With a couple of weeks of the championship now played, it seems that the schedule put forward by the GAA has had an impact on both the interest in the competitions and some results on the pitch.
Attendances at quite a few provincial fixtures have been relatively disappointing, with the game at Clones between Cavan and Monaghan (where only 8,000 supporters showed up) being a prime example.
As well as that, some counties have been asked to play a very unfair schedule. Some teams that reached league finals were required to play four weeks on the spin, a big ask at a pivotal point in their season.
With that in mind, it is not surprising to see that many are calling on the GAA to look at their fixture scheduling moving forward.
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Michael Murphy sees obvious solution to GAA calendar issues
Looking at the current GAA calendar in Gaelic football, it's difficult not to think that the provincial championships are the main issue at the moment.
With the league and All-Ireland series now intrinsically linked, moving between those competitions would be a seamless province if the provincial competitions did not have to be played in between them.
Writing in the Irish Times, former Donegal star Michael Murphy said that moving the provincials to before the league would solve a lot of problems for the GAA.
I’m convinced the provincial championships have to move to the early months of the year...
We’ve condensed the season and added more games but we haven’t taken away any competitions. The preseason tournaments are still there and there’s a definite appetite at the start of the year but why give the GAA public synthetic provincial competition, O’Byrne Cups and McKenna Cups et cetera instead of championships?
If there’s a concern about interest levels, incentivise counties by keeping the same rules allowing provincial finalists progress to the Sam Maguire.
Murphy makes a lot of sense here.
The various pre-season competitions to begin each year certainly no longer seem fit for purpose, and while some may worry about moving the provincial championships to a similar slot, it is the most obvious solution to fix the current issues in the GAA calendar.
You would imagine that this is something that will be given serious consideration moving forward.
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