GAELIC GAMES:THE NBA championship concluded on Sunday night when the Houston Mavericks beat LeBron James' Miami Heat in the sixth game of the finals.
Just as Kieran Donaghy predicted a few weeks back.
This historic win came after an 82-game regular season. There are 24 rounds in an AFL campaign. Thirty eight matches in the English soccer Premiership. It takes nine outings to win rugby’s European Cup.
If the All-Ireland football champions come unbeaten out of Munster this year it will be done in just six games.
Granted, an amateur and professional divide exists, but leading players like Colm Cooper are looking at these other sports and wondering why the GAA refuse to give the best players more chances to showcase their ability and in a coherent structure.
The convoluted championship fixture list may be a well worn topic but surely when one of the greatest exponents of Gaelic football, in any era, highlights the ridiculous nature of the way things are done, it should be a catalyst for change. No chance. “I don’t see it changing too quickly, not in the next few years anyway,” Cooper admits. “What happens after that I’m not so sure.”
Speaking in Dublin yesterday, in his role as Lucozade Sport ambassador, the Kerry captain, having turned 28 last week, is entering his prime years. All The Gooch wants to do is find his rhythm and play some ball. “I think the season is very drawn out. The first game was Donegal and Antrim in May (15th) and I think there are too many gaps between games. Antrim lost and they don’t play until June 25th. It doesn’t make sense in my own mind. It’s nearly two months that they have to wait for another game which is crazy.
“Down are in a similar situation after losing to Armagh but I just think (the GAA) really have to look at the fixtures set-up. When you have a situation where you play your first round of the championship and don’t play again for two months it’s ludicrous.”
Take Kerry’s championship pathway for 2011. On May 22nd they got their Munster campaign underway by sweeping past Tipperary 2-26 to 0-11. Two weeks later they were out against Limerick, winning 1-26 to 3-9, but then is gets “ludicrous”.
Kerry’s next match is the provincial final against Cork a full four weeks later in Killarney. “You can’t find form playing one week and then not playing for another month,” Cooper explains. “It doesn’t work like that, it’s impossible. In other sports, you don’t see it. Games are more regular and that’s where form comes from.”
Recent statistics indicate that Kerry would be better prepared for a tilt at the All-Ireland by losing to Cork on July 3rd, because victory sees them back in cold storage for another month as they await an All-Ireland quarter-final opponent to be thrown up by four qualifier rounds. In 2010 all four provincial winners – Meath, Roscommon, Tyrone and Kerry – were defeated at this juncture.
“That in itself backs up the point, is there an advantage to winning a Munster championship or a provincial championship? I can honestly say we definitely want to win the Munster championship in three weeks time but maybe it’s something that the GAA have to look at in providing another advantage to winning it. At the moment, the four weeks break isn’t an advantage for winning a Munster championship. Where they go on that I don’t know but it’s definitely something that should be explored in my opinion.”
Ideal situation? Week to week would suit Cooper just fine as he is currently doing 12 training sessions per championship game.
“I suppose three weeks would be the ideal thing for a team and a manager because after a championship game you’ve a week to get over whatever knocks you have, a week of good training and then an easy week to build up again,”
Cooper pauses and changes direction to ensure he does not sound like a moan. Because he isn’t one. “Look, we’ve done that in the past, it’s not going to present too much of a problem. It’s the same for both teams, anyway.”
The fact is that the last three All-Ireland champions – Cork, Kerry and Tyrone – have come through the qualifiers. Just like all four semi-finalists in 2011. “It goes back to the initial point of having games repetitively over a couple of weeks and that’s where you find your form. Every player likes playing games.”
Such simplicity is astoundingly ignored by the decision makers in Croke Park. “Come September or October, when people are reviewing the championship, you’ll probably have the situation where people will be saying: ‘Was there an advantage to winning that provincial championship having been knocked out four weeks later?’ Those questions will go on until the structures are changed or reviewed.”
All this sensible talk will be shelved, of course, when the All-Ireland champions come swaggering into his home town in three weeks time. “Obviously the provincial councils love their own championships and I love playing Munster final day. It’s special. Munster hurling final day and football final day are magical for me and for people down our way and everyone looks forward to it and if you go along and change it to a league structure does it lose its appeal? Are you missing out on these big days then? Like everything, there is a financial element as well; the bumper day in Killarney, Thurles or Páirc Uí Chaoimh, (so) whether it’s going to change I’m not so sure.”
