Brian Cody has been banging this drum for a long time.
The GAA Club forum took place in Croke Park on Saturday and from it came a number of positives.
Chief among them was the director general of the GAA, Tom Ryan’s announcement that all the important stakeholders, the CPA, the GPA and the GAA will be getting together at some stage in 2019 to try and come up with a proper plan to solve the fixture-ails that are currently dogging the game and this whole organisation.
Hallelujah.
On a day when next year’s inter-county season is beginning on the same day as a number of this year’s club games, it only serves to highlight how much a root and branch review of the above ilk is oh so badly needed.
Here’s to hoping the CPA, who have drafted a number of clear, reasonable fixture plans have their voices heard at those discussions and they take place sooner rather than later.
@officialgaa Tom Ryan Ard Stiúrthóir committing today that 2019 will see all stakeholders including @ClubPlayerAssoc and @gaelicplayers get together to sort the fixtures issue by getting to the right result using the right way to get there. Positive news for all club players 👏 pic.twitter.com/gSQYbg3O0z
— ClubPlayersAssoc (@ClubPlayerAssoc) December 8, 2018
God knows they’re needed and so does Brian Cody.
He knows how bad it is from experience.
Prior to last year, Kilkenny club hurling championships were ran smoother than any other. The players were made aware of the dates of their fixtures early in the year and they’d have championship games in every month from April to July. They could plan around this, they could work with it and the championship was always finished up in good time.
With the introduction of last year’s April for clubs month, those plans went out the window and Kilkenny club players were in limbo like every other player in the country.
Cody, always a voice and a representative of the best interests of club players was speaking at the forum in Croke Park and with most of the GAA’s higher-ups present, he hit them with the harsh realities of their failures at last year’s attempts of improving the club game.
“The biggest challenge facing GAA is fixtures,” he said. “I cant understand how the solution was to create more inter-county games…”
“People are looking for matches and certainty”
Brian Cody speaking: “the biggest challenge facing GAA is fixtures” “I cant understand how the solution was to create more intercounty games” “people are looking for matches and certainty” pic.twitter.com/je7kbd4Q22
— ClubPlayersAssoc (@ClubPlayerAssoc) December 8, 2018
Last year, he told a similar story on The GAA Hour show when interviewed by Colm Parkinson.
“The changes were made, there’s a huge amount of talk that this is going to help the clubs, it hasn’t helped the clubs. The one thing I find difficult to understand really, is all this change was brought in supposedly to try and help the clubs…and the solution that they came up with was to play more inter-county games…that says it all to me,” he said.
You can listen to the Cody interview from The GAA Hour Show here.
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