Damned if they doDamned if they don’t
In All Fairness
Those who like to be critical of the GAA aren’t quick to use the term “Grab All Association” when it comes them benefitting from a financial boon in some aspect or another.
The ticket pricing for the Munster hurling final last Saturday exercised many and rightly so. €50 for a stand ticket was too much, particularly for just one match. The musical acts the Munster GAA have added to the bills this year to try and get people in early haven’t worked, and they won’t. GAA supporters are there for the match, nothing else. This isn’t the Superbowl. Even the musical acts before Champions League finals in recent years haven’t gone down well.
Taking advantage of the fact that Limerick v Cork was always going to sell out isn’t an excuse for another price rise, even if the funds will go towards coaching supports in the six counties or refurbishment projects in the likes of Semple Stadium, which are needed, but supporters aren’t getting or unwilling to heed this message.
On the flip side, since the current iteration of the split season became fully operational in 2022, the GAA were giving up a lot in terms of income generation. Playing more games in a shorter period of time was always going to impact on supporters but it’s peoples choice at the end of the day.
Replays were also done away with, and if there was one thing the GAA loved more over the years, it was a replay as it’s a bonus revenue generator. This wasn’t a major issue until last years All-Ireland Hurling Final ended in a draw and many people didn’t realise it was finish on the day, and if Robbie O’Flynn’s shot had gone a few inches to the left and inside the post, we’d have been talking about penalties in an All-Ireland Final, something that would have been way worse than last Saturday’s Munster final.
Readers of this column will know my feelings on penalties in the GAA, they don’t belong. I’m not against finishing on the day persay, even in a Munster Final, as the build-up to the game as much as anything is the anticipation of victory or the fear of losing; a draw never comes into anyone’s thinking.
Deciding on penalties or free-taking is a lazy way of deciding a hurling/football game as it was what largely other sports do. We have unique sports in hurling and football where scoring is more regular, and you could come up with a concept of deciding it on the field of play.
I have suggested golden score in the past, but if there is a wind, as there was in the Munster Final, the team with the elements with them would have an advantage. A way around it would be to how most games were decided in the schoolyard, backs and forwards! Be it 6 forwards on 6 backs or 3 on 3, give each team an attack from the middle of the field in which to score, be it a point or a goal. It would be sudden death where if one team scores and one team makes a defensive play to stop the other, you have a winner. It wouldn’t be any different than a team trying to score or hold onto a lead with the last play of the match.
The GAA can’t win in a situation when it comes to replays. Damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Replays are coming back for All-Ireland Finals (rightly so) but it looks like they will come back for provincial finals too. I have no issue with that, provided it doesn’t extend the schedule as it currently is.
Hypothetically, if Limerick v Cork had gone to a replay, playing it next Saturday evening wouldn’t impact on the schedule one bit as neither team were going to be playing anyway. The losers would have just a week to prepare for an All-Ireland quarter final against Kildare or Dublin but both of those teams are playing too this weekend so there won’t be much of a disadvantage.
What I fear is if the GAA agree to replays and then give the losers two weeks to a quarter final, and then two weeks onto a semi-final, it would mean the Munster & Leinster champions in a normal year waiting five weeks before playing again. Considering the entire round-robin takes place over six weeks, to have no game for a team in five weeks is an unmitigated waste of valuable weekends.
Those pushing the agenda for replays and extending the inter-county season really need to think long and hard about what they are asking, and then think about the impact it will have on clubs who previously played championship games in April, May, June, and July, who have largely given all that up for the surety of at least having good weather to start in, in August. Why can’t the clubs have some of the good weather as well before finishing in the wet and cold of county finals in November which is what extending the inter-county season would mean.