‘Don’t play championship in muck and s**t of April’ – two hurling legends issue plea to GAA

Former Dublin hurler Ryan O’Dwyer has proposed a calendar tweak, moving the All-Ireland SHC and SFC deciders back to the second and third weekends in August.

Wexford All-Ireland winner Tom Dempsey has gone even further, proposing a restoration of the traditional September showpieces while reverting the All-Ireland club finals to St Patrick’s Day.

“We’ve taken two key dates – we’ve taken September and March – completely out of the equation. Basically we’ve conceded them,” Dempsey told the Irish Independent.

Their comments come on the cusp of another ‘summer’ of frenetic hurling activity, to be kick-started this Sunday when the Leinster and Munster SHC round-robin groups get under way.

While most eyes will be on the Munster meetings of Waterford/Cork and especially Clare/Limerick, the Wexford/Dublin clash has potentially huge ramifications in the battle to secure a top-three Leinster berth and advance to the All-Ireland series.

Both O’Dwyer and Dempsey expressed misgivings that so much is on the line for their respective counties so early in the year.

“Realistically, whoever gets beaten this weekend, not that their season is over but they’re relying on other things to happen for them to be competitive,” O’Dwyer admitted.

His preference would be to scrap pre-season tournaments, start the leagues in February and allow a post-league break before launching the championship in early to mid-May, moving All-Ireland finals back to August.

O’Dwyer accepted that delaying club championships until early September could cause complications in dual counties especially.

But he argued that if stakeholders come together, they can find solutions and draw up a plan that “mightn’t be perfect, but it will be better than what’s there at the moment. Because you’re trying to showcase hurling and football as the national sports, and camogie and ladies football as well; you’re trying to showcase them as the premium sports in Ireland. You’re not doing that in the muck and sh** in April.

“Coming from Munster, I just love going to Munster finals and everyone is there in short-sleeved T-shirts,” the Tipp native expanded.

“So there is a discussion to be had about it. Going back to September for the All-Ireland finals, although it is the traditional way and there is a bit of magic about it … I do think those days are gone. But having an All-Ireland final in July, I think, is wrong.”

Today's Sport News in 90 Seconds - 19th April

Dempsey, who won All-Ireland senior medals with Buffers Alley in 1989 and then with Wexford in ’96, went one step further.

“I’d just go back to September,” the former All-Star forward declared. “And the All-Ireland club championships – and I was lucky enough to win one – should never have been taken out of March 17.

“We’re more transfixed with getting this one-year fixture calendar in place, rather than actually what was traditional and what was good.

“Like, Patrick’s Day was the perfect day for the All-Ireland clubs. And what happens, by bringing it back to January, it’s backloading pressure on the local championships then to be finished more quickly.

“There’s a window in March for us to glamorise and promote our (club) game. I think we’re missing out badly on that.”

Dempsey is concerned about the game’s direction, both from a promotional and player welfare perspective, although he accepted that a lot of current players “might disagree with me” over the split-season calendar.

“I just think the preparation has gone a little too intense. Everyone is picking up these injuries. Then into a blitz championship,” he said.

“You’re going to think I’m an awful dinosaur altogether … I would nearly go back to the situation where we play a couple of rounds of the National League before Christmas, because I think that took a lot of pressure off the league then after Christmas.

“I’d go back to the old system. I know it’s not ideal, but it’s every bit as ideal as what’s happening now, in my book.”