Apocalypse not now but 13-day rule causes stir

ON GAELIC GAMES:The recent Ballyboden St Enda's case shows sensitivities on the club-county fault lines remain delicate

WHEN ORSON Welles' Mercury Theatre broadcast its famous "live broadcast" version of the HG Wells' The War of the Worlds, it caused stampedes on the streets of New York in 1938. That was, of course, such a long time ago that Dublin were All-Ireland hurling champions.

There was recently a further interesting coincidence between eruptions of needless panic and the Dublin hurlers when Ballyboden St Enda’s secured a postponement of a club football match last month on the basis of a Disputes Resolution Authority decision.

For a while it appeared as if the 13-day rule (which allows players a break of that duration before intercounty championship matches) was to overlap across the codes and become a dual provision, effectively making further incursions into the club fixture schedules by allowing postponements of club football matches when the county hurlers had a championship date and vice versa – in other words making the completion of a county fixture list even more difficult than it already is.

The full text of the DRA decision, released a few days ago, reveals the reality isn’t as apocalyptic – and all right, even if it was, a rule change would fix the problem but then again who’d want a vote at congress to be the only thing standing between humanity and the extinction of the species? Nonetheless sensitivities on the club-county fault lines remain delicate.

The issue arose when Ballyboden were scheduled to play St Mary’s, Saggart in the county football championship on June 10th. As this was within eight days of the Dublin hurlers’ Leinster semi-final against Galway, Anthony Daly wanted his players ring fenced.

Ballyboden have nine players on the hurling panel, three of whom also play football. Fixtures themselves can’t be appealed but the club protested the invocation of the 13-day rule on the basis it’s meant to be code specific – ie club footballers can’t be rested on the basis that they happen to be county hurlers.

In other words the county board’s management committee, in consultation with Daly, wanted to rest the three dual players but the club match was still scheduled to go ahead. Furthermore, Ballyboden had flagged this potential problem back in March in the hope that it might be avoided.

Rule 6.23(a) states: “The period of time during which senior intercounty players shall not be expected to fulfil inter-club championship fixtures prior to intercounty championship Games, in the same code (my italics), shall be as follows . . .” In the case of matches other than All-Ireland finals the period is 13 days. The problem had only arisen in this instance because of a long-running dispute from a previous round involving St Mary’s; otherwise the match would have been played a month previously.

So the obvious question was: do counties or clubs have “right of access” to dual players when a county championship match in one code clashes with the intercounty quarantine period in the other?

It’s necessary at this stage to point out this issue goes to the heart of so many problems for the GAA. In most sports a player plays for one team with possible representative opportunities on top of that. In Gaelic games multi-eligibility means that individuals can play for vast numbers of teams – especially if they’re in one of the under-age categories.

Even at senior level the presence of dual players creates real difficulties for fixtures organisation. The phenomenon may be dying out on the intercounty stage but dual participation is becoming more marked in a number of counties – two of whom, Dublin and Wexford, coincidentally meet in this weekend’s Leinster football final.

The counties have also within the past 10 years won under-age provincial championships in both football and hurling and young players in each county are now opting to play for their county in the less traditionally successful code. Only at the weekend Tipperary, All-Ireland senior hurling champions, won the Munster minor football final, and that a year after taking the under-21 provincial title.

The Ballyboden case was accepted by the DRA only on an interim basis in order that the club shouldn’t have to play the fixture without some of its first-choice footballers (county hurlers Conal Keaney, Simon Lambert and Shane Durkin).

Paradoxically that was good news for club fixtures, as it meant the club’s case that the 13-day rule shouldn’t apply to hurlers in a club football match was temporarily upheld. Furthermore Leinster Council also agreed with the club’s case in relation to the interpretation of Rule 6.23.

But in the middle of all these dry quasi-legal considerations lies an uncomfortable reality. County boards are struggling to strike the balance between providing clubs with meaningful fixtures schedules and allowing county team managers adequate time to prepare for their championships.

It’s particularly mad in Dublin where a second team, Fingal, from the north county, competes at intercounty level in the Rackard Cup, a competition that doesn’t always coincide with the MacCarthy Cup senior intercounty championship schedules.

Everything in practical terms depends on accommodation rather than challenges under the official guide. The rule in question is in any case permissive rather than mandatory. It allows a break for players rather than stipulates one. The provision was introduced not to give county teams more time together but as part of the proposals to combat burnout and in that sense the county board argument that all intercounty players regardless of code are protected, probably chimes with the original intention but in the interests of some sort of harmony the 13 days was introduced as code-specific.

As noted by the DRA, Rule 6.23 is not enforceable in the sense that there are penalties for not observing it but managers are always looking for clear, club-free runs with their players and the more successful a county is the more it has probably nurtured a club atmosphere, which in turn makes some players view their actual club commitments as a distraction – something that is regarded as heresy within the GAA at large.

The Dublin County Board was caught in no man’s land. It wanted to accommodate Daly and the county hurlers but was also obliged to defend its own fixture-making body. In the event the county didn’t push the issue with Leinster and although the DRA is waiting to hear if anyone’s coming back for a definitive ruling on the issues raised last month, the feeling is the matter will be allowed sit for the time being.

So the immediate turmoil feared by some to be inherent in the DRA decision has not come to pass but every year – and this summer has been no exception – county managers look for club fixtures to be called off and there is unhappiness whatever way the county board jumps on the issue and paradoxically the more successfully counties develop their weaker code the more problems they create for their own fixtures scheduling.

To conclude The War of the Worldsanalogy the Martians may not have invaded but there are still aliens out there.