
GAA
Share
Published 16:38 16 Jun 2025 BST
Updated 16:47 16 Jun 2025 BST

Pat Spillane has come out strongly against the current split season.
As of now, the All-Ireland SFC and SHC finals are played in July, rather than the traditional September showpieces which were such a significant part of the Irish sporting calendar for many years.
The split season was introduced more so for club players, providing them with a defined season, allowing for less clashes with inter-county games, and giving the majority of the players in the country more certainty around fixtures.
It remains a hugely discussed issue, with journalist Cahair O'Kane recently writing well thought out column in favour of the current format, while Cork hurler, Niall O'Leary, has also backed it.
However, Kerry legend Pat Spillane has come out strongly against the split season, arguing that the All-Ireland SFC and SHC need to be more drawn out, and that the GAA are missing a huge opportunity to garner interest by moving the finals from September.
"The major competitions are not getting room to breathe and not getting the profile and publicity they deserve.
"And let’s not forget the club player now plays for 12 months of the year, so there is no split season in that sense."
Explore more on these topics:
In his Irish Independent column, he wrote: "The split season in its present format is wrong in so many ways. We are cutting off our nose to spite our face with far too many matches, with too many competitions, too many games in too tight a time-frame.
GAA confirm massive experimental rule changes coming to hurling
People will be divided! The new experimental hurling rules will be applied in third-level Division 1 games this year. The main change is the new hand pass rule, which forbids players to make two or more hand passes. This comes after much skepticism over the hand pass and whether players throw the ball more often […]
GAA
1 week ago
Live sport on TV in Ireland this weekend – Football, GAA and Golf – September 4th – 6th
The Prem is back! Summer might be over, but fear not, there is still plenty of sport to feast your eyes on. As always, the Premier League will provide the main action, but Clubber and TG4 are keeping the GAA club championships lit. On top of that, there is a very special game in Spain […]
GAA
2 weeks ago
Mayo boss reveals crucial actions from assistant led to All-Ireland winning white top
GAA