Tipperary remain in favour of a proposal to complete the club football and hurling championships in the same calendar year.

The Football Review Committee recommendation to play the All-Ireland club finals at the tail end of the year, rather than carry them over to the following year, will be voted on by Central Council next month and  Tipp have vowed to support it, despite the fact that they won't be represented in the upcoming Munster club SFC due to a fixture backlog.

The county SFC will not be finished before the Munster quarter-final against the Kerry representatives Austin Stacks on the weekend of November 8/9, with the game having already been scratched from the Munster Council's fixture schedule.

"I think myself it would be great if they could complete the club championship by the end of the year," Tipperary chairman Sean Nugent tells The Irish Times.

"I think it could be done, but a lot of things will have to change if that is to succeed. Like bringing back extra-time in the provincial championships, rather than having replays, if they're required."

He added: "Because both our footballers and hurlers went through the All-Ireland qualifiers, it meant we were caught up in fixtures from the latter end of June, through July and August. Once the All-Ireland hurling final went to a replay, we knew we were going to have a bit of difficulty.

"Part of the problem for us is that we've so many dual clubs, including four or five off our most successful clubs. They'd be in a strong position in both the football and hurling championship, still. And a lot of those clubs would have players on our senior hurling and our senior football team.

"Another part of the problem as well is our club championship structures. Now the clubs voted for this structure, even though they were strongly advised that they could present some difficulty. They've accepted the situation they were in, and that the structures are definitely a contributory cause in missing out on the Munster championship."

Tweet

Most Read Stories