The League is important.
Relief was scrawled across every Mayo face in Ballybofey when they staved off the drop in the most dramatic circumstances on Sunday. People said they wouldn’t care. Maybe they shouldn’t but they do.
Now just think about the counties below them for a second.
Think about your Waterfords, your Limericks and your Leitrims.
These counties will go hard at it in the championship but there are no guarantees that they’ll get to play any more than two games there.
For them the League is the most important competition of all. In a group with seven teams of a similar level to them, it’s stage where they can test themselves and can aim realistically for wins and progress.
It’s a place where they can give their players debuts. Where they can find players.
We saw the joyous celebrations in Fermanagh and Cavan when they gained promotion last weekend. The Carlow boys went to town when they made it out of Division Four.
That’s what Leitrim and Waterford will be dreaming of for next year. That’s what they’ll be training for.
The League is a competition that divides opinion. Many games are accompanied with the throwaway remark that ‘it is only the League.’ It doesn’t really matter sure.
It’s ironic, then that it’s the GAA who are doing everything they can to undermine the League, considering it was them who created it in the first place. It’s ironic then that it’s the GAA who are cutting off their nose to save the face of this year’s new fixture plan.
Earlier this week the CCCC declared the Waterford-Leitrim, Wicklow-Limerick and Laois-Antrim games from Division Four ‘null and void’, as well as a number of other games from Division 2.
A number of the managers of the teams who had their games cancelled weren’t pleased with the GAA’s decision.
So that was why Waterford and Leitrim arranged between themselves a date and a venue for the game.
But the GAA wouldn’t let that happen either.
In an interview with the Irish Independent’s Martin Breheny on Thursday morning, the GAA’s Director of Player, Club and Games, Fergal McGill attempted to explain why.
“The decision to declare the three fixtures null and void was down to a straightforward choice between interfering with pre-arranged club fixtures or rearranging games that were not important (in terms of deciding who would be promoted from Division 4.)”
It seemed like a shoddy reasoning. If games that didn’t impact on relegation or promotion weren’t important, well then, conceivably, the last three rounds of this Division wouldn’t have mattered because only two out of the eight teams present would be budging for next season.
We got in contact with Waterford’s manager Tom McGlinchey to for his views on McGill’s interpretation, and he picked holes in nearly everything the Leitrim man said
McGlinchey: The game V Leitrim would NOT interfere with any pre-arranged club games in either county. I know the last Championship game in Waterford is fixed for Sunday 22nd April and the next championship games fixed in Waterford are 1st July (Hurling) and 15th July (Football).
McGill: Irrespective of where Leitrim and Waterford and Limerick and Wicklow were played midweek, it would involve players taking at least a half-day off work or college and we could not stand over that,”
McGlinchey: What does Fergal thinks happens every week when counties get together to train? Players like to know in advance when they are training and plan accordingly. I have players on the Waterford panel, similar to the majority of counties, that have to travel up to 2 hours to train midweek. This is going on all year around.
When players know a timetable they can organise their schedule accordingly. The fixture I had arranged with Leitrim was made with five weeks notice and players would have been able to make arrangements. Does he not realise that the majority of O’Byrne/McKenna/FBD Cup games were played mid-week, were well attended and there was no one crying foul then? Also what about U17/U20 games (previously minor/U21 games).
These games take place midweek (the majority). Players take half days from school/college and I am sure the majority, if not all, the managers/backroom personnel have to make arrangements to attend these games.
Please Fergal do not insult my (or others) intelligence by coming out with the statement “players taking at least a half-day off work or college and we could not stand over that”.
This practice is happening already. Every game can’t take place on a Saturday evening/Sunday. Times have changed and players/managers/supporters all work different hours/days/ etc.
McGill: And in this case, we had to decide between re-scheduling three games that would have no impact on promotion or allowing club programmes involving hundreds of players to go ahead”
McGLinchey: Fergal is quite clearly not taking on board the point that I (and the other managers are making) in that all League games are important. The counties involved (Waterford/Leitrim/Limerick/Wicklow) all came up with a solution to the problem that will not impact on club games involving hundreds of players. There are NO Championship Club games affected with the proposed dates put forward by the counties involved.
McGill: “We made a principled call, based on what we thought was right for clubs, who had been told quite some time ago that April would be their month.”
McGlinchey: This is quite ironic in so far as that already the Hurling league has been pushed back to April and all 4 counties still involved can’t start their program. I know in the case of Tipperary the games they had scheduled for 31 March/1st April have already been shelved. Tipperary have also sent out notification to the clubs that depending on the result of game v Limerick games will either be played on weekend of 8th or 15th. That sounds like great consideration for the clubs doesn’t it.
He said it better than we ever could.
