14 day rule

Prop Joe

Hypothetically,Would you support a 14 day rule to be implemented by the GAA where all Inter-County players must be available to club teams 14 days before a Championship match and 7 days before a NFL game?

It seems it could free up alot more time across the GAA calender and enhance the playing experience for all club players.

You can see with the recent International Rules,Ciaran Kilkenny with Castleknock,Cratloe and the up coming Fitzgibbon and Sigerson cups that players often play many games in short periods and then have large gaps of the season when they just train.

So 14 day rule?

zetecescort

In favour, not sure how you'd police it though, could have players getting mysterious injuries like in soccer to avoid international games.

Things like McGuinness in Donegal demanding a stop on club games during the summer are a disgrace. I have no sympathy for counties that have to rush their county championships in October or November.

Quixoticelixer

10 day rule. No reason a player shouldn't play for his club two weekends before a county game. The weekend before is fair enough, but anything longer than that is just messing around the 99% of club players who are not on a county panel; they should be able to play in the summer instead of running championships off in September/October.

Prop Joe

zetecescort wrote: »

In favour, not sure how you'd police it though, .

That would be a problem,but I guess there can't be 30 mysterious injuries everyone,plus it's the clubs who appoint county managers so if you wanted to keep your Bainisteoir bib it would be wise not to upset them

Realt Dearg Sec

But how would this 14 day rule prevent what's happening now? That is, the county boards simply cancel fixtures on the say-so of the manager. If there's no match fixed, then there's no problem with the 14 day rule. Or am I missing something?

I'm not a fan, at all, of what Donegal are doing this coming year, but at least it's honest. Other counties are effectively doing the same thing every year, but don't have the decency to give their players a good heads up that they needn't expect to be playing games during the summer. The result is lads constantly postponing holidays, teams having to train without knowing when they have to peak, dragging out the training from January right up to December (in our case this year), and, of course, the never ending monotony of no matches.

rebel girl 15

zetecescort wrote: »

In favour, not sure how you'd police it though, could have players getting mysterious injuries like in soccer to avoid international games.

Things like McGuinness in Donegal demanding a stop on club games during the summer are a disgrace. I have no sympathy for counties that have to rush their county championships in October or November.

I'd disagree with you on the McGuinness thing tbh - it actually gives clubs players a better calendar, rather than training away not knowing when the games are. It will allow them to go away on summer holidays without risking missing games instead of training away hoping there will be games and waiting on the county team to be knocked out

Prop Joe

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

But how would this 14 day rule prevent what's happening now? That is, the county boards simply cancel fixtures on the say-so of the manager. If there's no match fixed, then there's no problem with the 14 day rule. Or am I missing something?

I guess the whole problem is the treatment of the club player and the clubs in general.

There still needs to be league games played throughout the summer you can't just call off everything.

Club's should not be forced to play games without there county player/s

I really can't understand why there is not a master fixture list drawn up at the start of the year.

Realt Dearg Sec

Prop Joe wrote: »

I guess the whole problem is the treatment of the club player and the clubs in general.

There still needs to be league games played throughout the summer you can't just call off everything.

Club's should not be forced to play games without there county player/s

I really can't understand why there is not a master fixture list drawn up at the start of the year.

Well in dublin there is one drawn up, but it's complete fantasy, and is always quickly abandoned. Every year it's drawn up in a parallel universe where the inter county championship doesn't exist.

Prop Joe

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Well in dublin there is one drawn up, but it's complete fantasy, and is always quickly abandoned. Every year it's drawn up in a parallel universe where the inter county championship doesn't exist.

Probably needs to come directly from Croke Park with sanctions if not complied with

Realt Dearg Sec

Prop Joe wrote: »

Probably needs to come directly from Croke Park with sanctions if not complied with

Yeah, I could see a 14 day rule working if counties were told at the start of the year that they are required, under penalty of fines or whatever would work, to finish all county championships by x date. You could even mandate in more detail, to ensure that games are getting played regularly during the season, but the general gist of it would be that while the county board has control over its scheduling, it can't simply cancel club games for the county manager. That way when a master fixture list is generated, they might move particular games in order to comply with the 14 day rule, but they can't keep kicking the can down the road so that the county players are wrapped in cotton wool. I can't quite put my finger on why this issue hasn't been dealt with, it's been a problem for the GAA as long as I can remember and everyone complains about it (except fans of the county team who aren't members of clubs, and frankly I don't see why their opinion should count), and yet there doesn't seem to be any genuine will to effect a change.

I should say that in Dublin there already is a rule along these lines. I forget exactly how it works, but it's something like that a club with a player on a county team can seek to have their matches moved so that the player will not play a game within 10 days (or whatever, I dunno the detail) of a county game. League games have to be played, whether your county players are available or not. If someone could clarify that rule for me, because I think I have it a little confused.

But my point is that such a rule is irrelevant, because what actually happens is the county manager simply asks that there be no fixtures in the club scene whenever it suits him, and so, instead of some games being moved, no games are played at all. The 14 day rule you suggest would only obviate this if there was, as you say, a Croke Park mandated master fixture list. The counties wouldn't stand for it, they'd all be whinging about how their particular circumstances are different, and suddenly it would turn into a "them suits up in Croke Park interfering" thing. Which brings us back to the main problem: everyone wants the club game sorted out, but no individual county would ever be willing to sacrifice what it perceives to be its own, short term best interests for that greater good. They want the solution to fall from the sky.

To illustrate the extent of the problem: This year, there was one Junior hurler who was playing in the All Ireland football final. As a result, the decision was made that the Junior A championship would be put on hold until that was done. The WHOLE championship! But that wasn't enough. For reasons to do with the tendency of clubs to try and play ineligible players in the lower ranks, they also put every other Junior championship on hold. That's Junior A to Junior F. At an extremely conservative estimate, that's almost 1,500 hurlers who are not playing championship matches at all, so that a single individual can prepare with the inter-county team in a different sport. The Dublin county board have to organise an unbelievable, staggering number of matches in a year, nd by and large do an admirable job, but there's no mystery why many club's seasons only finished last week, and there's no great conundrum about how to solve it in a lot of cases.