Paddy Andrews’ season ended on Sunday with a welcome league win over St Brigids’ noisy neighbours Castleknock.
The Dublin 15 derby will have had added spice after the young pretenders reached this year’s Dublin SFC final and Andrews enjoyed getting one over on his intercounty team-mate Ciarán Kilkenny, Castleknock’s talisman.
It was a rare foray in the white and red for Andrews, at most his fourth game for his club in a 2016 that was once more dominated by intercounty duties.
The 28-year-old picked up a fourth All-Ireland, along with another Leinster and Allianz League medal as Jim Gavin’s side cemented their status as the most dominant team in Gaelic football.
Despite injury excluding him from the league final and Leinster quarter-final against Laois, the All-Ireland final replay against Mayo was still Andrews’ 13th outing of the year for the Dubs. Eight days after that victory he was back playing for St Brigids as they exited the Dublin SFC at the hands of Ballymun Kickhams.
We have 3 chances to save the club game but doing nothing is not an option | @Woolberto #TheToughest Topic @AIB_GAA https://t.co/YTg2GS34QP
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) November 15, 2016
As a snapshot, Andrews’ season speaks volumes about the current imbalance in the GAA calendar, which is heavily weighted towards the intercounty game at the expense of the club players – who are often forced to play off their championships in a very narrow window after the intercounty season ends in September.
“Lads who work every bit as hard as us and they can’t get a structure on the season. They don’t know when their next Championship match will be and I think it is quite unfair,” Andrews said of the club player’s lot.
“There is a pressing need for something to be amended with the structure of the club season,” he told SportsJOE.
“We are club players after all. We wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for our clubs.”
Yet Andrews is not there for his club as much as he would like to be. He admits it was difficult to acclimatise with Brigids so soon after the All-Ireland final replay.
“You don’t really get to see your club that much and you certainly don’t get to play that much – I think I only played 3-4 matches all year for Brigids. It is hard to just slot back in and, especially when it went to a replay, you know six days later we’re playing a championship match and trying to fit back in with different styles of play and things like that.”
Paddy Andrews of Dublin and St Brigids believes club structures are ‘unfair’ and something has to change #GAA pic.twitter.com/6O12yTL1LF
— SportsJOE GAA (@SportsJOE_GAA) November 16, 2016
The situation is exacerbated in successful counties like Dublin and Mayo, but nowhere is immune. Waterford football champions The Nire shocked Carbery Rangers in the AIB Munster club semi-final at the weekend, despite only winning their county final two weeks earlier.
“It’s not just in Dublin,” said Andrews of the division between club and county. “I think it is across the board for inter-county guys. You have the national league and then you’re rolling straight into provincial championships, you can see where inter-county managers are coming from, they don’t want to release guys back.”
When the likes of Andrews are playing three times as many games for their county as their club it is clear the system is broken. Andrews admits as much.
“It has reached a head at this stage and something is going to happen now.”
Club players have had assurances before and it is unlikely many will be holding their breath this time around.
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