A two-pronged complaint to the County Board

Posted on 19th Apr 2004 by AMN

In light of Friday evening’s debacle against Saul, it has to be time for a good old moan. I’m not trying to cover up a result that was hopelessly inadequate, the type of result that makes you question whether we really want our senior team to get promoted to face the might of the first division. But, there is little doubt that the people responsible for fixtures on the County Board didn’t help this result.

The Ballyholland squad were forced to make the long trip to Saul on Friday evening for a 6.45pm throw-in. Well, that’s not entirely true - it was more like half the squad, as eleven players from last year’s Championship-winning squad were missing, plus five or six others who have joined the panel this season.

So, a full team (plus subs) didn’t travel. Why was this? The County Board can’t be blamed for the entire problem in fairness. One player was suspended, a couple of players have moved on since last season, while injury or illness ruled out another three or four.

But, they certainly didn’t help the situation.

I can say this for two reasons; one is their complete lack of flexibility regarding the re-scheduling of fixtures, the other being their insistence on scheduling long away-trips for evenings when the light is short.

Friday evenings are the traditional time for Down senior football fixtures, and most people would agree it is the best slot in the week; work is over and it is a great way to begin the weekend.

But, Fridays are also traditionally wedding days. As a result, I doubt if any club in the county can go through a whole season without some conflict of interests between fixtures and weddings.

Friday evening saw the wedding of a former Ballyholland senior player in County Cavan (best of luck for the future, PC & Jo-Anna!). Five members of the senior squad were directly forced to choose between the game and the occasion. I don’t think anyone could reasonably object to their decisions to attend the wedding.

The rock that the GAA is built on is the fact that it is a community-based game. But some occasions are even more important to communities than the games we all play.

The only way to get a fixture like this moved to another date is to come to an agreement with the opponents on the occasion. The County Board will not intervene. Most clubs in the county would accede to this request, but Saul (as is their right) declined due to some extenuating circumstances. As there is no higher authority to appeal to in this situation, Ballyholland’s hands were tied and the fixture had to proceed.

I can empathise with the County Board on the matter of re-fixtures. If a window of opportunity was opened, there is little doubt that some teams would take advantage, or even abuse the system.

Fixture lists would then be spread over a mish-mash of days and last minute postponements would inevitably crop up. A strict hand is required.

Some ordered leniency is possible though. As big events like weddings and club festivals or fundraisers are planned and pencilled in long before the senior fixtures are drawn-up, it should be possible to build these events into the fixture list.

Would it not be possible for each club representative on the County Board to bring along a list of dates in early January that his/her club would prefer to be left open? To make it easier, a limit could be set, to say a maximum of four open Fridays per season. If the request is legitimate and reasonable, then that club’s fixture is moved to another evening.

Teams could be paired off that have requested the same evening free, and then everyone’s a winner.

If the request cannot be fulfilled, then at the very least it should be possible for the county board to give the requesting team a home fixture on that evening to minimise disruption.

Which brings me onto my bigger bone of contention. I really do understand the need for strict controls on the fixture list. There is nothing worse than an end of season backlog.

But, if a member of the County Board can come up with a suitable reason why Ballyholland should have to travel to Saul for a 6.45pm throw-in on a Friday evening, then I’ll eat my hat.

With a good run, Ballyholland to Saul is around a fifty-minute trip. At rush hour on a Friday, with a series of towns and villages to navigate and a succession of tractors to negotiate, at least an hour is a reasonable assessment.

It’s fair enough to say that after a longish trip like that, a minimum of a half an hour is required on arrival to loosen-up, change, have a team-talk and a good warm-up.

This meant Ballyholland’s squad and selectors had to be ready to leave at 5.15pm.

I imagine that the members of the County Board know we no longer live in a world where everyone works nine-to-five and only fifteen minutes from their front door.

Therefore I can imagine that they will understand when I say that there were quite a few players who simply couldn’t make this trip. Because of the timing and location of the fixture, they simply could not go.

This wouldn’t have been a problem if this game had been played during July, with a 7.30pm throw-in time.

This wouldn’t have been a problem if Ballyholland had have had a fixture against any of the sides within a half-hour’s drive.

So I implore the County Board to put a little more thought into the fixture list next year. Local derbies when the short evenings are in, and save the longer away trips for the long summer evenings.

Maybe Saul would have beaten Ballyholland on Friday night even if we had have travelled up with a full squad. But, because of the County Board’s insistence on creating an unfriendly fixture list, we will never know.

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