Pat Spillane has a new system for the split season in made to alleviate pressure across all corners of the GAA landscape.
We’re now deep into club final season and the provincial championships are now beginning to kick into life.
Although the club season is now reaching its peak, that crescendo comes alongside the turn of the weather into winter time – and it can have some consequences.
For example, Westmeath SHC final between Castletown-Geoghegan and Lough Lene Gaels had to be abandoned last week after just 13 minutes due inclement weather conditions
While there is nothing to be done about the weather, Spillane feels there is a solution by switching the schedule.
Writing in his column for the Sunday World, the Kerry great is banging the drum for an "alternative" split season.
"Is it fair that the most important club matches – club finals – are played in the middle and end of October when the weather and ground conditions are at their worst?," the former RTÉ pundit wrote.
"Is it fair the provincial championships will run from now until January, again in some of the worst conditions? It absolutely is not.
"So I return to a solution I suggested many months ago. A solution that would ensure county action all year round and one that would give clubs a chance to play in the best conditions.
"Year one: In the first six months, we play club hurling and inter-county football. In the second six months, we turn to club football and inter-county hurling.
"For year two, you would turn that on its head with club football and county hurling in the first part of the year. Not perfect now, but we can all agree the perfect system doesn’t exist.
"Surely it is worth a try?"
*This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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