There are many daft things about the National League set-up, and quite a few of them could, with just a little bit of effort, be sorted out. Few compare, however, with the annual debacle we have just been through: the needless lunacy of the back-to-back weekend.

Over the past eight years or so I've probably been to half-a-dozen annual general meetings of the league, and nothing astonished me more at last season's - not even the fact that a crazy scheme to reorganise the league which had taken a nine-man committee six months to dream up was thrown out with virtually no debate after a matter of a few minutes - than that the back-to-back weeks in the league did not appear to even be an issue any more.

Now, restructuring the league on the scale that was being considered last season might well have mopped up the problem in any case, but that the defeat of the sub-committee's proposals didn't spark a debate on what could be done to avoid the nonsense we've witnessed again over the past couple of weekends is bizarre.

At previous a.g.m.s, when the issue was raised, some far from convincing explanations about why the situation was entirely unavoidable were given. Well, it seems someone was convinced, because no one wants to hear the reasons for it any more.

On Sunday, though, Mick Byrne probably could have done with having the logic behind the system explained to him again. His Shamrock Rovers side had just been dismantled for a second successive Sunday by the league's best side over the first third of the season.

Rovers had gone into the weekend of the first game a point off third place, after losing just once in their previous seven league outings. They were unfortunate enough to go to Turner's Cross with several players either out or carrying knocks and lost badly. A week later, still missing several first team regulars, with a couple more struggling, and when they clearly could have done with somewhat softer opposition, they meet City again when, surprise, surprise, they lose again.

What makes the Rovers case even more laughable is that, at just this time last year, precisely the same thing happened. On the first weekend in November 12 months ago Cork beat Byrne's side 3-1 in Tolka Park, and a week later the hosts won 2-1 in Turner's Cross.

This season, it might be pointed out, Rovers have simply been unfortunate to have been more troubled by injuries and suspensions than Cork over a particular two-week period. But then the whole point of a league competition is to minimise the impact of luck, good or bad.

Any aspect, therefore, of a fixture list which has the effect of making specific events at one point in the season matter more than they might if they were to occur at another point is clearly a fault that needs to be addressed.

It doesn't have to be teams who play the league leaders that end up coming off badly when it comes to this problem. Even allowing that the phenomenon is unavoidable (and I'm not), local derbies, it would strike some, shouldn't be played at this stage of the campaign. Yet last year Sligo played Harps, this time they played Derry, and for the past three seasons UCD have met Bohemians.

Playing strong or on-form teams poses particular problems, though. This season's other big losers from the back-to-back weekends were Bray who, having been well beaten twice by St Patrick's Athletic, made matters worse for themselves by heading straight into a rescheduled game with Finn Harps less than the normal 48 hours after the second defeat.

Wanderers, like Rovers, had been motoring along reasonably solidly up until last Friday week, having won three and drawn two of their previous six outings. Now they've lost their last three, conceded 13 goals in 10 days and dropped from third to seventh place in the table. Their decision to play in Finn Park on Sunday is puzzling, but there was little they could do about the situation.

Nor, it seems, is there anything that Shelbourne can do about the fact that they must, as they famously did last season, make two trips to Oriel Park over the course of this campaign. Derry, as they did last time, will play Rovers twice in Tolka Park, and Bohemians will, once again, pay one more visit than they might feel entirely necessary to Richmond Park.

Still, there are good reasons why these sort of things happen in our league. What are they? Er, answers on a postcard please.