National Forum

Late County Finals - Split Season

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Replying To Canuck:  "Waterford will start their hurling championship in July. Will be finished in September as they play every week. Then the champions have to wait at least 7 weeks until November waiting for Munster opposition. The footballers will not kick a ball until the hurling is done and we expect to get players to play and improve our standard. This split season is a joke and I don't believe the b. s. That everyone prefers it. If you are dominantly a football club getting screwed over. If you are dominantly a hurling club injuries with a condensed schedule and too hurt to play football if a dual club."
In fairness, that's a different sort of 'split season', which we operated in Wexford for a couple of years too - all the club hurling championships going first, followed by all the club football championships.

We changed it back last year, such that the hurling & football championships now alternate every couple of weekends. It's in Waterford's power to change their own championships to a different system too.

The club championships hurling/football "split season" is a whole different issue and a whole different argument to the split season between inter-county competitions and club competitions.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2942 - 13/06/2025 10:28:33    2617129

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Replying To Whammo86:  "Sorry, I meant breaks in the inter county season to allow for club activity.

Like a quick guide of what I'm thinking.

National league starts in February it's played something like:
Week 1:NFL1
Week 2: NFL2
Week 3: Break
Week 4: NFL 3
Week 5: NFL4
Week 6: Club Window 1
Week 7: Club Window 2
Week 8: NFL5
Week 9: NFL6
Week 10: Club Window 3
Week 11: Club Window 4
Week 12: NFL7
Week 13: NFL finals
Week 14: Club Window 5
Week 15: Club Window 6
Week 16-21: Provincial Championship
Week 22: Club Window 7
Week 23: Club Window 8
Week 24-32: All Ireland Series

The inter county season ends 5 or 6 weeks later but we've had 8 rounds of club action (4 per code) in that time at have had fewer dead weeks when the weather is at it's best.

There's even further gains to be had if National League and Provincials could be played in parallel."
The National League and Provincials really should be played together. If we had the Provincial Finalists known before the final round of the league - it would add some final day spice in Division 2/3 as teams participation in the All Ireland series would be at stake.

I'd much prefer a sensible approach to fixtures scheduling taken like you outlined. You can have certainty of scheduling without the split season. This certainty was introduced by the "finish on the day" approach to games rather than the split season.

brianb (Kildare) - Posts: 460 - 13/06/2025 10:31:52    2617132

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Replying To lilywhite1:  "Prior to the so called split season the majority
of players in every county knew when their championship would start.
Even now during the 'split season' club football and hurling leagues run in tandem with inter County league and championships. The only thing that the 'split season' has done is condensed the season to the detriment of player welfare and prevents us from enjoying games at the height of the summer.
It's time that the farce of the so called split season was addressed. One of the objectives of the split season was for the All-Ireland club championships to be finished in the calendar year. It still hasn't happened."
Yes, they knew when it would be starting. Problem was they never knew when it would continue.

For example, I've looked back at results/fixtures here in Wexford over the period 2012 to 2019. 2012 was when we introduced our system of two groups of six in all grades in both codes (such that each team gets five group games), and 2019 was the last year before Covid and the split season being introduced. All the time, the players knew the club championships would start in April, but they never knew when there'd be games after that, because it all depended on how our county teams progressed. Here's how it panned out:

- April: Either two or three games played every year.
- May: Two years, no game. Two years, one game. Three years, two games. One year, three games.
- June: Three of those years saw a match played in June. Two years, early June. Other year, last weekend of June.
- July: In six of those years, one match in July, at different times between first weekend and last weekend.

And then things got going in earnest each August, but in different ways too. Sometimes, midweek matches were needed to get the championship programme completed on time. One year, my own club played four matches in eleven days - hurling Wednesday, hurling Sunday, football Wednesday, football Saturday.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2942 - 13/06/2025 10:39:29    2617136

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