Club competition shines I know I promised to revisit the club fixtures and burnout issues this month but as usual events, dear friends, events, overtake us. It will definitely feature in the January issue! Events-what events? The GPA want to strike, my beloved Ballina Stephenites are on the march, we get a new man in the oval office in Croke Park and Cork footballers and hurlers throw their biggest wobbly yet. The club championships are as exciting as ever and while I have yet to figure out how to tap their vast potential, it is obvious the mix is almost perfect. In Munster, the Waterford football champions can beat their Kerry counterparts. St Galls of Antrim went as close as makes no odds to toppling Crossmaglen .but didn't! In Connacht teams from Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon can more than hold their own with the Mayo and Galway champions over the past decade or so. In Leinster the Longford champions from Dromard could (should?) have taken out the Kildare champions. And on it goes. Look at the Monday morning results list at this time of the year and you will notice very few of the games witness run away wins. A couple of points in it, a draw here and there, a last minute goal to clinch the deal. The club championships are well organised and very well contested and the crowds get a great kick out of the journey the new teams continue to make each year. If you exclude the amazing footballers of Crossmaglen (and by the way, they are in the mix once again as 2008 and the semis approach) it becomes obvious these football and hurling titles are rarely won back to back. You get your shot at the title and shuffle off to be replaced by the new kid on the block. In other words, a marketing mans dream: new teams, new counties, new colours and new followers. And only the very best can hope to repeat - see Crossmaglen above. My own club Ballina are carving a modern reputation befitting the club and of course Nemo Rangers keep coming back for more. Why is the distribution of club wealth not following suit at county level? Now there is a thesis for another day! It is late November and the competition continues to take shape: Ballina and Cross' are elected on the first count but old soldiers like Nemo and St. Vincent's are lining up to join them. I was at the Ballina-St. Brigid's (Roscommon) game and it was another super advertisement for the club game: great contest, marvellous scores, very good crowd and a tight finish. Can these games replace the drama and excitement of the summer inter-county scene? What role has amalgamations and eight super clubs in each county to play in that scenario? All it needs is a blank canvas and the wit and imagination to think outside the box. It is clear to me that if we do not examine and change the fixtures and competitions soon, the inter county calendar will choke the club one and once this has passed on the inter county scene will itself enter terminal decline. There really is a lot at stake. +++++++++++++++++++++ 'Football is a funny old game' is a line we hear often in relation to the 'foreign game' but believe me it applies just fine to the grand old game of Gaelic football too. During the week I read with some interest of the elevation of Monaghan's Paraic Duffy to the position of Ard Stuireotheoir of the GAA. He will have the difficult task of filling the shoes of the widely accepted and excellent Liam Mulvihill. I first heard about Paraic Duffy when he was involved with the Monaghan football team in the mid to late 80s. Mayo and Monaghan crossed swords pretty often in those days in NFL games. I do not recall his role with the then manager and later President of the association, Sean McCague, but I take it he was an overall positive contributor. Why? Well, I came across Paraic again in the springtime of 2001, this time by mobile telephone. By then he was Chair of the old GAC (fixtures and discipline) and the country at large had a major problem - the dreaded Foot and Mouth disease had cut loose and economic considerations aside, it was playing havoc with GAA fixtures up and down the country. By mid April of that year, in my capacity as Mayo under 21 team manager, we had worked our way into an All Ireland final. We were due to play Cork in the final as Tyrone had been asked to leave the competition - their county was a hot zone for the disease at the time. Tyrone had a smashing team but so had we in Mayo, and having defeated Meath in the semi-final had the momentum. Paraic Duffy was now calling to see if there was any way around the impasse. Could Mayo see their way to postponing events, allow Tyrone back in and wait until the autumn? With a trip to South Lebanon on the cards for me a month later, there was little time to dwell on matters. Duffy made a very persuasive argument; but despite that, many of my advisors did not think we should agree to the proposal. After all, Mayo did not win too many titles and if circumstances ordained matters to our advantage, so be it - we had suffered plenty in the past in these regards. And yet there were others who felt the GAC chair was pushing the right buttons, that he would honour his commitments and we might all play off a level playing field that autumn. So, Mayo agreed to allow Tyrone back in and the rest is history, one I sometimes reflect on during my blue moments. By October of 2001 Tyrone had blooded a number of young players in senior championship football and they had developed nicely as an under 21 team with regular training. Us? We had been put in cold storage and only cranked up at the beginning of September. The final proved beyond us and Tyrone won convincingly by three points. A few short years later they were All Ireland senior champions and we had left the under 21 scene without ultimate success. But the experience informed me Paraic Duffy was and is a decent man, one with a soft touch when it comes to the right thing to do. This week I thought of the book I never wrote: 'Paraic Duffy - the role he played in my downfall'! I have great hopes for our new Director General and look forward to sensible and decisive leadership. Just one request Paraic: please, please (as you almost did during those GAC days) complete the removal of thugery and indiscipline from our playing fields. Tweet

Most Read Stories