Football Championship leaving bittersweet taste

The following article appeared in the ‘Munster Express’ newspaper dated Tuesday 14 November 2017 and was written by myself.

To much fanfare, almost a year ago, a new look County Senior Football Championship was introduced for the current edition.

The listening world was told or maybe lead to believe that would be more competitive Championship, with a series of ‘dead rubber’ games being done away with, as each and every game would have two sides battling it out for something meaningful.

Most new look championships tend to come with teething problems, but to say that this year’s Waterford Senior Football Championship has become farcical would be an understatement. And I that someone will have to hold their hands up very high and admit that they got things not just wrong but very very wrong.

A person could expect to hear something like “we (Waterford) got to the All-Ireland Hurling Final and that held things up”, but that argument simply doesn’t stand up.

Yes, everyone wants to see Waterford win an All-Ireland Hurling Final, but it cannot come at a cost.

Many club panels operating in the senior grade in Waterford are operating with 25 to 30 players with some with even bigger panels.

But I suspect the majority are operating with 19 to 21 players and I base this on the names of many team sheets also include players who are also lining out at Intermediate and Junior level. Such players frequently find themselves up the numbers for 15 v 15 games during training sessions or to play midweek secondary competitions when some players are away from home for work or study purposes, or while some players are involved with different inter county panels.

But can we really have a situation whereby competitions are held up by a minority of players, barely in double figures in Waterford playing in competitions for the majority of senior club footballers – in excess of 300 players.

Can we really blame players who may be fed off with the G.A.A. given that they’re not getting a regular flow of games each year, and opt instead to play soccer or rugby, thus foregoing hurling and football?

Two years ago, the County Senior Football Championship ran late, and we saw our Senior Football Final played on a miserable Friday Evening, with winners Stradbally forced to do battle against Nemo Rangers in the Munster Championship less than 24 hours after they won the County title.

Since that night, we have seen no member of the Stradbally Club play Senior Football for the County. We can only surmise as to why this is the case, and in truth it is hard to blame them for the shambolic way they were treated.

Since the turn of the Millennium Stradbally are the most successful senior football club in the county.

Within their ranks they have some very fine footballers and in the past two years it could well be argued that Waterford could well have achieved promotion from Division Four of the National Football League with the best Stradbally players in a white and blue shirt.

 We might have won an extra game or two in the championship, including last summer’s Munster clash with Cork in Fraher Field.

Last week we saw another very embarrassing situation when it comes to Waterford Football. Gaultier are a very proud footballing side, who along with Rathgormack and Saint Saviours have been keeping the football flag flying in the east of the county.

Yes, it can be somewhat understood why what happened (or what didn’t happen) last week came about.

Gaultier have players who hurl playing with either Passage or Ballygunner Hurling Clubs, and of course we know that Ballygunner are in Sunday’s Munster Senior Club Hurling Final and there is a crossover of players – think the Hutchinson brothers and Billy O’Keeffe, to name but three. But at the same time, there is no justifiable reason as to why the Senior Football Championship has been held up for so long.

This year’s county senior football championship began over the first weekend of May. The second round of games was played at the end of July, and it was only in the middle of last week that we found out the outcome of a round three game.

In the meantime we have three clubs twiddling their thumbs since the middle of July who have reached the semi finals, not knowing when they are going to be involved in the championship again. And the same could well be argued for the other nine clubs.

I for one don’t know how these clubs are fixed in relation to team trainers (i.e. if they are paying a trainer expenses or not).

If they are then they’ve invested a lot of money spent this year as they have to be kept ticking over just in case a game is sprung on them and their players have to be ready and fit.  

Waterford were the first team to bow out of the All-Ireland Football qualifiers, yet Waterford have still failed to compete its Senior Football Championship in time to play in the Munster Championship.

          And this isn’t right, given how competitive The Nire, Ballinacourty and Stradbally have proven at that level.

          Might we see a situation develop in the future we see more and more footballers not making themselves available for the county?  To be honest, it’d be hard to blame anyone who reaches such a decision.

          Football has always been the second code in Waterford, we all realise this, but it’s hard to recall a time where it appears to have been less considered in terms of scheduling than it is being at present.

          It’d be great to see the game getting a little more consideration and it’d be great to see matches run off over a coherent schedule. But sadly, given the events of this year, we don’t appear any closer to that ever materialising, and that’s simply not good enough.