The challenge to GAA media posed by the split season

Sunny Disposition · 31-08-2022 2:05pm #1

I think the split season is a great idea and it has been fantastic to see club hurling championship matches played in sunshine and on hard ground.

The media is largely against it, and I think that's understandable, they're used to getting almost ten months of the year out of covering intercounty, and that's been shortened now.

But I think there are far more stories at club level, if they look for them. The intercounty coverage is fairly dull anyway, the managers or players never say anything of interest, and because they're kind of in a bubble, they typically don't have stories that'd be that interesting anyway.

If the journalists start looking at clubs, they'll come up with a heap of interesting stuff. I know of a club's first team managed by a woman, which is something of a rarity, two guys with disabilities playing senior championship, a Traveller who transferred to a neighbouring club and is likely to have to face his own club, one very veteran player who marked the son of a girl he went to school with recently. These are just random things I know of, every follower would know of similar ones.

I've just gone on the Irish Times and Irish Independent sites and the stories are still all about intercounty. It's quite disappointing, if the media get the finger out there are loads of genuinely interesting stories to report on. The split season should actually be a boon to GAA journalism, but it won't be unless they approach it differently.

Fr Tod Umptious · 31-08-2022 2:15pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058261197/the-challenge-to-gaa-media-posed-by-the-split-season

But in reality how interesting are they to a national audience?

The reality is people tend to watch or read about things they are familiar with already.

So I'm not going to find a human interest story like you described in an article about the Louth county championship because I'm not going to read about the Louth county championship in the first place.

So your examples are far more suited to local media than national media.

And I'm sure the local media cover them to some extent, I'd say that's how you found out about them in the first place.

Sunny Disposition · 01-09-2022 10:20am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119548459#Comment_119548459

I'd see them as being of interest to a national audience in the way all feature stories are really. Not previews or match reports, those wouldn't be but what reporters would call colour will be if it's well written. I don't really agree they'd be better suited to local media, the few things I mentioned weren't in any local media that I know of either, I just know them from talking to other followers.

CrabRevolution · 03-09-2022 6:12pm

Most of those stories are of a "funny old world" variety though rather than a substitute for serious sport coverage. And how much mileage can be gotten from saying a club has women in management, or a player who is a traveller?

If those sort of stories started appearing on national media they'd be the subject of mockery and people questioning how this was seen to be worthy of national news.

There's literally 100s of club championships run every year, there isn't room for them all in the national media so they pick a few big ones and let the local media handle their own areas. It works for everyone.

Boom__Boom · 04-09-2022 8:55am

Besides the national GAA media and those who only follow county action, is there anyone who doesn't think the split season is a massive improvement.

Any players I've talked to (both intercounty and club players) and a load of what I would call GAA people especially club folk seem to be massively in favour of it.

Based on the people I've been talking to I can't see any significant changes being made to it any time soon. (I'd say there may be a tweak of a week or two being added to the intercounty calendar in two years to give more time to the expanded number of football championship games under the new structure) but overall pretty much everyone I've talked to seems not just in favour of it but massively in favour of it.

callaway92 · 04-09-2022 4:34pm

As somebody who’s luckily involved in GAA Data - it has made a 10 month calendar (including Intervarsity) into an 11 month one, so I’m not complaining! Business all year round pretty much

Sunny Disposition · 19-09-2022 10:09am

The Independent seemed to me to be getting recently, when they had a couple of pages about challenges facing clubs in east Galway. It's the kind of thing that's pretty interesting to anyone involved in the game, even to people not that passionate about GAA it'd still be interesting. But a rake of their stories in recent days have been about intercounty. They don't seem to be pivoting in the way required.

PTH2009 · 22-09-2022 2:12pm

https://punditarena.com/gaa/james-fenton/gaa-changes-calendar-2023/

Extended by a few weeks but still pretty early

More likely its just people aren't used to it yet

Coillte_Bhoy · 22-09-2022 3:08pm

Would agree with scrapping the league finals, Div 1 anyway, little or no interest in them. Any team that makes it has their sights set higher for the summer. Mayo getting hammered by Kerry this year did us little good and most mayo fans i know weren't that bothered about it beforehand tbh, would have preferred not to be in it really.

Treble double · 25-09-2022 8:10pm

Colm O Rourke being the manager of Meath and still having an opinion piece on Gaa in a National Newspapaper seems a bit off to me.

He was bemoaning the chances of the rest of the challengers because of the return of Dublins deadly duo today in his article (for the sake of meath supporters I hope his management style is more entertaining than his writing style)

Having an opinion piece on GAA in a National newspaper is an unusual perk for an inter county manager

windy shepard henderson · 26-09-2022 12:31am

It was great for our lads to beat Kildare in that final , but I'd say there were no more in crocker then a few thousand,

Dickie10 · 04-10-2022 9:34pm

i always thought GAA are missing a trick, let teams who finish top of div 2,3 and 4 go straight up promoted. and teams who finsh 3rd and 4th in these divisons have aplay off in croke park for promotion , that would be a serious carrot dangling and equivalent of a provincial final for some counties, i think you would see the crowd numbers soar for that, basically a championship game but even more than a 1st or 2nd round qualifier. being a meath man i was disapointed in 2019 when we topped division 2 that we were not crowned champions and had to go and play donegal in a final, it should have been donegal v kildare in that final for an all or nothing promotion place. meath shouldnt have had to play that game. maybe its because im from meath and croke park is definitley no bonus for us to play in or anything for our supporters to get excited about bar it being the next closest GAA county ground after maybe navan for most meath fans, although those in dunboyne, maynooth,ratoath, ashbourne would be into croke park quicker than navan. so no glory to play there, but maybe for counties that dont be in it too often.

celt262 · 06-10-2022 9:40am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119702320#Comment_119702320

I presume you mean 2nd and 3rd play off for promotion?

I disagree why should a team who finished 3rd in a league get a chance of promotion against a team who has finished higher than them?

Dickie10 · 06-10-2022 9:40pm

why should a team win a league title by coming second? imagine man city come 1st this season and arsenal 2nd and they had to play a cup final for league and arsenal won?

techman1 · 22-07-2023 10:11am

Split season is bonkers, 4 football semi finals on the one weekend in mid July and everything finished by August. I think the GAA got carried away with the relative increased popularity of GAA at local level with more participation especially in affluent areas that never had GAA clubs before and with the problems with the FAI that they thought they could run with this strategy. Its a huge mistake they are gutting their main product the All Ireland series and the only thing that could have international attention outside of irish diaspora.

Fr Tod Umptious · 23-07-2023 9:53am

I'm not convinced about the split season either.

It's annoying that it will be over in a week, I always enjoyed August with the QFs and SFs and the long run in to the final.

But at the same time, looking at football we have had quality competitive football almost non stop since the last week of January.

The league has come to be a really good competition, it's no longer a drab preseason affair.

So if we start thinking in the mindset of how we have quality football from January to July then we might be able to get used to it.

Rosita · 23-07-2023 10:03am

Since the thread title references the media, I will comment on the split season from that perspective.

I picked up a newspaper the other day and there was two pages on the World Cup and half a page on the All Ireland final in the week of the match. Okay that won't happen every year but it happened.

Also, a friend of mine mentioned that the All Ireland final is clashing with the British Open golf final day. Of course some diehards would welcome that as they could show how into it they are by not being bothered by this, but in the context of media coverage and exposure it's not ideal.

The Sunday Game has been destroyed by the amount of matches it has to cover and GAAgo has been developed by RTÉ to stymie competition from other channels on the back of their alleged inability to show matches because there are now so many in a condensed season.

Those are the challenges to the media and by the media as I see it.

Getting away from the media angle I have always wondered why the split season was necessary at all since only about 5/6 counties were ever involved after late July anyway. There was never an excuse for club fixtures not to be properly organised.

I find it funny that club competitions (one I heard of last night) are being decided on penalties in July when there's five months left in the year and seven behind us. Why is everything such a rush now? They're just club players. A replay of a final wouldn't be unreasonable. Ironically it's the rigidity of the fixtures that forces this. Same happening with under-age finals where there are no time pressures. Not sure if everything has to be gotten out if the way as soon as possible. But that's probably a minority view.

namloc1980 · 23-07-2023 9:38pm

The business end of the championships will be going head to head against Euro 2024 next year and the World Cup in 2026 in June and July.

PTH2009 · 23-07-2023 9:42pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120888571#Comment_120888571

Possibly won't have to worry about Irish interest in that but get where you're coming from

Still think it's too early and could easily spread it to both AI senior finals been mid-late August

Club championships are still starting around the same time as pre 2018 and running into the next calendar year

The outgoing GAA president seems to really love this calendar. Hopefully Jarleth Burns has a slightly different view/solution

windy shepard henderson · 23-07-2023 9:56pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120888571#Comment_120888571

personally i would like to see the hurling finals in the august weekend and the following weekend for the football

but unless you have little or no involvement in your gaa club dose the euros or a world cup deter your interest in hurling or football

ten years ago i could go to any game in the country and buy a ticket on the day , now adays the vast majority of hurling games are sold out well in advance , if nothing else the split season has worked better then the gaa could have ever hoped for ,

i for one think its a master stroke

Sunny Disposition · 23-07-2023 11:52pm

The split season has been an incredible success in hurling, working brilliantly.

Interest in intercounty is very high and that’s nice, but it’s not what’s most important.

There is no delays to club hurling in any county in Ireland from the last weekend in July onwards. This is fantastic. I thought it would never happen. Club championship in every county will be played during summertime.

The GAA being the GAA there are still complaints, many from vested interests in the media. But this is very possibly the best move the Association has made in my lifetime.

irs · 24-07-2023 12:01am

On this weekend ten years ago the Ulster and Connacht football finals were on as well as the third round of the qualifiers, while Hurling had the week off. Next weekend was the 4th round of the football qualifiers and the hurling quarter finals. The two All-Ireland finals were 7-9 weeks away. Having the games spaced out like that did mean every match was an event while everything today feels on top of each other, not helped by format changes that have increased the number of games just as the season is getting shorter. However the whole point of the split season was to benefit club players so any loss of national media coverage would have been expected.

Rosita · 28-07-2023 8:21am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120888918#Comment_120888918

There are virtually no replies here dealing with the actual title of the thread i.e. the impact in the media.

Anyway, just to deal with the point about club championships "being played in summertime", I wonder at local level how much difference it makes.

In 2022 the Cork County hurling final was played on 9th October. In 2005 when the county won the All Ireland it was played in 16th October. Most County finals seem to be played at the same time they ever were. At one level this makes sense as the split season makes inter-county a spring/summer game and club an autumn/winter game. But you seem to be of the view that club championships are taking place over the summer.

The provincial club championships are still played in the height of winter.

randd1 · 31-07-2023 11:43am

The split season had to come in.

It took Covid, but in my view it was inevitable, the way it had gone, managers just weren't releasing players to their clubs during the club breaks. With the increased number of games in both codes, the club scene wouldn't have got a look in until August (September if you were lucky), a problem particularly serious if you're in a county that runs both codes equally.

Had the clubs been treated right by county managers, or if county boards had stood by their clubs instead of the county manager, we might have had club games throughout the county season. But the managers put that to bed.

Not to mention the split season has allowed some counties to use the early part of the year to run off the weaker code without it interfering with their main county championships, and anything that improves some participation is only a good thing. Not mention improving existing county leagues.

The split season has been great for the clubs. And at the end of the day, the clubs don't need to counties to play the game, but counties rely on the clubs for everything, so providing the clubs with their own time to play the sport is ultimately in the interest of the county teams.

And whatever about football, hurling does itself no favours. The championship is lobsided in terms of competitiveness (the round robin doesn't work for Leinster) and timing (6 weeks for the 35 games in group stage, 8 weeks for 8 knockout matches if you include the Joe McDonagh). Not to mention how the very same pundits are constantly moaning about not enough hurling and hurling finishing in July, without acknowledging they're the reason why the NHL, which is half the hurling season, has effectively been reduced to a series of challenge matches due to their insistence that only the Championship matters.

The county teams start getting together in November. The season starts in January, finishes for most counties in June, some in July. You're looking at the guts of 8 months between training and playing. That's more than enough time.

As for lack of promotion, it's simple; promote it. Require 3 of the group, be it players/manager's do interviews in the run up to games. Demand that as part of any TV package there has to be a 1 hour magazine programme per code per week. Release video's of the top 7 goals/points/saves/tackles from both codes on social media. Link up with a hotel chain and use match tickets for group games as raffle tickets for 2 nights away (3 winners per game, the cost taken out of the gate receipts), arrange free face paintings for kids, or some other such gimmick to get arses on seats.

The split season isn't the problem, is the shockingly poor use of the time they do have to get something right. That's on the inter-county lads. albeit football seems to be heading in the right direction by linking the whole season together.

PTH2009 · 31-07-2023 12:15pm

It's mad how Croke Park will effectively be closed now for about 5 months

gormdubhgorm · 31-07-2023 12:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120920442#Comment_120920442

Yeah one of stewards there said to me see you again, enjoy your Christmas!

the kelt · 31-07-2023 12:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120906549#Comment_120906549

Pretty much the same in Wexford,

Poor year for us at Intercounty level, as things stand our club scene will finish on the 15th of October.

In 2019 we got an All Ireland semi final and our club scene finished on the 27th, a whole 12 days later despite the county getting to an AI semi final

We play the exact same format as we did in 19, 2 x groups of 6, same amount of games, same amount of rounds. This was before the ridiculous decision to finish Intercounty in July. And the reason we could do that was we played rounds of Club in March/April, something we are banned from doing now since the split season came in, i mean we effectively banned a club players from having any game of significance for 7 + months of the year then expect everything to be shoehorned in time for Provincial Club rounds to be played And people think this is a good thing for Clubs even still.

I see Irish Rugby out this morning pushing the month of August as the time to get to the Aviva to see the Irish Rugby team play, meanwhile the GAA are planning how man effin Coldplay concerts can we get in next August!

The impact on people in the media is minimal, theres more games than ever at Intercounty level for them to cover, they dont get paid per week or month, its per appearance, this idea that the media dont like it because it affects their bottom line is nonsensical.

The reason they are talking about it is because it doesnt make sense as an organisation what we have done, it needs to be looked at, as far as i can see many counties still dont start their championships until mid/end of August/September anyway so what was the point?

USA GAA getting players over seems to have had a huge benefit mind and our current president who loves this system is a representative of what County Board again???

There needs to be time freed up during the Intercounty season for Club games to take place, we need to push back the AI finals and also reduce the amount of games at Intercounty level, since when has Intercounty GAA become something to get out of the way asap??

breezy1985 · 31-07-2023 12:55pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120888918#Comment_120888918

It was coming to a point where it had to be either this or a 2 tier rugby style situation where intercounty players no longer played club.

It wasn't for a laugh the GAA done this but because there was serious discontent with the lack of a solid club fixture list.

Lost Ormond · 07-08-2023 6:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120920726#Comment_120920726

Its not really compareable to rugby though is it. Rugby has its top pros playing international and biggest provincial games. some pros only play provincial games. others only play a small amount of pro games and the rest of their rugby is in amateur rugby.

You would never have a situation where inter county dont play club becuase there isnt enough games to cover that happening

breezy1985 · 07-08-2023 7:17pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120950192#Comment_120950192

It was either county players didn't play club or club players were gonna revolt (which kinda happened).

You can't have a sports competition where 30/40 players have games cancelled because 4/5 are involved in another match.

Cork were already talking about running the club championship group stage without intercounty players.

Split season didnt just happen for the laugh.

Charles Babbage · 07-08-2023 7:44pm

In the context of the split season, I do not understand why the Camogie and LGFA followed the same pattern exactly. The LGFA semi finals were on the same weekend as the All Ireland and inevitably lost out a bit in publicity. If they had left their season in a more traditional model then the national media would have been talking about LGFA quarter and semi finals in the absence of anything else.

Lost Ormond · 07-08-2023 7:52pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120950275#Comment_120950275

It didnt have to be either or of those situations. There was/is others but wont happen. its still much better than before though

It will be up to club players to demand they get more of their principal compeititons played earlier in the year even if some games are without county players

crusd · 09-08-2023 9:33am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120950347#Comment_120950347

LGFA and camogie association are a bit of a joke from an administration point of view to be honest. It was a great opportunity to carve out a window for their games and completely missed. The LGFA now in their wisdom have dictated that no underage or adult games or training are to be payed at all next weekend because of the AIF. Encouraging girls to play by not letting them play, geniuses.

On the question of the split season, what was actually needed was a proper calendar. Inter county hurling weekends and football weekends fixed and club to be scheduled around that. Deadlines for completion of club championships enforced by not allowing county representatives compete in all Ireland club if not completed in time. Extention of two weeks given to counties in the all Ireland final only. Expectation set that county players are released for club championship.

Up to a few years ago Mayo used to run the first two rounds of group stages of club championships between the end of the league and start of championship. Ran the club leagues during the IC championship and were one game from the quarter final stage when they resumed. It worked well and this was when they were reaching AI finals and semis every year. This year they are not even starting the club championship yet

PTH2009 · 13-08-2023 9:09pm

With no concerts on this year, Croke Park won't be used till possibly well into the Autumn

When are they deciding on the calendar for next year ??. Speeding out the Championships more would be good

greenspurs · 24-08-2023 12:19pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120950347#Comment_120950347

The split season is really affecting camogie... (In Kilkenny anyway)

And these 'development squads' containing 30-40 girls that cant train with their clubs because the precious manager wants them to take on the Kerry C team at the weekend ( no offence to Kerry) .... Crazy stuff for u14-15-16 yr olds....

Add in the 10 days with no u16 and minor for the exam break .... then girls on holidays, working etc .....

Players only 'released' to their clubs in the past fortnight , 2 weeks before club championship starts !

Its not working, but its going ahead in Kilkenny again next year !!!!

PTH2009 · 05-09-2023 1:47pm

https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2023/0905/1403501-gaa-to-decide-on-august-all-ireland-football-final/?fbclid=IwAR2qTdmKXOD_JgbcPdTha1fVds-B4r8EkwxWLk2NP9nI854W6b9hIhJBKuY

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Sunny Disposition · 06-09-2023 12:05pm

Serious pushback from the intercounty side of the Association, hopefully it can be resisted.

In reality, even with the split season, intercounty is way too dominant. In an ideal world club hurling would be uninhibited during May, June and July.

Lost Ormond · 06-09-2023 12:16pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121076057#Comment_121076057

what would you propose in ideal world for inter county and club?

Sunny Disposition · 06-09-2023 1:03pm

The two running in tandem. But it’ll probably never happen again.

PTH2009 · 06-09-2023 2:46pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121076372#Comment_121076372

It's a little suspect that this split season is the brainchild of GAA president Larry McCarthy who is county chairman of New York GAA who are getting an influx of top players over to play there for the summer some of which causing county championships to be delayed or clubs been down players

Lost Ormond · 06-09-2023 3:14pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121077040#Comment_121077040

No it isnt. There is nothing stopping county boards actually thinking of the ajority and playing club championships over the summer but they just dont want to. Players would go to New York or anywhere else regardless of the season structure here

randd1 · 08-09-2023 2:53pm

Why doesn't the inter-county side of things just make better use of what it has? If that means scrapping the Provincials, which are a huge problem in terms organising any even type of championship, then so be it.

Take hurling for example. Is there any reason for two leagues on on top of the other? Scrap the provincials. Take the 14 top teams have a proper league. 3 rounds of games, week off. 3 rounds of games, week off. 2 rounds of games, week off. 3 rounds of games, week off. 2 rounds of games, AI Quarter Finals, week off. AI Semi-Finals, week off. AI Final. With that format, start it the first Saturday of February (latest date would be Feb 7th) and the AI final would be the 5th of July. Every team would have a minimum of 13 games. Plenty of rest weeks thrown in as well in case people forget that players have never been fitter.

And if you wanted to retain the provincials in some way in the above scenario, have the AI Final on the fourth Sunday in July (latest date 28th July), that way the Championship proper wouldn't start until the first weekend in March. You could have January and February to run off a provincial championship of some sort in Munster and Leinster, and have the Champions of both provinces play each other (my preferred format would be straight knockout in the provinces, with the losing teams from each round going into a secondary straight knockout Shield competition.)

You'd still have August to December to finish the club calendar.

The problem isn't the split season. It's the shockingly poor use of the time between the start of January to the end of July (a full 7 months) by the inter-county calendar, hurling in particular.

Lost Ormond · 08-09-2023 3:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121085859#Comment_121085859

you dont need to scrap the provincials in any system. they can with extra time and tie breakers on day no replays take maximum 3 weekends

Just having a league and then 3 rounds of knock out isnt right. id prefer to have a slightly shorter league but keep the 2 provincial competitions and not run the orovincial comps off in full before the all ireland championship. run them like they run the european comps in soccer and rugby on weeks in between the league action,

have the provincial competitions straight knockout.

patmac · 10-09-2023 12:30pm

Just on the media side of things, I used to buy the Independent on a Monday and would spend a good bit looking at the results from all the counties around the country. A couple of weeks back I decided to start again but the Indo was not available so bought the Times and that didn’t have any dedicated results section.

The following week I got the Indo and to my dismay that had no results section either so have not purchased a paper since.

BTW is there any website or twitter page that shows all county final results?

Sunny Disposition · 11-09-2023 8:39am

I think the Sunday Times had no GAA story at all yesterday.

Crazy stuff really, the stories around club GAA would be far more interesting than county ones in many ways. Obviously less recognition, but it's hard to see it as anything other than a huge missed opportunity. I was at a match yesterday and I know one player used to have a drug problem, another spent almost a decade in Australia after a promising underage career and another guy is a psychotherapist.

Every club in Ireland would have players with interesting stories/backgrounds, and they'd be more likely to talk honestly than someone in a county set up.

greenspurs · 11-09-2023 10:04am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121095774#Comment_121095774

kinda true, but who would be really interested in what some lad in a village in Roscommon did/has done/been doing?

No one really , certainly not enough to justify writing in a national newspaper/website...

kksaints · 11-09-2023 10:39am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121095774#Comment_121095774

You have to be realistic a bit. The weekend was a huge weekend for Irish sport at an international level with the Rugby World Cup starting and Ireland's first match, two European qualifiers against European giants France and Netherlands in football/soccer, the Irish open in Golf and the Irish Champions weekend in horse racing. An Interview with a local GAA player is going to gain no attention in that crowded market and bar the Waterford hurling final and football matches in Kerry (was it their club finals this weekend? I know their setup is different to other counties) it was a low key weekend in the GAA.

Plus I think you were reading the wrong paper. The GAA was on the front page of the Sunday World with the latest Rory Gallagher update. Mind you that is the type of news and headlines that the GAA could do without.

Sunny Disposition · 14-09-2023 9:39am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121096124#Comment_121096124

This is what certain people in the media think, because that's how they've always reported on sport, concentrating at the top.

In reality what many lads in villages in Roscommon is doing or have done will be far more interesting than what anyone playing soccer at the highest level is doing. Anyone at that level in soccer has to live an extremely predictable life. There's really very little material for feature stories there, unless their early lives or family lives have been somewhat unusual.

The development of GAA clubs, the reasons for their success or decline, are of a lot of interest to members of other clubs also.

There are some journalists who get this. Last week I read quite a good article about how the dominance of one club is impacting on Waterford hurling. But in general the GAA media need to wake up.

greenspurs · 14-09-2023 10:09am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121108106#Comment_121108106

I understand what you mean, but national media would never be that brave unless theres 'clicks' to be gotten from it or some sensation re race/diversity etc ....

Theres the same story with a meteroic rise of a Junior soccer club in waterford where its paying players, ~~robbing~~ recruiting players from other clubs, (they have 8 u11 teams alone!!) and will cause serious damage to smaller clubs around that league.....

And, not even the local reporters have the balls to print anything about them! So maybe the National media would ?

The challenge to GAA media posed by the split season

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