Not on.
A recent Club Players Association survey revealed that over 65% of players have considered walking away from the GAA as a result of the lack of a definitive fixtures calendar.
Don’t get us wrong, there are so many teams, so many different competitions and so many different levels in the GAA that fixture planning is always clouded with difficulty and uncertainty.
The inter-county season takes precedence over club fixtures, and this is understandable. To an extent.
It is acceptable if club games are postponed the week or even two weeks before an inter-county game, but often county managers are so determined to wrap their players in cotton wool that they will order the county board to cancel club games three and even four weeks beforehand.
The life of a club player will therefore revolve around how successful or unsuccessful their county team is in any given year.
If the county is knocked out early, club fixtures will take off. If they embark on a run in the championship, club fixtures will be put on the long finger.
It’s always uncertainty.
And it is their life, because many GAA players are so committed to their games that they will postpone holidays, they will miss work, they will cancel nights out and other celebrations.
The recent scheduling of fixtures in Tipperary epitomise the problem.
Club hurling in Tipperary had been on hold up until the 5th of August, when the Premier County were knocked out of the championship by Galway.
If they hadn’t been knocked out, it probably still would be on hold.
Tipperary played their first round of this year’s championship against Cork on May 21, and many club players in the county didn’t play a championship game between then and the Galway match. That’s two and a half months of mid-summer without a game.
Lorrha-Dorrha, a club in north Tipperary, are one of the clubs who didn’t have an outing between those dates.
With the inter-county season over, the chaos began.
Due to the fact that Tipperary is somewhat a dual county, the congestion problems are made even worse.
Loughmore-Castleiney, a rural club with a small pick that are constantly punching above their weight in Tipperary, face two games in the next week.
On Saturday, they will face off against Upperchurch-Drombane in the Mid-Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship semi-final and, on Tuesday, they will face Éire Óg Annacarty-Donohill in the Tipperary Senior Football Championship.
Prior to this, Loughmore-Castleiney edged a titanic thriller in the county championship to knock out last year’s finalists Kiladangan, which was before they defeated Clonakenny in the mid hurling, and JK Brackens in the mid football championships.
When they have played those two games, they will have played five Championship games in just 17 days.
The majority of Loughmore’s players are both hurlers and footballers. Take for example Tipperary stars John and Noel McGrath, take John Meagher, Brian McGrath and many, many more.
And Loughmore-Castleiney aren’t the only club with such a schedule. Éire Óg Annacarty, the club of Tipperary senior football captain Brian Fox, and senior hurling panelist Tom Fox are enduring a similar struggle.
Annacarty played the first and second rounds of the West Tipperary Hurling Championship last Wednesday against Clonoulty Rossmore and Knockavilla Kickhams on Sunday. They are set to play in the West Tipperary senior football semi-final this Wednesday against Arravale Rovers, before they face Loughmore next Tuesday.
That makes it four games in thirteen days for these lads, the majority of whom are also dual players.
Now Tipperary are out on their own in the fixture congestion regard, because they have 32 senior hurling teams in the county and only a handful of intermediate teams.
But the argument still stands, and the GAA must seriously consider the CPA’s solutions on how to resolve this problem.
