from clubs will be just as close this year as it was last year, but as stated above, the votes from the top table will swing it."

Replying To TerribleFootwork:  "'But it will harm the overall standard of both codes in the county at adult level if the status quo is changed, and therefore likely to affect the standard of our county teams' I think this is very much debatable this is moreso your own personal opinion which is fair enough rather than matter of fact. I don't think the standard of the Senior Hurling championships have improved anyway by being played in a single block, Also while the promotional aspect certainly isn't the biggest priority I wouldn't dismiss it in as flippant a manner as yourself. There was 1 vote in the last year and I'd imagine it will be close again this year."

Replying To TerribleFootwork:  "'But it will harm the overall standard of both codes in the county at adult level if the status quo is changed, and therefore likely to affect the standard of our county teams' I think this is very much debatable this is moreso your own personal opinion which is fair enough rather than matter of fact. I don't think the standard of the Senior Hurling championships have improved anyway by being played in a single block, Also while the promotional aspect certainly isn't the biggest priority I wouldn't dismiss it in as flippant a manner as yourself. There was 1 vote in the last year and I'd imagine it will be close again this year."

Replying To Viking66:  "Agree with you 100% it's my opinion. That's based on the 2 games being completely different which they are, and by far the majority of players in Wexford playing both, which they do. I wasn't dismissing the promotional aspect which I feel in general is very important. I'm on a fundraising committee at our club for example. What I'm questioning is the extra week really making much difference. As regards structures in an ideal world overall I'd like to see the club and county calendars run concurrently as proposed on this forum by the likes of Storeystash and ExiledinWexford. Then there'd be plenty of time for promotional stuff. But realistically that's not going to happen. Nor should it. Because most of the players prefer the status quo."

Replying To TerribleFootwork:  "I think its a topic that will always divide opinion regardless of how championships are run."

Replying To TerribleFootwork:  "I think its a topic that will always divide opinion regardless of how championships are run."

Replying To Pikeman96:  "I actually think the extra week between semi-finals and finals would make a huge difference. Yes, on the one hand, it's only a week. But on the other hand, it's twice as long as what's been in place for the past couple of years.

I'm thinking of places like Oylegate last year and Ferns the year before, who aren't in senior county finals very often. If you win a semi-final on the Sunday, it'll probably be the Tuesday or maybe even Wednesday before you can even get flags up around the village, which I think is a real sign of a place starting to "buzz" before a final. And being in a final gives the whole place a "lift", that's great for as long as it lasts.

And while Ferns in '22 at least had the joy of winning the final, it must almost have been a bit of an anti-climax for Oylegate last year, because despite it being a great thing for them to be in their first senior final in 50 years, it was all over just a few days later and there was nothing but disappointment left.

Having an extra week would also make a big difference to the media for promotional stuff. The local paper would have all that extra time to do previews/interviews/features on the finals, instead of only having a day or two to shoehorn something into the same edition as the one with the semi-final match reports.

Wexford GAA TV is another one that would benefit. Far more scope to visit clubs for feature pieces before county finals instead of having to try get to them on the Monday or Tuesday (managers etc. surely wouldn't want the distraction of a camera and interviewer at a training session any later than the Wednesday of county final week itself).

So yeah, overall, I think the second week would make a huge difference from a promotional point of view."

Replying To Viking66:  "We should have the extra week for both hurling and football anyway with Leinster being put back."

Replying To Pikeman96:  "Yes, but if the vote is to keep the split season with hurling first, I wouldn't automatically expect that extra week to be used as a break between semi-finals and final. Would think it far more likely to be used to give a week off between group stages and knockout rounds.

Or it could end up being used for a replay in a knockout round, instead of what would have happened last year of teams playing a draw at a weekend, having a replay midweek, and then one of them being out again the following weekend."

Replying To Viking66:  "I was rather hoping we would use those 2 weeks to go up to Croke Park for an AISF;-)"

Replying To Viking66:  "I was rather hoping we would use those 2 weeks to go up to Croke Park for an AISF;-)"

Replying To Viking66:  "It will. I honestly don't know what will come out of the vote. Whatever does is what we will all have to along with. A left field thought on the football championship being reduced to 8 teams, does anyone else think this has more to do with sidelining football to an extent? When the hurling championship was being dominated by between 1 and 3 clubs I don't remember this being pushed by the top table for hurling. Club dominance in a county or nationally is very cyclical in both codes, with very few exceptions. Yes right now Castletown, Kilanerin, Shelmaliers and Gusserane are a little ahead of the rest, but it has to be remembered Starlights have 2 of the last 7 football championships, and Martins, Anne's and James's have all won it in the last 11 years. I'll also be a little surprised if Gorey don't win one in the next 5 years also, especially if the split season is retained.
I do feel the main problem with our hurling fortunes as a county is underage coaching. I know from talking to other clubs u12 coaches that many u8 to u12 teams only do 1 session a week. So 1 a fortnight in hurling, weather permitting. That's just not enough relative to other counties. Some teams don't start back til the end of March, which is also very late compared to other counties. And most coaches are enthusiastic parents like me, there needs to be more done to raise the standard of hurling coaching countywide. And most teams don't have enough enthusiastic parents either, many just look at us as a babysitting service while they go off to do other things, or worse again spend the hour in their cars on social media. I also think training sessions should be an hour and a half, with at least a 20 minute game at the end of every session to keep the lads interested.
Another thing compared to other counties is that we are putting more and more emphasis on facilities, both at club and county level. Administrators looking at legacy projects. If you go to Ballyhale they have changing rooms and pitches, and most club members are more bothered by whether Seamie is a better corner forward on the u13s than Paddy, or why Jonny has stopped coming to training, than walking tracks, bigger astros or floodlights."

Replying To wexfordwin:  "I agree with you regarding club facilities in that Wexford clubs have always seemed obsessed with having indoor arenas and lights etc. To be honest our county facilities have been poor and needed to be improved. Wexford park was badly in need of an upgrade and Ferns seems to be a fantastic venue which hopefully will help with fixtures. I was in the offaly Centre last year and it was top class.

I agree about underage coaching and I could not believe how little our under 10s and 8s were doing in the club. As someone based in dublin, I think we are doing way less in wexford.

On the proposals for championship, I thought that the document sent out before Christmas was really good. You are right that when teams were dominating previously there was no proposal to change but maybe there should have been. One thing s for sure the standard of our club games is not good enough. better underage coaching is the main reason but rewarding medoicre teams with a senior status isn`t either. Imagine how competitive this years football championship would be if it was brought in and every other year would be the same."

Replying To Pikeman96:  "I'm strongly of the view that there's not enough games/coaching going on at the real formative years of U8 and U10 level. An awful lot of clubs only start when the clocks change at end of March, and wrap things up as soon as the Go Games programme finishes around middle of September.

And since there's a Go Game match almost every week (at U10 in particular), that often means just one training session a week - which in turn often means just one training session per fortnight in hurling, and just one per fortnight in football.

Maybe controversial, but I think we're giving up far too much ground far too easily to soccer. Many of these clubs seem happy to wrap up around middle of September because "the soccer is on now, and the lads want to play that".

Seems there's a fear that if they continued with GAA activity, there'd be the old accusation of "GAA are trying to stop young lads from playing soccer - that's terrible - young lads should be able to choose".

But thing is, if there's no GAA activity going on, the young lads don't actually have a choice between GAA and another sport in the first place.

The underage GAA season should start earlier and run later, particularly since we're trying to develop two sports. Fair enough if some young lads want to choose to play soccer at either end of the GAA season instead - I certainly wouldn't try stop them. But I would at least give them the choice of going to play soccer, or coming to play football and hurling instead."

Replying To Viking66:  "There are a few points there. There were a series of meetings held back a couple of months ago requesting feedback on this subject around the county. I went to our one and thought it wasn't particularly well attended tbh. The concensus was the backend of the season dragged on too long. Some of the enthusiastic parents lost some enthusiasm, and at u12 there was too long of a gap between the end of the Leagues and the finals, though this had alot to do with the weather. On the other hand I do agree we should all be starting back at the end of February with 2 training sessions a week, which we did with our u12s. The lads over the u8s and u10s didn't start back til later, though in fairness the u8s did 2 sessions a week also. I think there should be standardised guidelines on this from Ray or whoever. I also think there should be more effort put in to coaching the coaches, and more initiatives like our own coaching officer introduced this winter to offer coaching once a week on a voluntary basis for players interested. Originally this was planned to be for our 10 year old u10s, u12s and u14s, though we didn't get many of our u14s attending in the run up to Xmas on account of them training at secondary school. I was pleasantly surprised otherwise, as all of our u12s and most of our 10 year olds attended most of the sessions. Our GPO and coaching officer were in charge of the sessions, and a few of us helped them out. Twas actually good craic! Coupled with the excellent reintroduction of the A.S.H. scheme by Paul Laffan and Dermot Ryan this has meant most of our u12 lads have had 2 sessions a week this winter, as around half our u12 group signed up for the A.S.H. scheme also. So these lads have actually had 2 hurling sessions, or 1 hurling and 1 football, alternate weeks pretty much since last season ended. So there's definitely a demand for them seeing as both the winter initiatives are completely voluntary.
The problem is if you were to try to make this standard practice there would be kickback from some parents and coaches who were just worn down by October. But if all clubs offered this on a voluntary basis the take up would probably surprise them. It would require buy in from coaches and GPOs at all the clubs.
The comparison of lengths of season with soccer made at the meetings around the county was a bit of a red herring also. Most soccer clubs only train once a week at those age groups, and only play matches once a fortnight, and the soccer season would've been over earlier last year had so many matches not been postponed on account of the weather, so while yes it did last longer as in period of time, effectively it was less than half the amount of hours put in altogether.
In conclusion if we could standardise 2 one and a half hour training sessions from the end of February and a game or participation game every week from the end of March until the finals and make sure these are concluded by the end of September , and if clubs could offer voluntary training once a week between those dates, and hopefully u12s will participate in greater numbers in the county's A.S.H. scheme, we should be getting ourselves at least up to, if not better than, what other counties are doing. We badly need to run more information/advertising campaigns to encourage more lads to take up coaching though, and we need to coach these coaches to be better also. In time this should lead to an improvement in both our county teams in both codes and our club championships, which hopefully would encourage more kids to take up or continue playing them. Success breeding success so to speak. If this costs some money maybe we could divert a small percentage of the money currently being spent county wide on what are effectively legacy projects. No point having a multitude of fabulous facilities dotted around the county with noone using them."

Replying To wexfordwin:  "There are a few points there. There were a series of meetings held back a couple of months ago requesting feedback on this subject around the county. I went to our one and thought it wasn't particularly well attended tbh. The concensus was the backend of the season dragged on too long. Some of the enthusiastic parents lost some enthusiasm, and at u12 there was too long of a gap between the end of the Leagues and the finals, though this had alot to do with the weather. On the other hand I do agree we should all be starting back at the end of February with 2 training sessions a week, which we did with our u12s. The lads over the u8s and u10s didn't start back til later, though in fairness the u8s did 2 sessions a week also. I think there should be standardised guidelines on this from Ray or whoever. I also think there should be more effort put in to coaching the coaches, and more initiatives like our own coaching officer introduced this winter to offer coaching once a week on a voluntary basis for players interested. Originally this was planned to be for our 10 year old u10s, u12s and u14s, though we didn't get many of our u14s attending in the run up to Xmas on account of them training at secondary school. I was pleasantly surprised otherwise, as all of our u12s and most of our 10 year olds attended most of the sessions. Our GPO and coaching officer were in charge of the sessions, and a few of us helped them out. Twas actually good craic! Coupled with the excellent reintroduction of the A.S.H. scheme by Paul Laffan and Dermot Ryan this has meant most of our u12 lads have had 2 sessions a week this winter, as around half our u12 group signed up for the A.S.H. scheme also. So these lads have actually had 2 hurling sessions, or 1 hurling and 1 football, alternate weeks pretty much since last season ended. So there's definitely a demand for them seeing as both the winter initiatives are completely voluntary.
The problem is if you were to try to make this standard practice there would be kickback from some parents and coaches who were just worn down by October. But if all clubs offered this on a voluntary basis the take up would probably surprise them. It would require buy in from coaches and GPOs at all the clubs.
The comparison of lengths of season with soccer made at the meetings around the county was a bit of a red herring also. Most soccer clubs only train once a week at those age groups, and only play matches once a fortnight, and the soccer season would've been over earlier last year had so many matches not been postponed on account of the weather, so while yes it did last longer as in period of time, effectively it was less than half the amount of hours put in altogether.
In conclusion if we could standardise 2 one and a half hour training sessions from the end of February and a game or participation game every week from the end of March until the finals and make sure these are concluded by the end of September , and if clubs could offer voluntary training once a week between those dates, and hopefully u12s will participate in greater numbers in the county's A.S.H. scheme, we should be getting ourselves at least up to, if not better than, what other counties are doing. We badly need to run more information/advertising campaigns to encourage more lads to take up coaching though, and we need to coach these coaches to be better also. In time this should lead to an improvement in both our county teams in both codes and our club championships, which hopefully would encourage more kids to take up or continue playing them. Success breeding success so to speak. If this costs some money maybe we could divert a small percentage of the money currently being spent county wide on what are effectively legacy projects. No point having a multitude of fabulous facilities dotted around the county with noone using them."