McGuckin: August All-Ireland finals shouldn’t be a cause for disruption to clubs

By Michael McMullan

FORMER Derry player Adrian McGuckin feels clubs get the “thin edge of the wedge” when it comes to the fixture calendar as GAA’s Congress in February gets set to vote on moving the All-Ireland SFC final to August from 2027 onwards.

McGuckin feels counties should plan their club fixture programme around not being in the All-Ireland final.

His comments come in light of proposals for the inter-county seasons to be extended by two weeks with the football final possibly being played following a wee’s gap from the hurling decider.

It’s a move to give the county season more wriggle room but will impinge on the space for running club championships across the country.

McGuckin, whose sons Adrian and Ronan won All-Ireland Club medals with Ballinderry, was also an Ulster winner with the Shamrocks.

As a highly successive coach of school teams in St Patrick’s, Maghera, he has a working knowledge of a tight fixture calendar, with players straddling school and county minor campaigns.

It was the same when in charge of UUJ in the Sigerson Cup and the management of county players’ time.

McGuckin feels there is no simple solution to the county versus club fixture struggle but feels counties need to plan club games around not being in an August All-Ireland final.

“I feel that the club has got the thin edge of the wedge in that 75 per cent of games seem to played in grim conditions” he said.

“The latter stages are played in dark and grim weather but I don’t have a solution, so we will have to go with it.”

Another topic that has crept up is the condensed nature of both the club and county seasons.

In old money, there were windows between county games with players going back to their clubs.

Under the split-season, county players focus entirely on inter-county action where games are mixed between week-on-week and a two-week cycle.

“The All-Ireland seems to get very congested,” McGuckin said. “Towards the end, players and supporters have no time to recover or celebrate their successes.”

He hopes that may change next year with a revised format without the group stage as the county season moved to a backdoor format like the current Derry and Down Senior Championships.

“There will be only two counties involved in August,” he said of the GAA’s new proposal.

“I think county boards could plan with the thought that they won’t be competing in the All-Ireland final.

“Then, if they are, most people in those counties will be only too glad to suffer the consequences, which wouldn’t be that problematic.”